MUSICIANS, vegetable sellers and wand makers nestled among the trees next to wooden dinosaurs and food stalls in the summer’s quirkiest festival.

The Elder Stubbs Festival was held in an urban oasis on allotments off Rymers Lane, Cowley, on Saturday.

Set up 19 years ago to raise money for Oxfordshire mental health charity Restore, in partnership with the Elder Stubbs Trust, the festival is a firm favourite with all ages.

More than 50 stalls were dotted around the nine-acre site offering food, face painting, magic workshops with “wand-making”, Aunt Sally and falconry.

Getting into the magic spirit of the popular festival was seven-year-old Matilda Warwick, from Campbell Road, Cowley, who decided to go dressed as wizard Ginny Weasley, from the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling.

She said: “I have had lots of fun. I enjoyed eating the pizza today.

“It was delicious. I had a margarita and it was baked in the stone oven.”

Goran Ahmed, of Napier Road, was among the stalls selling vegetables from his plot, including chard, marrows and beans.

And Marion Kellenbach, from Grandpont, brought children Leila, three, and Oscar Brennan, four, along to the festival to help her celebrate her 44th birthday.

They enjoyed a picnic under the shade of the trees.

She said: “We were going to Florence Park when we realised this was on so we came to have a look.

“The children have enjoyed having their faces painted and seeing all the stalls.”

Seven-year-old Angus Boshier had his face painted like a magic rabbit and his mother Kate Angus said: “It’s great here, very relaxed. I like the fact there a lot of local people selling their produce.

“There’s loads of things for the kids and I think it’s fantastic that it is encouraging people to keep allotments and to get involved with community work.”

The theme of this year’s festival was “Recovery” and a talk by Restore worker Bruce Gorrie showed how people can cope with mental health issues and lead active and fulfilling lives.

Restore chief executive Benedict Leigh said he found the talk particularly moving.

He added: “We’re hoping for bags of money this year judging by what we took on the gate.

“It was a brilliant day.”