The Jimmy in question is Jamie Oliver’s mate Jimmy Doherty, who raises rare breed livestock on his farm near Ipswich. Family commitments prevented us attending on the Saturday, when Athlete, Badly Drawn Boy & Jose Gonzalez headed the bill, but as it’s close to home for us and day tickets were a mere £25, we decided to pop along on the Sunday to find out what this new event was all about.

The main stage was a reasonable size with predominantly excellent sound and lighting. Apart from a dip in front of the stage the field sloped gently to give good views all the way to the back. My main complaint here would be, with the music programme only running from 2pm to 10:30pm, most of the eight acts were barely given 30 minutes to perform. Even headliner KT Tunstall had less than an hour. There was only one other tiny acoustic stage tucked away at the other end of the site so the many people who sat all day in their camping chairs actually spent as much time watching the crew setting up & sound checking as they did the bands performing.

The event was marketed as a “Food & Music” Festival and burgers, hot dogs and hog roasts made from the farm’s resident population were available at several stalls. Oliver’s “Fifteen” franchise was also well represented but otherwise the variety of food was disappointingly limited and long queues developed as a result. Alcoholic refreshment was courtesy of Aspall’s “Cyder Barn” which served real ale and other drinks as well as their excellent Suffolk Cider. There was no camping so it was relatively easy to get to the bar as most people drove daily to the event. The same could not be said for the coffee stall where the queue snaked away into the undampened dust clouds of the gravelled market area.

There was a small area near the farmhouse where popular chefs did demonstrations of their craft but the stage was so small and poorly aligned that it was totally impossible to see what was going on and we gave up after a couple of abortive attempts. Kids were well catered for with Guinea Pigs & Pirates providing entertainment as well as lots stuff to see & do in the “In The Night Garden” tent.