Down on the farm – that’s Cogges Manor Farm in Witney – there will be an afternoon of music on Monday 6 May. As part of the Witney Music Festival, there’s music in the idyllic rural setting for several hours, including sets by Matt Midgley, Samuel Zasada, Welcome To Peepworld, Stem and Ags Connolly.

Anybody interested in Oxford’s music scene should be out at the Nightshift Punt on Wednesday 8 May. The legendary annual showcase of new talent, run by the even more legendary Nightshift magazine, takes place across several venues and includes gigs and performances by twenty of the best that Oxford has to offer right now.

The cool kids will be down at the Cellar in Oxford on Monday 13 May – Oxford label Alcopop! Records signings Stagecoach will be playing their peculiar brand of ‘slacker pop full of hooks, harmonies and heroic melody’, and in support there’ll be the weirdo murder-blues-indie-pop of Salvation Bill.

What with the Nightshift Punt and, over the weekend of Friday 17 May to Sunday 19 May, Wood festival at Braziers Park near Ipsden, it seems that the festival season is beginning to grind into life. The eco-friendly Wood – ‘a festival of music and nature’ – includes a huge line-up of talent including Syd Arthur, Mary Epworth and Natureboy, and an equally huge selection of Oxford’s finest, including Flights Of Helios, Co-pilgrim, Nick Cope and Jess Hall.

The excellent math-pop-with-an-African-feel Oxford band Nairobi are playing The Wheatsheaf in Oxford on Friday 17 May, along with the Foals-go-Arctic-Monkeys tuneage of Very Nice Harry and the quirky-folk-indie-ness of Sweet William. Who knows, pop along and maybe the bands can come up with some better strings-of-words-to-describe-their-sounds than those used above…

Full details of these and loads more gigs can be found in the events calendar.