Bellowhead are coming home - headlining at the Oxford Folk Festival next weekend (April 11-13), the very event which, in 2004, saw the band explode on to the folk scene. Since then they have won a string of awards, including best live act at this year's BBC2 Folk Awards.

"We certainly weren't expecting to win anything this year," said band founder Jon Boden. "So the Best Live Act award was certainly a nice surprise. Generally, though, we tend to mark our success' on the basis of how many people turn up to gigs. We continue to be pleasantly surprised on that basis too, touch wood."

Fiddle player and vocalist Boden is half of a supremely talented duo (with melodeon wizard John Spiers) who came up with the concept of a big band playing funky folk.

Before founding Bellowhead, Spiers and Boden had already made a name for themselves on the national folk scene with their exciting take on traditional English folk music. But then came their Road to Damascus moment - or, on this occasion, their M25 moment.

The idea of a big band came to them while stuck in traffic on the motorway. So to while away the time, they called fellow Oxford-based musicians Paul Sartin, Benji Kirkpatrick and Giles Lewin to see what they thought of the idea - all were enthusiastic to form the core of the new band. The idea was to have an English traditional folk band at the heart of the collective, but mixed with strings and a funky big band sound.

Sartin, Kirkpatrick and Lewin were already established on the folk scene - Sartin with Faustus and Belshazzar's Feast, Kirkpatrick, son of the famous John, also with Faustus, and Lewin with Maddy Prior's Carnival Band.

Before long cellist Rachael McShane, percussionist Pete Flood and a brass quartet of Andy Mellon, Gideon Juckes, Justin Thurgur and Brendan Kelly were added to the line-up.

Bellowhead's first album, Burlesque, took time to emerge - you try getting 11 musicians together in one studio long enough to make a CD!

Just like their live act, the album was stunning in its virtuosity and range, creating a musical melting pot of jazz, reggae, techno with echoes of Frank Zappa and music hall.

The 13 songs and tunes full of superb layered instrumentation and strong vocals were inspired by material from the Napoleonic Wars, the American minstrel movement, sea-shanties from Brazil and the spirit of English traditional dance.

Amid all the frenetic activity, Boden and Spiers, were maintaining their musical partnership as a duo while also working as with Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers. But, despite their meteoric rise in the folk world, they retain a close relationshp with the Oxford folk scene and the annual Oxford Folk Festival.

"Arguably Bellowhead would not have happened but for the festival," said Boden. "Director of ther festival, Tim Healey, booked us for our first gig before the band was formed! Also it's very much a locals' festival with sessions around the town and lots of THE fifth Oxford Folk Festival offers some of the biggest names in the country, including Kathryn Tickell (below), who brings her band to perform beautiful traditional tunes and original compositions.

Brass Monkey features those giants of the folk scene, Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick, while guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson teams up with the master of the double bass, Danny Thompson.

A new band making waves, 3 Daft Monkeys (above), make an appearance, as does Irish harpist Máire Ní Chathasaigh and guitarist Chris Newman, and composer Luke Daniels and Highland fiddler Donald Grant with Islands.

With music from around other parts of the world - and, of course, from Oxfordshire - ceilidhs and workshops, there is entertainment to suit all tastes and ages.

The festival takes place from April 11-13 and most events are held at Oxford Town Hall.

An adult season ticket for the festival weekend costs £56, with various concessions available. Call 01865 305305 or book online at www.ticketsoxford.com For full details of the line-up visit the festival website: www.oxfordfolkfestival.com