Thursday and Friday were overcast with sunny intervals and Saturday was overcast with spells of prolonged heavy rain. Still, British festival goers are a hardy bunch and they were not going to be daunted by some typical British summer weather.

At 4pm on Thursday the music got under way in fine style with the ten piece band Whapweasel, who played a lively set of instrumentals which the audience loved and soon were dancing and singing along. Genial Irish singer songwriter Anthony John Clarke was next and played a set of beautiful songs interspersed with humourous ditties with titles such as Tuesday Night is Always Karaoke and Dave, Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich.

Fairport festival stalwart Geoff Hughes of TV's Coronation Street and Keeping Up Appearances fame stepped up to act as the compere. His first job was to introduce The Gathering a six piece band which included Jerry Donahue and his daughter Kristina as well as a key member of Lindisfarne Ray Jackson. They began with a great version of Lindisfarne's Road to Kingdom Come and later played a cracking version of the late Rob Hull's Lady Eleanor. Several superb tracks later Ray rounded off the set with the classic Meet Me On The Corner and everyone joined in.

Next up were local Derbyshire heroes John Tams and Barry Coope. Barry on keyboards and John on guitar and harmonica regaled us with earnest traditional folk songs including Lay Me Low, Rolling Home and Vulcan and Lucifer a song with references to Sheffield's former steelworks.

After a mainly dry and sunny afternoon darkness began to fall as anticipation grew for the arrival of the night's headliners. Gareth Michael Coombes sporting a trilby and an abundance of facial hair led his band of cheeky popsters onto the Cropredy stage for the first time. Supergrass are here and you knew it was going to be great. In a glorious hour and a half they ripped through their hits including Pumping on Your Stereo, Sun Hits the Sky and Late in The Day as well as a good dose of new cuts from their latest album Diamond Hoo Ha. The audience were completely won over if a little disappointed that they only did one encore.

Friday dawned with a sprinkling of rain but by midday the sun had put its hat on and we were ready for a collection of riotous drinking songs by the one and only Mark Radcliffe and his band of merry cohorts the Family Mahone. All the songs sounded the same but who cares they were great to dance and drink beer to and Mark's between song banter was always amusing. Titles included Beer and Cheese, Raggedy Man, Rolling Home and they finished off with Raggle, Taggle Gypsy Oh!. Dave Pegg and Maart Allcock guested on bass and a good time was had by all.
Wearing matching Hawaiian shirts Dave Pegg and P J Wright played us a collection of lively tunes on mandolin and guitar including Del Shannon's Runaway with compulsory audience participation and Ian Anderson's Jack Frost and The Hooded Crow. Steve Gibbons joined them for their last number Hey Bo Diddley.

3 Daft Monkees from Cornwall got the audience dancing along to some frenetic fiddling and rousing vocals. Next on Radio 2 Young Folk Award Winners Siobhan Miller and Joanna Leslie calmed things down with a selection of delightful Folk ballads.

The legend that is Bob Harris appeared on stage next, although looking a bit gaunt possibly due to his continuing battle with prostrate cancer, was in good spirits and introduced the one and only Stackridge. A mixture of pop and vaudeville with quirky and mildly amusing tunes, Stackridge seem to be firmly stuck in an early seventies time warp, their devoted fans love them and delight in waving sticks of Rhubard at them. (What can this mean?). They rounded off the set with their greatest hit The Galloping Gaucho.

Paul Brady was making his first appearance with his band. Imagine a younger version of Van Morrison, Paul and his band played a fine selection of traditional Irish songs, exciting and passionate.
It was now gone 8'oclock and time for a true pop legend, Joe Brown looking as young as ever came on stage and played a selection of Barbershop, Skiffle, Country and Rock 'n' Roll.

Another legend Dave Edmunds then demonstrated his masterful guitar playing with a selection of tunes which included Classical Gas and Mozart.
He also ran through his greatest hits including Queen of Hearts, Singing the Blues, I Knew the Bride and I Hear You Knocking. Joe returned and played more great songs including a knockout version of Black Betty.

Once again it was time for the headliners as the biggest crowd of the day gathered excitedly in front of the stage. The sound of helicopters and bagpipes were heard, the lights came up and out came the Levellers, another first for Cropredy and the audience went crazy. They ripped through their catalogue of rousing tunes and we all went back to our tents tired and happy.

Saturday morning and down came the rain! Richard Digance took to the stage for his usual slot and amazingly several thousand festival goers were already seated in the rain. He ran through his usual selection of quirky songs and nostaglic tales which required plenty of audience participation. He got them to wave brollies and soggy tissues in the air to his Morris tunes and sing along.

The guvnor Ashley Hutchings was next with his Lark Rise Band. It was especially pleasing to see local folk songstress Judy Dunlop on stage for her debut appearance at Cropredy. A very entertaining set of Folk, Morris dancing and delightful ballads all written to celebrate Flora Thompson's book about rural life Lark Rise To Candleford.
They finished off the set with Postman's Knock, one of Ashley's greatest hits.

It was still raining at 2.30 when Legend came on and played a blistering set of Bob Marley's Reggae classics. It went down a storm and by the end of it the sky had cleared and the rain stopped.

The Muffin Men made up of ex members of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention were up next and played a set of laid back funk and soulful grooves but sadly were without their main man Jimmy Carl Black who was not well enough to appear.

BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner Julie Fowlis and her talented band played a superb set of traditional Gaelic songs. Whilst the audience endured another heavy downpour. Her Boran player played an outstanding five minute solo and then Julie returned and played the Scottish bagpipes for an encore.

For the next hour Midge Ure commanded the stage with a selection of his greatest hits including Vienna and demonstrated his skill on the acoustic guitar.

By 8.45pm the rain had eased to a light drizzle and it was time for the climax of the weekend. Geoff Hughes introduced them as the greatest band of all time and they were off into a warm-up dance tune, a song Put Your Nose In a Jug of This!, Walk A While and Keep on Turning The Wheel.The Morris tune Happy Man was followed by a new version of Reynard the Fox, South Dakota to Manchester and The Eynsham Poacher.

The Tommy Connelly dancers performed some colourful Irish dancing. Chris Leslie sang The Journeyman's Grace and then a lovely song about a young girl Mary Annie who used to go fossil hunting on the beaches of Dorset, illustrated with emotive black and white images on the big screen.

Simon Nicol then introduced three songs from the 1971 Babbacombe Lee album about John Lee the man they couldn't hang. Richard Thompson and Dave Swarbrick wrote the next song Dr. of Physick which was followed by another Chris Leslie composition about Sir John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to the Arctic called I'm Already There.
The upbeat Rocky Road was followed by a gloriously atmospheric version of "eynardine.

Outstepped Midge Ure and Maart Allcock who performed with Fairport for a version of Jethro Tull's Living in the Past. Freeform Morris Dancing followed with Mock Morris 90.

What followed next was the highlight of the whole weekend, a tribute to Sandy Denny who passed away 30 years ago. Simon Nicol introduced Vikki Clayton who sang Fotheringay whilst Ashley Hutchings joined in on bass on the next song Farewell, Farewell. Maart Allcock and Jerry Donahue returned and Chris While took centre stage for another Sandy Denny song then drummer Gerry Conway intoduced Chris While's daughter Kelly to sing a rocking version of John The Gun.
Chris and Kelly then dueted on Sandy's beautiful Who Knows Where The Time Goes.

Just when I thought that it couldn't get any better, it did! Dave Pegg introduced the beautiful Kristina Donahue and then would you believe it the one and only Robert Plant!

Sandy Denny was the only female singer to sing on any Led Zeppelin track. So, Kristina and Robert sang The Battle of Evermore to a completely gobsmacked audience. A truly emotional moment; I was choked.
A brilliant reward for all the fans who had endured the pouring rain. After the song was over the lights went down and we witnessed Robert Plant silhouetted against the video screen watching a collage of pictures of Sandy Denny set to her music. I'm sure Robert wiped away a tear as he left the stage and sadly he didn't return.

The stunned audience were then brought round as Fairport cranked up the tempo with their classic Matty Groves. - this year with added video accompaniment of Mr & Mrs Potato Head" acting out the bloody drama.

A big silver moon moved slowly across the video screen and Simon sang Ralph Mctell's The Hiring Fair superbly. Chris Leslie thanks "The best audience that a festival could possibly have" and the band play John Goudie then Chris joins Ric on duelling fiddles for the Bowman's Retreat.

The applause rings out and we get an encore of Long May The Music Keep You Under It's Spell and then more musicians than you can shake a big stick at, join in on the all too familiar Meet On The Ledge.

That's it then another year, another magical Cropredy Festival's over - see you next year? You Betcha!

John Dennis