The wonderful Riverside Festival in Charlbury will take place this year on 16 and 17 June. Believe it or not, the event has now been running for seventeen years, with over 5,000 visitors last year, so although it’s located in the cutesy little village of Charlbury, it’s a big fixture in Oxfordshire’s musical year.

Live music for the event is still being planned out, so news on that is still to come, but there will be two stages and over thirty acts playing over the course of the weekend. In previous years Riverside has hosted a huge variety of acts and routinely pulled in some of the hottest and best-known bands and musicians in the local scene.

As well as the music, the atmosphere will retain the family-friendly feel of previous years, with a dedicated kids’ area. This year the organisers are running a competition, ‘Battle Of The Buskers’ – this will see any street performers (comedians, jugglers, dancers, etc) being given a performance slot, and the audience voting on their favourite, who will then win a prize. If you’re interested in putting yourself forward for this competition, you can email the organisers here.

There’s no camping on the site itself, but there are campsites, B&Bs and hotels in and around Charlbury and, of course, the festival is right next to Charlbury Station anyway.

Oh, and did we mention that once again entry is completely free? It doesn’t get better value than that.

Check out the Riverside Festival website for updates and the latest news.