Cheesy listening

A few years ago, the best that music-lovers could hope for from their al-fresco partying were lengthy queues, surly security and a dodgy burger.

Now discerning punters expect something more. Nowhere sums up the new approach to high-end festival-going than this weekend’s Harvest – which takes place at Kingham, near Chipping Norton, tomorrow.

An impressive bill of bands and artists boasts the likes of KT Tunstall, The Kooks, Fat Freddy’s Drop, The Feeling, Athlete, The Christians, and The Futureheads, but that’s only part of it.

For among the stages and fairground rides, some of the country’s finest chefs will be pitching up – to stage demonstrations of their craft, and sell their delicious wares.

Among them will be the farmer, who will be serving his own cheese on toast to hungry visitors. And if he looks familiar, that’s because he also happens to be one of the world’s most recognisable rock stars: Blur bassist-turned celebrity cheese-maker Alex James.

“I will be working hard all weekend, selling cheese on toast,” he tells me.

“I have spent all year perfecting the perfect recipe.”

Alex is talking while watching the tents going up on the 200 acre-dairy farm, high up in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds, where he lives with his wife Claire, and their five children Geronimo, Artemis, Galileo, Sable and Beatrix.

“It’s very exciting. My farm is turning into Glastonbury in front of my eyes. It looks beautiful – and the kids are going absolutely crazy! They can’t wait to get on the helter-skelter, while Clare wants to know what time Richard Corrigam is on.”

Corrigam will be among the culinary highlights, along with other foodie-superstars: River Cottage chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tommi Miers, and Rachel Allen. Food fans will also be treated to a cookery school run by posh grocers to the Cotswold set, Daylesford Organic, a farmers market, pop-up restaurants, a Mark Hix Champagne and Seafood Bar and judging for the British Street Food Awards.

It is, Alex says proudly, a far cry from the ‘bands and burgers’ festivals he was used to hanging during those heady days of Blur.

“Festivals have become so much more sophisticated these days. I remember the first time Blur played Glastonbury, and my mum was scared. Now she wants to go there herself.”

As befitting a festival hosted by a former rocker turned gastronomic guru and family man, Harvest also offers plenty for the kids – with sets by TV favourites Charlie & Lola and Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox.

“I will also be introducing my kids to as much music as possible. It’s all part of being a dad.

“To me, playing music to children is as exciting as headlining Glastonbury.”

While punters can pop-in for a day at a time, the best fun is to be had camping. And even that is a far cry from the grungy image of sleepless nights in a noisy, muddy campsite in a badly-pitched hike tent.

As befitting a Michelin-starred festival, Harvest offers acres of spacious camping, while those with money to burn can go ‘glamping’ – sleeping in style in large yurts, tipis and bell tents complete with butler service and breakfast in bed.

“Food is an affordable luxury,” says Alex, bringing the subject back to nosh.

“Britain used to be the laughing stock of Europe, but now the best here are as good as the best in the world.

“British chefs are the new rock stars, and at Harvest we will have more Michelin-starred chefs than Mayfair, and we are combining that great food with a lot of cool music for like-minded people.”

That cool music also features DJ sets from Jo Whiley and Giles Peterson, rising stars Benjamin Francis Leftwich, Tom Odell, My Grey Horse, and Various Cruelties. Tomorrow, meanwhile, features a bill curated by Kingham School’s Commotion festival – who have this year incorporated their charity fundraiser with Alex’s bash.

Acts helping to raise cash for music education and cancer charity Clic Sargent include the aforementioned Liverpool soul band The Christians, Charly Coombes & The New Breed, The Reluctant Heroes and Oxford mod-indie-rockers The Anydays.

Alex admits he is in for a busy weekend. “We have got some great bands – including a few lesser-known ones,” he says. “I’ll be trying to see as many as possible as well as selling my cheese on toast.”

And he is convinced he has the perfect recipe – having spent the year in his food studio – or “foodio” - getting it just right.

“It will be a case of one nibble and your nobbled,” he says. I won’t get a lie in… but then I don’t get a lie-in anyway!”

He adds: “September is such a lovely month. There’s a wistful, romantic feel to it. And we get a bit hungrier. “It’s all back to school now, so it’s nice to have a little lift.

“But at this time of year it has always been traditional to celebrate the harvest... and people would probably have been doing that on this very site for millennia.”

One of the bands Alex said he was hoping to catch are The Anydays – one of Oxford’s hardest working acts.

The three-piece of former Oxford Mail journalist Niall Jeger, Drew Atkins and Alex Bridge will be playing songs fro their second album Move! following up their triumphant set at Cornbury, earlier this summer, alongside the likes of Ray Davies, Status Quo, James Blunt and Sophie Ellis Bextor.

“It has been a good summer for the Anydays,” says Niall. “Sharing a dressing room with Sophie Ellis Bextor was entertaining enough, for a band like us who are more used to sharing with sweaty garage bands. But getting asked to play at Harvest is very cool indeed.

“We’re really looking forward to playing tomorrow. There’s some great music on over the weekend... and there is good food too – which makes a nice twist on your typical festival.”

* Alex will be serving cheese on toast from noon-1pm, and 5pm-6pm on Saturday & Sunday.