Wychwood Fest line-up

Duffy and Imagined Village at this year’s Cheltenham event

13 Feb 08 - Welsh songstress Duffy and Imagined Village have both nabbed a spot at this year's Wychwood Festival, as well as former Delgado's singer and successful solo artist Emma Pollock

Another act confirmed is BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners Rachel Unthank and the Winterset and Dave Brewis' School of Language project will also be there.

Folk super-group Imagined Village will be headlining Sunday evening.

The group includes some of the biggest names in folk, including Mercury Award winner Eliza Carthy who is a big fan of the festival.

"I've seen it grow from a beautiful idea of what a festival can be, into that dream. It's run by a really committed team of people who've got together to make a festival that’s different and funky and up to date"

"(it's) different and funky and up to date"
Eliza Carthy

The event, which happens at Cheltenham Racecourse between 30 May and 1 June, will also include comedian Sean Locke in its line-up.

It is a festival that has been described as a ‘boutique music and arts festival’ and Eliza Carthy says the festival's real strength is in its diversity: "You can have a band like the Fun Lovin' Criminals, you can have a band like Anoushka Shankar, you can have punks there, you can have Steve Earle, you can have us…"

This is also the first year that a podcast will be launched as part of the festival, presented by broadcaster and African music expert Rita Ray.

It was kick started on iTunes on 11 February and it features tracks from this year’s diverse acts, interviews and also opportunities to win tickets for this year’s festival.

Wychwood regular Robyn Hitchcock is joining the festival again this year and he will be bringing new friends with him, last year he was joined by his mates from REM.

Kelly Stooke