Wickham Festival History

We consider our history to have begun in 2003 as ‘Eastleigh Big Top Music Festival’. We first moved to Wickham village in 2006 before relocating for two years to Stokes Bay in 2008 and 2009. Since then we have returned to our current location in Blind Lane, Wickham each year. Further background information about our event can be found on Wikipedia.

This is a brief archive of artists who have appeared over the years since we began.  We’ve set up separate pages for our more recent events.

Wickham Festival 2011 featured Bellowhead, Jools Holland and the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra with special guests Ruby Turner and Sandie Shaw, Rolf Harris, Toyah, Mary Coughlan, Jackie Leven, Eddi Reader, Findlay Napier & The Bar Room Mountaineers, Teddy Thompson, The Webb Sisters, Coast, and Lori Watson & Rule of Three, Kate Rusby, The Peatbog Faeries, Richard Thompson, John Otway Big Band, The Kathryn Tickell Band, The Chair, Saltfishforty with Spiers & Boden, Skerryvore, Tim Edey & Brendan Power, Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts, The Treacherous Orchestra, The Outcast Band, No Right Turn, Maurice Dickson (from Ireland), Roy Bailey & Tony Benn, The Martin Simpson Band, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, Kan, and The Shee.

Wickham Festival 2010 featured Kid Creole and the Coconuts headlining on Saturday, and Levellers, Peatbog Faeries, Shooglenifty, Salsa Celtica, Show of Hands, Eliza Carthy, Martyn Joseph, Wolfstone, Chris Wood, Steve Tilston, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Uiscedwr, The Mighty Zulu Nation, 3 Daft Monkeys, Asere, Tyde, Cupola, and Black Bart.

Stokes Bay Festival 2009 featured The Zutons, The Proclaimers, Seth Lakeman, Oysterband, Edward II, SAS Band, The Hamsters, Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, Eric Bogle, Saltfish 40, Ella Edmondson, David Ferrard, Dean Owens, and Kim Edgar.

Here is the front row enjoying The Proclaimers at Stokes Bay in 2009.

Stokes Bay Festival 2008 featured Alabama 3, Rory Ellis, The Levellers, The Saw Doctors, Capercaillie, Bellowhead, Phil Jupitus and The Blockheads, Michael McGoldrick & Friends, The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, Chumbawamba (acoustic), The New Rope String Band, Gretchen Peters, Devon Sproule, and 3 Daft Monkeys.

The location might have changed but the music will never stop. Here are some smiling visitors under the Big Top at our first event held at Stokes Bay in 2008.

Wickham Festival 2007 featured Jethro Tull, The Saw Doctors, Kathryn Tickell, Shooglenifty, Hazel O’Connor, Dean Friedman, Eliza Carthy & the Ratcatchers, Maggie Bell & The British Blues Quintet , Hans Theesink, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, The Donnie Munro Band, Eddi Reader, snd The Hamsters.

Wickham Festival 2006 featured Sparks, Oysterband, Spiers & Boden , Steeleye Span, Shooglenifty, King Creosote, Osibisa , Los Pacaminos featuring Paul Young, Osibisa, Seth Lakeman, Blue Horses, and The Huckleberries.

Eastleigh Music Festival 2005 featured The Proclaimers, The Saw Doctors, The Undertones, Bellowhead, Hayseed Dixie, The Michael McGoldrick Band, Rolf harris, Kosheen, 2-Tonic, and Perfect Alibi.

Perfect Alibi & 2 Tonic performing back in 2005. This was the last of our six day free family afternoon and ticketed evening event held at Eastleigh before moving to Wickham!

Eastleigh Big Top Music Festival 2004 featured Bill Wyman and the Kings, Will Young, Aled Jones and the Libera Choir, Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Dione Warwick, Shane McGowan and the Popes, and The SAS Band.

Here is the legendary Dione Warwick, who has partnered with the likes of songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David, performing at Eastleigh Festival in 2004. She ranks as the second most-charted female vocalist of all time having first appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 in 1962.

Eastleigh Big Top Music Festival 2003 featured Bob Geldof, The Drifters, Real Abba Gold, The Levellers, The Saw Doctors, The SAS Band (with Paul Young; Leo Sayer; Graham Gouldman) Fish (Marillion), Chris Thompson(Manfred Mann’s Earthband) and Midge Ure (Ultravox).