Wicorfest 2026: a charity day at The Wicor Mill

If you are after a bit of live music this weekend that does not involve a wristband and a field, Portchester has you covered. Wicorfest 2026 is back for its first return to the village, and it is the sort of thing that is easy to miss if you only follow the big festival billings. It runs today, Saturday 8 August, from midday right through to midnight at The Wicor Mill on White Hart Lane, so there is plenty of room to settle in for the afternoon and stay well into the evening.

At the heart of it is a trio of organisers you may recognise from local radio: Meg Peters, who performs as Megsy, Jon Brown and Gareth Boyes, all of whom are involved with Express FM. The station will also have a presence on the day. The line-up leans into the eclectic, with Reggaematics, Texas Bill and Zodiac X all set to play, and Megsy will be making her first-ever live appearance alongside a couple of regulars from the pub who have stepped up to sing. It is a family-friendly bill, and the organisers have been clear that this is a local event first and foremost, which is a nice change of pace from the larger festivals that tend to dominate the summer.

There is a genuine cause behind it, too. The festival raises money for Rowans Hospice and Little Bags of Sunshine, and it is held in memory of Ann Wise, a friend of the organisers who died recently. Rowans Hospice is a voluntary independent hospice that has been providing free palliative and end-of-life care across Portsmouth and South East Hampshire for more than 30 years, supporting over 4,000 people every year regardless of the nature of their illness or their means. Little Bags of Sunshine is a more recent project, launched in 2025 by Freddie's Sunshine Charity in partnership with Imagine This, and it brings comfort to parents in the early days after the death of a child, with each bag filled with small, thoughtful items and information on where to find emotional support.

The venue itself is worth a mention. The Wicor Mill, at 246 White Hart Lane, is a traditional pub that has recently reopened after a closure and a £240,000 revamp, which knocked two originally separate rooms into one and added a sports bar, a dining area, new signage and lighting, a play area and more seating. It is the kind of place that wears the label 'great British pub at the heart of the community' without it feeling like a line from a brochure, and it has plenty of room in the garden for a day like this.

On the practical side, tickets are £5 each and you buy them behind the bar, so there is no need to book ahead. They have been selling well, but there is still plenty of space in the garden, so you can turn up on the day and just let the afternoon unfold. It is a simple, well-meaning day out that does a couple of good causes along the way, and it is exactly the kind of thing that makes a village weekend worth a trip down to Portchester.