We enjoyed our first visit to Cosmic Puffin on Mersea Island a couple of years ago but it did seem to me to be rather sparsely populated. Well somebody has somehow sprinkled the festival fairy dust in the interim because I’m delighted to report that it is now a properly full on little festival with punters coming from far and wide to attend.

As well as the main indoor Cosmic Stage, the space rock themed MyChoonz Tent and Gail’s Something Else Tea Tent, which were all as we remembered them from our previous visit, there were 3 additional fully programmed stages to enjoy in the form of the Breaking Out tent, the Hula Bula and the River Stage, which was in a quaint old army style tent, complete with cannon at the door.

Aside from the plentiful musical entertainment there was salsa dancing, yoga, drumming, wood turning, a potter's wheel, rocket stove making and a laser tag area. Plenty for the kids to get stuck into too in the Hoi Polloi area, as well as water zorbing and a large inflatable slide. And of course if you just fancied a quiet stroll the beach was just a few yards away.

The site is a permanent youth camp so there are plenty of loos and hot showers plus the bar served a very acceptable selection of local ales from the Mersea Island Brewery. Plenty of the usual festival clothing and trinket stalls were in attendance but my only slightly negative observation was that we could have perhaps done with a little bit more variety on the catering front.

However all in all Cosmic Puffin has elevated itself in my opinion from a nice way to spend an otherwise quiet weekend to an absolutely must-do event for next year. And with tickets priced at less than £50 it’s an absolute bargain, especially as somewhere in the region of £15,000 was raised for charity.