Thousands flock to Towersey Festival (From Oxford Mail)

Thousands flock to Towersey Festival

11:30am Tuesday 28th August 2012 in Wallingford By Tom Jennings, covering Witney and West Oxfordshire. Call me on 01865 425403

THOUSANDS of revellers descended on a tiny Oxfordshire village over the weekend for the annual Towersey Festival.

The five-day event, which kicked off on Thursday and finished yesterday, featured live music, dance, poetry, theatre and art.

Some 10,000 people turned out across the weekend to watch the likes of Bellowhead, Donal Lunny, Padraig Rynne and Sylvain Barou, and Kathryn Tickell: Northumbrian Voices.

One of the highlights yesterday was a real life Punch and Judy enactment, with actors taking on the roles.

Artist and designer Richard Bett said: “I have never been hear before and it has been very good.

“The best part has been the atmosphere and the general feel of the place. “It has been really friendly and everyone talks to each other.”

Mr Bett, of Lincoln, was demonstrating his art of beating copper into the shape of heads.

Festival organiser Joe Heap said: “It has been absolutely fantastic.

“The village itself has only 300 or 400 residents, with one pub and a village hall, so it is a bit of an invasion, but they love it because we include the whole village in the festival.”

His grandfather started the festival 48 years ago to raise funds for the village hall and the event still raises cash for the village, near Thame, to this day.

Mr Heap added: “I have been coming since I was born so it is important to me personally, but it is also important to the community and to the regulars who have been coming for generations.”