What began as an excuse to throw a party for a wedding, has over five years grown to become a successful, small-scale festival, with an overriding emphasis on being family-friendly. This year's event sold out in advance, and looks now to have established itself for the forseeable future if that's what the organisers wish for.

In one way, Elderflower is like a huge, but well organised happy camper campsite, with added entertainment. It does not rely on or pay for big and expensive acts to sell tickets (and therefore keeping its costs down). Rather, it is so geared towards children, that the emphasis is actually on them rather than adults. Adults with children generally love it because the kids are free to roam around, there are plenty of activities to do, new friendships can easily be made, and it is a safe environment, despite the fact it is also remarkably light on surface restrictions (e.g. children are free to roam in the woods, and fencing is at a bare minimum). In particular, it looks very appealing for those five and over; there were at times more of them than adults, or so it seemed. If you hate kids, then this is not for you! Meanwhile adults love it precisely because the children are free to roam around and need less supervision. There are bars, varied and very decent food concessions, and plenty of other like-minded folk to talk to.

The weather was very kind this year; previous reports have indicated that Elderflower can be very challenging if the rains come as it is a hilly and muddy site in places, and also very spread out for such a relatively small affair (5,000 capacity). But with the sun shining for much of the time and the temperatures above average, a festival such as this benefits from being early in the season, and during half-term to boot, when people are itching to get out there, outdoors.

Generally, live music is not a big reason why people go to the festival, although with four stages there is plenty to watch. The main (Dragonfly) stage suffers at times from a lack of interest, a pity considering the effort gone into the staging and production and perhaps in future years the organisers might look to attract one or two more well-known names to fill the big gaps in front of the stage. Nevertheless, the quality is generally quite high, and highlights included another outstanding bluegrass-country-roots set from Brighton's Mountain Firework Company, some summer vintage reggae vibes from Resonators, a spellbinding acapella performance from the 13-piece Vocal Explosion, and the guitar duo De Fuego, much in the vein of Rodrigo y Gabriela, combining flamenco with rhumba.

The Woodland Stage was a generally more popular destination; it is closer to much of the camping (again, kids are playing nearby in the woods, on the grass, and with the supplied swing ball sets), and it played host to a fine line up over the three days including an outstanding set from multi-instrumentalist and instrument maker Nick Pynn, purveyor of an idiosyncratic take on bluegrass, folk, world and acoustic fusions of many a hue; Geoff Robb and a serenely delivered acoustic guitar classical set, and some highly spirited Levellers-style folk-rock from new-kids-on-the-block The Noble Jacks.

For adults and children alike, Elderflower Fields is a win-win. Particularly when the sun is shining.
Jeff Hemmings

Website: elderflowerfields.co.uk