Heading down from London, getting to Oxford is pretty darn easy. We woke early and headed straight to Paddington to catch our train direct to Oxford City Centre.

Common People, stated as city day non-camping festival for the “people of Oxford”, to quote festival director Rob Da Bank. Unfortunately, we were not people of Oxford, or even the shire, we had to check into our hotel – again no issues here.

The taxi journey from the main train station to South Park, located at the top of Cowley Road, was a super short and light on the wallet. To make matters even better, we found a £10 note on the floor on the way up to the main entrance! RAD!

Being big fans of Bestival, we wanted to get to the festival early to soak up the atmosphere and see what décor, activities and food they had on offer.

We arrived, got in very quickly and easily, there was a lack of people that were at the event early doors. This wasn’t really an issue for us as it meant more room roam around and familiarise ourselves with the event.

Common People Oxford had 3 stages:

The Common Stage: this housed the biggest acts of the weekend.

The Uncontained Stage: was all about dance music and had big takeovers from David Rodigan’s RAM JAM and Hospitality. This was flanked by two awesome cocktail bars and was partially undercover, meaning there was lots of space to roam and dance.

The Uncommon Stage: The stage, hosted by Oxford’s famous Nightshift Magazine, showcased local talent of multiple genres in a well sized marquee.

Although not on the same level, the décor around the site had the familiar Bestival feel. It was bright colourful and a little zainy, while the signage was clear and made it easy to see where everything was.

From the acts on show it was clear that Rob Da Bank had gone for a similar audience to that of Camp Bestival, although with more of a local feel to it. The main stage opened up with West End Kids, Ran Kan Kan and Oxford City Singers, all of which were from Oxfordshire and a lot of fun for all the ages.

The fun for all ages theme continued with The Chuckle Brothers playing their “huge hits”, did you know they had a No. 1 in the UK Hip Hop charts with Tinchy Strider? Mr Motivator, Chas & Dave and The Cuban Brothers where also notable highlights on the Saturday.

After the early acts, we took to having a wonder around getting some food. There was plenty of choice split across various cuisines and for pretty reasonable prices considering we were at a music festival. The slow cooked lamb was definitely a favourite and the lads working there were very nice as well!

The bars where large, with friendly staff, stocked with a mix of cocktails, local ale and your standard beers that were priced at around £5 a pint / cocktail, which is pretty standard going for festivals. However, running out of larger for around 2 hours on Sunday was not ideal.

Although the kids area was not targeted at a group of twenty something’s. It was clear to see that it was well catered for and looked to be a great deal of fun, with huge inflatable obstacle courses, bubbles workshops galore and huge bouncy balls set across a back drop of huge trees and interesting décor. It was so enticing we actually lost a member of our party to the inflatables for far too long.

Ultimately we were at the festival to see music and although there was only 3 stages the offering was great. Big sets from local favourite Gaz Combes, sleek Soul II Soul and the biggest crowd of the weekend for Craig David.

However, for us there were three standout performers that if you can go and see them you really have to. First of all on Saturday on the Uncommon Stage was Oxford’s very own Cameron AG, playing luscious slacker indie pop, he really commanded the stage and played to the fact it was his home show. There is no doubt he’ll be destined for big things.

Another local act on the Uncommon Stage that really got us going where the awesome Inner Peace Records. Again, like Cameron AG, they were a local to Oxfordshire. Their blissed out 90’s inspired beats and thought provoking lyrics really got the crowd going in the searing tent.

Finally, the headliners, both were good and solid but seemed to lack that special spark with Primal Scream definitely being preferable. Duran Duran had a huge show with awesome pyro, it just felt as if they were going through the annual Rewind Festival setlist.

Overall, the event was awesome, friendly and good value for money. The music on show was awesome for £30. Although Rob Da Bank and his team have been running events for many years, putting on a show in year one that was as well polished (despite a few hiccups on the bars) and hassle free as this is very impressive. 

Review by: Matt Harrup
Photos: courtesy Common People