Well, this weekend i had the honour of popping to Kingham, near Oxford, to set foot on the hallowed ground that is ex-Blur bassist rock and roller no longer druggie cheese making farmer Alex James's farm. I took my friend Polly along, as she has had an absolute life long crush on him (and his hair, and jaw, apparently) so how could we resist the offer of press passes to Harvest Festival?

It was obvious from the get-go what Polly was up for, but i was more interested in the concept of the festival itself. The website says....

Harvest is a celebration of food and music for friends and for families. At both of our festivals, you’ll be able to feast your ears as well as your belly. The nation’s feted chefs rub shoulders with the makers of very popular music and everyone jumps up and down. Bingo.

Win! Great food as well as the usual festy entertainments? Awesome! I was well aware that this was possibly going to be the most middle class festival ever, but little did i know just how true that would be

The only festival i've been to that featured a bookshop. While i had a mooch about and admired the display of Hunter wellies trooping between the Cath Kidston shop and Boutique Babysitting area Polly compared the farmers in front of her to the farmer of her dreams, hoping she might catch a glimpse of her dream man

Music wise we were definitely left wanting more, there were long periods with no-one on the only stage, and not even a CD on to give some atmosphere. The food stalls were plentiful, and all lovely, we had some fantastic tacos from Wahaca and THE MOST DELICIOUS salted caramel ice-cream from Choc Star. We NEED to find out where to buy that!

However, i was expecting more small producers, it would have been nice to have a farmers market type area. Each of the stalls were selling whole meals, rather than little nibbles or things to take home, so once we'd eaten our lunch we were rather stuck for what to do between bands. The search for Mr. James stepped up a gear!

Polly was just asking this friendly/terrifying bear if he'd seen this man, when a nice posh lady walking past in her Hunters casually piped up 'Are you looking for Alex? Oh he's just over there.'

Little did she know what ground breaking, nail biting, heart thumping, knicker twisting news this was to Polly. We looked over and there indeed he was, tall and farmery in a tweed suit, with rock star hair. It is the only time i have ever seen the epicly cool Polly lose her cool (and she is pretty damn cool). None the less, i pulled her over to him, and in that moment she ticked off the top thing on her bucket list

So Polly was obviously made up, and we had a nice day all told. The drinks were well priced, the food lovely, the music enjoyable - it's a firm foundation to build on next year, and i'll look forward to seeing how it grows! (and having some more of that salted caramel ice-cream. Pol was happy with a taste of Alex James's cheese)