Why this village loves its festival

For over 20 years Cropredy has embraced its rockers

DAVID PEGG has worn well. More than 30 years of rock'n'roll have etched few lines on his face and his Brummie wit is as sharp as when he formed the seminal folk rock band Fairport Convention in 1967.

His punishing schedule puts the Rolling Stones to shame. Fairport are arguably the hardest working band in the business and in the past 12 months toured America, Germany and Italy and completed a 34-date British run.

But he is always back home in north Oxfordshire, where he lives with his wife Christine and records at his studio in a converted chapel, for one hectic and invariably drunken August weekend. This is when Fairport and a host of guest musicians gather to play their annual, two-day, outdoor festival in a field on the outskirts of the village of Cropredy, three miles from Banbury.

Cropredy (pronounced Crop-eddie) is unlike any other music festival. Glastonbury in Somerset is known worldwide for psychedelic hedonism and "enthusiastic" policing. The Phoenix, near Stratford- upon-Avon, has a reputation for anti-social behaviour. Nearly 100 people are arrested annually for thefts, drugs offences and knife-point robberies, although things have quietened down a little since 1993 when a mini-riot ensued and a security guard was stabbed. This year's event has been cancelled owing to poor ticket sales, much to the relief of local residents who fear the annual invasion and lock themselves and their pets indoors with plenty of aspirin and good books to see them through the long, noisy nights.

Cropredy could never compete with the festival bad boys. To the band's knowledge only one complaint has been received from a local resident in the event's 22-year history. Apart from a few drunken farmhands swaying on cider and the odd camper loudly cursing a mooing cow in the early hours, it is the most laid-back of festivals. The worst crime was the theft of a rose bush from an elderly villager's garden. The band bought her three replacements.

The Thames Valley drug squad gave up attending in 1985, calculating that it simply wasn't worth shelling out for gum boots and anoraks to nick a few ageing Hell's Angels for smoking dope. The uniformed police presence is tiny too and by all accounts the officers practically volunteer for duty to get a chance to jig around their helmets at the front of the stage.

But then Fairport have always had a good relationship with the police. They lived in a commune in 1969 with their girlfriends and an ever growing number of unwashed roadies. One afternoon as they relaxed in the back garden with various mind-expanding substances the local bobbies popped their heads over the wall. The band's panic turned to amazement when they realised the police had not come to raid them but to ask if they wouldn't mind playing at the police dance in a nearby field that weekend.

It was Fairport's first outdoor gig, it cost six shillings to get in and the constabulary gave them a washing machine as payment. "The police know Cropredy is a safe festival. It's the whole atmosphere here, the vibe if you like, that makes it so special," says Pegg over venison sausages and a pint of Greene King in the Deddington Arms down the road from his rural base.

"Violence and bad behaviour are just not tolerated here, it's not on, so nobody does it. You are out of place being aggressive. It has always been like that from the early days. Wonderful really, and unique as far as I know. Where else at festivals these days can you leave your tent open and not get your stereo nicked?"

The festival began in the parched summer of 1976 when Fairport organised a sing-along to raise money for a new village hall, attended by a small crowd. Last year, the band's 30th anniversary and the 21st festival, 23,000 fans turned up, quaffed 61,000 pints of beer and watched a series of talented folk and rock acts, ending with Fairport playing a four-hour finale under a harvest moon.

"Not bad for a bunch of old farts," says Pegg, and not bad for a group who admit that they have always been one of the least marketable in the music business.

Cropredy is a home-grown festival. The Peggs plan it, the local Scout troop double as litter-pickers and traffic attendants, and the Ladies Circle provide breakfasts in the farmyard adjacent to the site. There is even a festival service at the village church which is always well attended by Christian bikers.

There is one field away from the hubbub for those with children which will be fuller than usual this year as the children quota (restricted for safety reasons) is being increased. "I think most of the kids who come were probably conceived here," Pegg jokes.

It is the only festival where revellers stand a good chance of bumping into monsters of rock behind the beer stalls and biriyani tents. One Cropredy veteran, Mark Bennett, remembers a mystical moment when Led Zeppelin's legendary singer Robert Plant came wandering through the guy ropes.

"I was walking around the stalls one afternoon when I met him walking his dogs, an Irish wolfhound and a whippet," he said. "At first I didn't click who it was. I thought it was just some long-haired hippie. We stopped and had a good chat, Cropredy is the only place where you could do that."

But how long can it go on? Pegg turned 50 in November and the rest of the band are not far behind. "At the rate we are going it's impossible to even slow down let alone stop," affirms Pegg.

The only time the band feel old is when fans queue at the guest tent for autographs weighed down with piles of Fairport album covers and they realise just how long they have been around.

The village will not let them stop. The two pubs, craft centre and grocery store next to the canal all rely on it as their biggest money-spinner and for many locals it is the highlight of the year - a chance to let their hair down before the harvest drags them back out into the fields and the nights begin to draw in.

Perhaps Cropredy's greatest asset is that it is run by musicians not businessmen. Certainly Fairport do well out of it but money also goes to village causes and villagers do not feel they are being thrown a few pennies for their inconvenience while the lords of the manor run off with the silver.

t This year's Cropredy Festival is on Friday and Saturday 14 and 15 of August.