The excitement is really starting to build at our festival site and morale couldn’t be more positive for this weekend. Wickham Festival kicks off at 4:30pm this Thursday and according to the BBC web site it’s going to be a weekend of sunshine just as we welcome Alistair Russell to kick things off.

Preparations this week have all gone to plan and run ahead of schedule. The heavens opened last Sunday as if to order to help soften the ground enough for us to get rid of ruts. For those of you not following us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram here’s how we’ve been progressing…

We know many of you remember the muddy start encountered on Thursday last year and we promised we’d get a plan in place to make improvements.  Along with a new entrance directly off the Winchester Road for the tented camping fields to improve traffic entering the site we’ve got much more temporary roadway.

Our Main Stage 1 – The Valley Stage will welcome some incredible artists this year, we think it’s our best ever line up with the likes of Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, The South, Show of Hands, Kate Rusby, Squeeze, John Illsley of Dire Straits, Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, and the Richard Thompson Electric Trio all taking to this stage.

For 2018 we’ve upgraded our Main Stage 2 – The Village Stage … it’s bigger and better!  It’s impossible to please everyone and we appreciate both sides of the argument with regard to people bringing chairs.  Our plan is to not allow chairs into this marquee as we’ve scheduled the livelier bands for this stage.  This includes The Dhol Foundation, Mad Dog Mcrea, Police Dog Hogan, Black Kat Boppers, Gaz Brookfield & The Company of Thieves, Ferocious Dog, The Undertones, and The Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Talking of The Red Hot Chilli Pipers, as if by magic they’ll be performing on Kilt Sunday this year.

What was a typical looking Hampshire field just a few days ago is starting to look like a festival site…

Our camping fields are in ideal condition and all ready for you lovely people to make it your home this weekend…

This year we’ve over 20 real ales and ciders for the weekend, mainly from independent local Hampshire breweries including Bowmans and Itchen Valley.

You won’t go thirsty at this weekend’s Wickham Festival … we’ve lots of bars around our festival site.

It wouldn’t be right to have Wickham without the ever popular Moose Bar.  After a busy week we’re all looking forward to when the pumps get connected.