Wychwood Festival 2024 – The Music Festival That Offers So Much More – Day 1

I was looking forward to Wychwood, a local to me music festival that offered so much more than simply music, it offers comedy, activities and workshops for all to get involved with, quite simply it’s a festival for all the family and I can see why its one of the best family friendly festivals out there.

Sister Sledge @ Wychwood Festival

Sister Sledge @ Wychwood Festival (Sam Holt)

From a musical perspective, this weekend’s line up is incredibly varied. Headliners for Friday night were Sister Sledge, but there were many more acts on the other stages, those on the smaller stages were not be dismissed in any way, and are just as important as those on the bigger stage, the Sam stage.

Some people may have come for the Barrioke, a themed karaoke hosted by Shaun Williamson, better known as Barry from Eastenders, while others may have come to hear the Teddy Bear Ladies from TV’s The Repair shop reading from, and promoting their book Bartie Bristle And Other Stories.

Friday afternoon started with Scottish rockers Big Country, who played enthusiastically with a passion that was obvious, they were full of power firing on all cylinder as some would say. They played fan favourites such as Look Away, In A Big Country and Fields Of Fire, not only had I enjoyed their powerful set but it was obvious the assembled crowd at the main stage loved them, I guess they set the pace for what was to come. It was only after their set I discovered that it was their vocalist’s first gig with the band, quite the baptism of fire.

The Hoosiers, a band I had come across before, followed. I’m informed their name derives from their time in Indianapolis where people are referred to colloquially as Hoosiers. I loved their matching attire or their stage wear, it looked very effective. The guys opened with Choices, a song from The Illusion Of Safety album, and their set was varied, a lot of the set was made up of songs from the Trick To Life and Confidence albums, they even squeezed in a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun for good measure, playing a solid set they were well received by the crowd.

Corrine Bailey Rae was someone I knew very little about but was interested in discovering more. She has an interesting background initially classically trained, before moving through the jazz scene to settle as a singer songwriter, tonight she performed songs mainly from her latest album Black Rainbows and there were so many influences coming across as she performed. I particularly enjoyed the third song in her set, He Will Follow You With His Eyes, that she spoke so eloquently about as she introduced it. All in I was quite taken by her set.

Seventies Soul and RnB stars Sister Sledge headlined Friday night and came out to a long intro… that became Lost In Music perhaps one of their biggest hits, it really set the party spirit alive. The crowd loved it, and the band clearly enjoyed hearing them singing back to them. All five of them at the front of the stage were coordinating their moves effectively, the three sisters were joined by two male singers. More hits such as Frankie and He’s The Greatest Dancer followed. Although they have a good back catalogue of albums, I found most of their big hits came from 1979’s We Are Family LP, and it was the title song from that record they chose to close their set with. And it was an inspired choice, especially with the friendly family atmosphere of the day, one espoused by the ethos of this festival.