Hop Farm Festival

The first ever Hop Farm Music Festival was just a one-day event on 6 July with only one stage. The day was headlined by Neil Young with Primal Scream, Guillemots, Supergrass, Laura Marling, Rufus Wainwright, My Morning Jacket and Everest also playing.[6]

The 2009 festival was scheduled for 3–5 July, a now 2 day festival with a capacity increased to 53,000 and an extra 2 stages introduced.[7] The main acts over the event period are shown below.

2009 marked the first year of a celebrity football tournament at the festival participated by, among many others, some former Big Brother contestants.[8]

The 2010 festival was held on the weekend of 2–3 July over 3 stages and proved to a controversial year. Before the festival had even started people complained of misleading ticket sales. Originally marketed as once again, a one-day festival, tickets went on sale for a second date much later, one month to the event, to the surprise and annoyance of many who had already bought a ticket. The organisation of the festival has been subject to much criticism, this included the long queues, poor sound system and a water pressure malfunction.[9] It was during the late afternoon of Saturday, that the only water pump supplying the camp of 20,000 with water suffered a pressure malfunction and subsequently left the camp bereft of a water supply.

The main line-up for 2010 was as follows:

Others who performed through the event included Pete Doherty, The Magic Numbers, Imelda May, Damien Dempsey, Laura Marling, Foy Vance, Johnny Flynn and many others.[10]

The year also saw the introduction of a camp stage within the campsite, free for those who had bought weekend camping tickets, but only one day entrance ticket to the arena. Marcus Bonfanti and Robinson were among those who performed.

The years celebrity football tournament participants included the return of the former Big Brother contestants along with the cast of Waterloo Road, Mumford and Sons and Johnny Flynn among others.

Iggy Pop performing in 2011

The 2011 event returned during its normal two-day slot in the first weekend of July.[11][12] 6 weeks prior to the opening date of the festival, organisers announced an extra date to the festival to be headlined by Prince.[13] The addition of an extra date 3 months after the initial tickets were put on sale created much anger towards the festival for misleading ticket buyers yet again, after a similar incident the previous year.

2011 saw the return of the well received Camp Acoustic stage. Brother and Bones, Tankus the Henge, Never the Bride and Nathan Mercado, among others, all performed during the weekend.

Hop Farm Festival returned in 2012 during its usual date of the first weekend of July. Despite much time taken by the organisers to release the line up, which indeed led to speculation that it had actually been cancelled, the line up was released in March. The main line up can be seen below.

2012 saw the return of the comedy stage where comedians such as Russell Kane, Stephen K Amos, Patrick Monahan, Ant Dewson and Jollyboat performed. As well as the welcomed return of the comedy stage was the Camp Acoustic where Jamie Abbott, Ilona and Marcus Bonfanti (amongst others) performed. Younger soloists like Mary Epworth also made their first appearance in 2012.[14] In addition to this was the introduction of two new locations for musicians to perform. Located adjacent the bars was the new Power's Bar Stage which played host to many independent artists over the three days, and there was also the new Busker's Boulevard, in which artists performed all along the main path between the campsite and the arena, to accompany the attendees and make the long walk shorter.

• Hop Farm Music Festival 2014