A free riverside music festival will attract hundreds of fans to a town in west Oxfordshire this weekend.

Charlbury Riverside Festival will take place on Saturday and Sunday.

Bands performing on Saturday include The August List, Dolly Mavis, The Deadbeat Apostles, and The Knights of Mentis while on Sunday Blue Bayou, Dubwiser and The Mighty Redox will be playing.

READ MORE: Riverside festival pulls record crowd

A statement from festival organisers said: "Four stages, free kids area, crafts: Willow weaving, ironwork, stone carving, bushcraft skills, pole lathing, awesome food, brilliant drinks, also: gin and so much more."

(Image: Tim Hughes) As well as four stages for performing artists there will be lots of food and drink stalls throughout the site, and people selling crafts and other items.

About 2,800 people descended on Mill Field last year for the 26th annual festival close to the River Evenlode.

The free festival is run entirely by volunteers – most from the Charlbury community – with no corporate sponsorship and exists on donations, and food and drink and merchandise sales.

The festival site is close to Charlbury railway station but a train strike last year forced revellers to take buses or drive.

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Riverside Festival’s Fergus McVey said last year: “We had our biggest ever crowd on Saturday which was amazing.

(Image: Tim Hughes) "The site can take 5,000 but we wouldn’t want that many. If there hadn’t been a train strike we would certainly have had to turn people away. As it was, it was perfect."

Last year Riverside was named in the UK's top 10 free family events by The Guardian.

The festival gives a host of popular Oxfordshire bands a chance to play on a big stage on front of thousands of fans and some, including The Knights of Mentis are regular favourites.

Part of the attraction is the beautiful site on Mill Field, a lush green ‘island’ on the River Evenlode.

(Image: Tim Hughes) The festival is entirely free to enter thanks to the community effort which goes into staging it every year.

It is organised by a small team of enthusiastic volunteers and funded entirely by sponsorship, donation and pitch fees.

There are a team of marshals who run and organise the site, welcoming visitors and selling programmes and T-shirts.

In 2019 the festival attracted about 9,000 visitors across the Saturday and Sunday.

(Image: Tim Hughes) The Guardian recommended "this family-friendly festival that has been held on Mill Field, a meadow by the River Evenlode on the outskirts of Charlbury in the Cotswolds, for 25 years".

Making a surprise visit to last year's festival was 80s rave icon Adamski.

The Killer and N-R-G star had played the previous year’s festival and loved it so much he wanted to return.

Speaking backstage before his set, he said: “It’s a great little festival and it’s nice to be back. I love it.”

Other acts included Tiger Mendoza, Pap Nui, Juniper Nights and Self Help.

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About the author 

Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here. 

He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.

His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning. 

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