This week we’re all very jolly after the brilliant fifth Cornerstone Music and beer festival that lit up Didcot this weekend. The few showers peppering the sunshine did not put us off one jot. We had 15 musical acts across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, more than 20 types of beer and cider, face painting and children’s activities, and thousands of people enjoying the fun. Headlining on Saturday night was Jewels Vass, who rounded up the evening with a fabulous set of reggae-inspired soul. If you weren’t at it, where were you?! Make sure you come along to the sixth festival in Summer 2014. Now we’re taking down the staging, packing up the kegs, and evaluating it all so we can prepare for the next one. At Cornerstone, we take a break from touring shows for August, like most other venues, and enter our period of participatory holiday activities.

It gives us a chance to do all our maintenance: painting, inventories and testing of equipment. We’re getting everything all spic-and-span for our autumn season (which is amazing, by the way, and already selling like hot cakes).

In the meantime, we’ve got a really good holiday programme for young people – surely words that are music to the ears of parents everywhere.

There’s everything from taster sessions in dance and art (pick and mix what you want to do, from as little as £3.50) to week-long summer creatives courses for 12 to 16-year-olds, which includes making a performance and designing the set. They’re all happening in August so get down here and be creative.

We have been out and about publicising it. At a recent fair in the park, our superb dance teacher Amelia demonstrated street dance. To encourage passers-by to join in, I found myself bopping and side-kicking to Beyonce. I think my dancing might have bemused some people, but I enjoyed it. On top of all this activity, we’re not sitting around wafting ourselves with fans and drinking chilled mango juice. Instead, as well as the aforementioned planned maintenance, we are beavering away honing our plans for our spectacular fifth birthday celebrations on September 13 and 14. We’re celebrating the fact that Cornerstone opened on August 28, 2008 and has had more than 400,000 people through its doors since, doing, seeing and hearing the most wonderful arts and entertainment.

So we’re having a big party – and you are invited.

On the Friday, September 13, we’ve got the stunning Alice Francis, first lady of cool swing, jazzing up our stage with her dancers and 1920s glamour.

Cake and fizz will be on offer, so log on to cornerstone-arts.org, and get your seat booked.

On Saturday, September 14 we’ve got a whole day, 10am to midnight, of free treats, live shows, walkabouts, theatre in the loo and hidden surprises. Imagine the best birthday party you’ve had and double it!

More news from behind the scenes in the next column, but, suffice to say, it will be spectacular.