Taste of Wickham 2026: a look back

If you've been keeping an eye on the Hampshire countryside for a bit of food and drink, the Taste of Wickham has already come and gone for this year. The festival took over Wickham Square on Sunday 13 September, running from 11am to 4pm, and it was free to turn up and wander around.

At its heart, it was a big market in the middle of the village. Depending on who you ask, there were more than 75 or more than 80 stalls, with local food producers and street-food vendors alongside handmade jewellery, home goods, plant stalls and other local treasures. There were real ale and cider bars for a drink while you browsed, and live entertainment ran throughout the day, with community choirs, dance groups and family circus shows. For families, there was a free activity area with circus skills and practical crafts, plus face painting, small rides, all-day circus performances and appearances by The Bubbles Man, known for his giant bubble shows. Getting there was kept simple, with a free park-and-ride service and additional parking at £1 a car, and the whole thing was sponsored and supported by Wickham Parish Council and Welborne Garden Village.

It's worth noting that Taste of Wickham is a separate thing from the larger Wickham Festival, so if you've been confusing the two, you're not alone. Wickham Festival is a four-day music and arts event held every August in a rural spot near the village, north of Fareham and near Portsmouth, with live music across four stages, food and craft stalls, real ale and cider bars, children's entertainment and more. It's built a reputation as one of the safest and most family-friendly festivals in the UK, and The Guardian has listed it among the best family-friendly boutique festivals. It's picked up awards along the way too: Best UK Festival for capacities under 15,000 at the Live UK Music Business Awards in October 2015, Best Festival in the local Culture Guide Awards in 2018, and Best Live Event in 2019, with a capacity of 7,000.

The festival's history goes back a fair way, too. Its roots are in the Eastleigh Festival of 2003, with some linking it back to the original Gosport Festival of the 1990s and the Eastleigh Music Festival put together by councillor and music promoter Peter Chegwyn. The first Wickham Festival ran from 3 to 6 August 2006 around the village community centre, with a programme built on folk and traditional music. It moved to its current site in 2013, and in 2024 it shifted to a flatter ground with better drainage on the other side of the A334. Over the years it's hosted talks by Tony Benn and Bill Oddie, and performances from Van Morrison, James Blunt, Kiefer Sutherland, Frank Turner, Wilko Johnson and The Lightning Seeds, alongside folk and world-music acts like Richard Thompson, Bellowhead, Steve Earle, Carlos Núñez Muñoz, The Spooky Men's Chorale and Le Vent du Nord.

This year's Wickham Festival ran from Thursday 30 July to Sunday 2 August, with The Saw Doctors, The Proclaimers, The Dhol Foundation, Curtis Stigers, Tommy Emmanuel and The Red Hot Chilli Pipers headlining, and Ferocious Dog playing on their farewell tour. If you missed it, the next one is already in the diary: Thursday 29 July to Sunday 1 August 2027.