RAT Salad, Tirikilatops and Clout Then Grappling were among the bands who took to this stage this weekend at what might well be Oxfordshire's weirdest music festival.

And if those names haven't convinced you, how about the fact organisers don't even call it a festival, but a 'temporary autonomous zone'.

This is Supernormal: held each year in the grounds of Braziers Park stately home near Wallingford, which is run the rest of the year by a self-sustaining commune, the wacky weekend has become a celebration of not just the weirdest bands around, but also performance art which blurs the boundaries between music, theatre and other un-nameable artforms.

Take Automatic Writing Circle, to pick an act at random: Supernormal's website explains: "Thomas Gardner and Peter Coyte of Automatic Writing Circle perform work that moves between sound, art and music. They use traditional instruments and a specially constructed ‘Ouija board’ to mediate between listening and musical action."

Behavioural Training for Astronauts for Earthlings, meanwhile, was described as 'an experiential training situation hosted in the grounds of Supernormal aimed at outer space', while CHAMP Phlaag: These Lights In The Sky Are Very Usual, was explained using a long quote from The Simpsons about the Aurora Borealis.

Lucky this sort of baffling barminess is exactly what the Supernormal regulars have come to expect, and this year an estimated 1,500 people once again descended on the park which also hosts the annual Wood festival.

As well as the esoteric entertainments, there were also some more down-to-earth festival favourites in the activities tent, such as the create-a-cape workshop and 'solar-powered lights'.

Life drawing, film screenings and a host of tempting food and drink stalls also provided a slightly more traditional range of attractions, bringing families from across the UK.

Then it was back to Gloaming Amalgam, Plague Dogs and Beef Broadsides for more of the weird stuff.