Wickham Festival News

Wickham Festival 2024 site build diary

We’ll update this news post from top (older) to bottom (newer) to tell you our site build story for 2024 on our brand new 28 acres of flat and well-drained grassland. Don’t forget to follow our Facebook page to get the very latest news and more photos. It really is an exciting task having a new site to construct what we think will be a huge improvement to previous years. The weather is looking perfect too, plenty of sun but no heatwave … the ideal weather for a festival.

We’d like to thank  Steve Hammond of Gosport Drones fame for much of the photography documenting our 2024 site build story.

It’s the 23rd of July and we’ve 9 days to go until Wickham Festival 2024.

Presenting… our wonderful new arena field. Doesn’t it look great!

Our team has arrived onsite to a brand new location to start our festival build.  It’s going to be a busy fortnight for us, but we couldn’t be happier working in this picturesque location.  We look forward to welcoming you in 9 days! Tickets are still available so come and join us!

8 days to go – say hello to “Big Top” – Main Stage 1!

And so it begins – our biggest structure is in place.

Appearing on Big Top – Main Stage 1 this year will be The Men They Couldn’t Hang (Thursday), Suzi Quatro (Friday), Levellers (Saturday), Tony Christie & Curtis Stigers (Sunday) amongst many, many more fantastic acts.  We’re going to have 4 beautiful days this year!

7 days to go – it’s 25th July – now say hello to “Little Top” – Main Stage 2!

Little Top – Main Stage 2 will be home to Fleetwood Collective, Seth Lakeman, Skipinnish, Dream in Colours, and Manran amongst many others.

Little Top – Main Stage 2 will be headlined on our opening night by Fleetwood Collective. We don’t often have cover bands but Fleetwood Collective proved a massive hit last year despite the mud. With visitors struggling to arrive on the Thursday due to weather, we thought we’d invite them back in the sunshine on our new grassed fields.  Here they are performing The Chain in 2023.  If you’re a Fleetwood Mac fan, you can’t miss this.

Closing Little Top – Main Stage 2 on Kilt Sunday will be Mànran, a multi award-winning Scottish supergroup.  We have some incredible music lined up for this stage throughout our weekend.

Wow it’s just one week to go and both our main Big Tops are up as is our security fencing. Our site team will be busy today as cabins, toilets and other infrastructure starts to arrive.

6 days to go – things are starting to take shape.

Your first look of our 2 main stages from the air. Don’t they look great. We can’t wait for the music to start.

Our 2 main stages look great on beautiful, grassed fields surrounded by trees. Wickham village is a quintessential English village and now we have the most quintessential setting for our festival … lush grass surrounded by woodland! With only 6 days to go we’ve more tents up, plus trackway, dressing room cabins, and the first toilets.

5 days to go – it’s time for some infrastructure

With our main structures in place, it’s time for us to get busy with the infrastructure. Today, amongst other tasks, we’ve been constructing our main stages and getting all the electrics in place.

Electrics to power a small town.

4 days to go – the entrance tent is up!

Just waiting for you to arrive in only 4 day’s time 🙂

Last year visitors would be walking down a steep slope alongside a fence, entering the arena, and then walking back up a steep slope to get to our stages … oh yes … in mud. This year you’ll arrive at our entrance tent with no slope and no mud … straight to your choice of stage! Walking distances are greatly reduced and across flat land to boot.

Woo hoo … The Moose Bar has arrived!

Serving a variety of lagers & ales, you can quench your thirst at the popular Moose Bar, which is always set in the centre of the festival between our 2 main stages.

Wickham Festival “Camel Camp”

Our glamping tents enjoy a lovely woodland setting this year. Still a few tents available if you fancy a little luxury next weekend.

3 days to go – our wonderful new festival site is starting to take shape

Wickham Festival 2024 is really taking shape now – only 3 days to go!

There’s enough space on our new field for our new arena plus campervan & motorhome camping, accessible camping, camping with electric hook-ups, dog-friendly camping, and Festival glamping. With sunshine forecast next weekend it’s going to be a great Festival.

2 days to go – let the pictures tell the story

We’re looking forward to our first visitors arriving tomorrow.  You won’t be disappointed when you get here.  It’s all much, much better than previous years.

All main structures are now in place in our arena area.

You can now see where all our main structures are located.  The Magic Teapot and Quay West Stage are at the far end.  The Moose bar is now near the entrance between the main stages.

Our main field area! Not far for Camel Campers to walk and even less distance for many others.
Constructing our stages and getting all the tech gear in place.
There’s activity everywhere you look. All the stalls are arriving and setting up. This year we’ve over 40 gorgeous craft & clothing stalls. Do browse them. There are some wonderful goods on offer.

1 day to go – It’s Wednesday the 31st of July and we welcome our early arrival campers to our brand new arena site!

What a lovely atmosphere on Wednesday evening as we open our new arena for early arrival campers. So many people saying they love our new arena, as do we.  This comment from Sarah on FB sums up one of the main changes we’ve made this year…

“From our pitch to the big top is less far than we usually have to walk from our pitch to the way out of our camping field! And no hill!”
Sarah Henly on Facebook

The ever popular Moose Bar opens for trade and our stalls start trading.

Please do join us this weekend for what promises to be one of our best ever Wickham Festivals. Tickets onsale online here and at the gate each day.

© 2024 Judy Green – We’re hoping Judy, her fellow campers, and everyone attending Wickham Festival 2024 has a wonderful and memorable weekend. Let the music start!!!

That’s all folks!  We’re signing off this site build diary.  We wish everyone a safe journey today and look forward to welcoming you this evening.  The arena opens from 4pm with live music starting at 17.30.

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  • Facebook Posts

    Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
    By popular request, Track Dogs will be returning to Wickham on Sunday 3rd August.  Same day as Kate Rusby; Oysterband; The Peatbog Faeries; Ian Prowse & Amsterdam; Reg Meuross Fire & Dust; & more.  Day & Weekend tickets now onsale www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/tickets

    By popular request, Track Dogs will be returning to Wickham on Sunday 3rd August. Same day as Kate Rusby; Oysterband; The Peatbog Faeries; Ian Prowse & Amsterdam; Reg Meuross 'Fire & Dust'; & more. Day & Weekend tickets now onsale www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/tickets ... See MoreSee Less

    16 hours ago

    24 CommentsComment on Facebook

    Oh Wickham, now you are really spoiling us! So glad I got my earlybird ticket - I can sit back and woop at every announcement :-)

    This is what we would consider one of the best lineups in years wait

    View more comments

    More artists confirmed.  Award-winning Scots/Gaelic band Eabhal will make their Wickham debut on Sat. Aug. 2.  Day & weekend tickets now onsale www.wickhamfestival.co.uk
https://www.eabhal.com/

    More artists confirmed. Award-winning Scots/Gaelic band Eabhal will make their Wickham debut on Sat. Aug. 2. Day & weekend tickets now onsale www.wickhamfestival.co.uk
    www.eabhal.com/
    ... See MoreSee Less

    2 days ago

    6 CommentsComment on Facebook

    they sound really good! Hows about Peat and Diesel too?????

    Looking forward to hearing them very much. A C.Connections discovery?

    Jackie Fox these sound amazing

    View more comments

    Our Twitter Feed

    Huzzah for @festivalwickham and Saturday 2nd August and another mighty HUZZAH for it is a particular favourite of ours, do thoroughly deserving of thrice Huzzah! http://Www.wickhamfestival.co.uk for tickets!! See you there. Is there time for one more Huzzah?

    We've updated the 'Line-Up' pages of our website to show who's playing (so far!) on which day. You can also view artist biogs & videos by clicking on artist photos.

    The wonderful singer-songwriter @NewtonFaulkner will make his #WickhamFestival debut on Friday, 1st Aug. Same day as @Fishy_Friends, @TaliskMusic, @FlookQuartet and many others.

    Another band confirmed! Legendary Geordie folk-rockers @lindisfarneband will headline the opening night of #WickhamFestival on Thursday 31 July.

    More artists confirmed! @IanProwse and Amsterdam will be at this year's #WickhamFestival on Sunday 3rd August. Ian toured with Elvis Costello last year and is touring with Levellers this Spring.

    We've kept Earlybird prices as low as possible for as long as possible but prices have to rise soon. You can still save £80 on every weekend ticket if you book before midnight on Sun Dec 5. A four-day ticket is currently just £180, that's just £45 a day http://www.wickhamfestival.co.uk/tickets