Charlbury Riverside Festival 2012

Saturday 28th to Sunday 29th July 2012
Charlbury, Oxfordshire, OX7 3QG, England MAP
FREE

Daily capacity: 5,000

Last updated: Mon 9th Jul 2012

The Charlbury Riverside Festival is now in its seventeenth year, and the organisers claim that it's the largest FREE festival of its type in Oxfordshire. Charlbury returns on new dates Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th July 2012, after postponing the original date in mid June due to the risk of flooding.

Line-up

A line-up of Oxford bands featuring indie, rock, jazz, folk, blues and world music with more than 30 acts playing across two stages.

Saturday

Main stage: Smilex, Black Hats, Cellar Family, The Inflatables, Secret Rivals, Melic, Rough Trouble, tbc.

Second stage: Listing Ships, Hot Hooves, Von Braun, The Hawkhurst, Agnes Pike, Beard Of Destiny, Green Children of Wolfpit, Lost Dogs, Twisted State Of Mind.

Sunday

Main stage: Alphabet Backwards, Dance a la plage, Brickwork Lizards, Ran Kan Kan, Swindlestock, The Shapes, Graceful Slicks, Blin' Johnny.

Second stage: James Foley Band, Superloose, Mogmatic, Count Drachma, Undersmile, Old Grinding Young, Simon Batten, King Terrible.

Expect gates on Saturday to open at noon with the event going through until 10pm. Events on Sunday begin at 11am running until 8pm. Previous years have had crowds of around five thousand people coming to enjoy these two days of music set on an 'island' in the River Evenlode.

On site

As well as two stages, a smorgasbord of food stalls on site with a pig roast and stalls selling burgers and baguettes, hot dogs, noodles, curries and crepes, and 45 portaloos! But despite the work involved and the cost of putting on an event of this size, the festival is still run entirely by volunteers and still free for all to enter. It's a truly family-friendly festival.

New this year

Riverside goes Street with the Battle of the buskers the audience decides. This year Riverside invites anyone with talent (of any kind whether stand-up comedy, juggling, streetdance, snake charming, story telling or even just standing still as a statue) to compete for the title Riverside Street Star. Competitors must win as many Riverside tokens as possible. Each festival goer can pick up a token on their way in and drop it in the hat of their favourite busker. At the end of the weekend whoever has the most tokens wins the title and an appropriate prize. Anyone can take part, but to be assured a time slot register before the event by sending your name, a one line description of your act and when you'd like to perform to admin@riversidefestival.charlbury.com .

Restrictions

Like all festivals, festival goers cannot bring bottles and cans into the arena, but the two bars and other refreshment stalls will be selling drinks at very reasonable prices. No camping at the festival, see website for information on nearby camp sites and hotels. No dogs other than assistance dogs.

How to get there

Entrance to the Festival site is down Mill Lane, virtually opposite Charlbury railway station. The station is on the London Paddington to Hereford and Worcester line, 15 minutes from Oxford. On the Saturday there are buses from Oxford, Woodstock, Witney, Chipping Norton and Banbury to the centre of Charlbury, five minutes walk from the Festival.

Accommodation

This event does not offer camping. The area has local hotels and B&Bs and there is the Cotswold View Caravan and Camping Park on the outskirts of Charlbury.