What you missed in 2022
We were so excited to be hosting the Great Barn Festival again in our new September dates. Although the evenings were unseasonably chilly, the sunshine was clearly just as happy as us, as it didn’t stop all weekend!
The Great Barn Festival delivered its usual mix of family fun, thought provoking theatre, singing, dancing, musical talent both locally and nationally. Our Tent by the Pond was a huge hit with its constant line up of high quality music. What better way to spend you weekend than relaxing on a hay bale in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside listening to music!
We even had music from the Internationally renowned violinist Sebastian Müller and piano from Lynette Stulting. The acoustics in the Barn make it an amazing venue whether its classical, folk or theatre.
The usual mix of family storytelling, puppetry and theatre saw storytelling adventures from Rattlebox Theatre, puppet fun with Emma Boor and Professor Slug Bug, Shakespeare in a suitcase productions for the whole family and even some Morris Dancers thrown in for good measure!
The Barn Festival is not just for kids and families. The Old Time Sailors bought the house down (although not literally as its an ancient monument!!) The wonderful Three Inch Fools returned with their top quality outdoor performance of The Gunpowder Plot with the Barn as its stunning backdrop.
Some incredible local talent bought the Hayloft Bar and the Tent by the Pond to life: Autumn Saint, The Knights of Mentis, Jody & The Jerms, Paul MClure, Canutes Plastic Army, Ben Avison, Jali Fili, N/SH, Kev Ninney, Tim Friars and the Mercenaries, The Talismen, Space Pigs, Whoosya to name but a few. Not forgetting the incredible Boogie Me who performed a proper foot stomping set in the Barn! We also welcomed a wonderful selection of local choirs and community groups such as Faringdon & District Strummers, The Faringdon Choir, Vale Islanders and Rising Voices
Not forgetting the beautiful craft stalls found at our Marketplace, yummy food vendors and a full programme of arts & craft in our children’s tent. Phew….its amazing we fitted so much into a weekend!
Luckily it wasn’t just us who had a great time! Here’s what some of our lovely guests thought….
“There was so much about this little Festival we enjoyed, and we go to a lot! So thank you for giving us a lovely day of experiences and memories”
“Congratulations on putting on a delightfully chilled and charming festival.”
“Thank you so much for a fabulous weekend. The variety of artists was great and they were all amazingly talented. I loved that the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed and lots for families with youngsters to do and stalls to wander around and look at. It was a perfect weekend, thank you!”
“Just to say we absolutely loved both the events we took part in. The kids found Midsummer Nights Dream hilarious and it was wonderful to see them laughing so hard! The actors were just brilliant.”
“We loved the African Drumming workshop and it was brilliantly structured, the teacher was fantastic. We really felt we learnt something and wished we had paid for the adults in our party to have a drum too! It had me looking up African Drumming lessons on my phone afterwards!”
“I hope it will be happening again next year as I would have loved to attend some of the Sunday sessions too.”
“This was the best weekend EVER- never before have my family met The Mad Hatter and had tea with Alice, then had yummy pizza cooked outdoors and Morris danced all afternoon! Such a chilled vibe and lovely food”
“We had a fantastic afternoon last year at the festival. Story telling at its finest”
“Absolutely loved it. Will definitely be back next year!”
I had a gentle introduction to Festivals yesterday with my youngest at the very chilled out Great Barn Festival and we had such a lovely time
Great Barn Festival 