麻豆社

This is Oxfordshire鈥檚 daddy festival. It鈥檚 been going since the 1970s, in fact this will be the 42nd show and with roughly 20,000 people attending it鈥檚 one of the largest folk festivals in the country, second only to perhaps Cambridge.

Frank Skinner at Cropredy

The thing you鈥檒l notice about the punters at Cropredy is that most of them seem to have been there 42 times before! It is very much an annual pilgrimage and the grandmothers and grandfathers bring their children, who bring their children, until you have entire extended families who have their yearly reunions with other extended families on the same weekend in a field near a little village called Cropredy in North Oxfordshire.

I honestly can鈥檛 think of a more loving and friendly place on Earth and Cropredy holds a very special place in my heart. Music-wise its been pretty down-the-line folk but last year they had Supergrass headlining Thursday and The Levellers on Friday which broadened the appeal a little. But it isn鈥檛 really about the music for most of the revelers here, it鈥檚 about the sense of community, friendship and fun.