Stowaway organisers hoping to create "unforgettable experience" when the festival returns this week

Stowaway is held near the Silverstone Circuit at Stowe, from Friday, August 16 until Sunday, August 18.

Alongside the dozens of music acts performing at the festival, Stowaway will also be hosting comedians, activities and workshops which are all included in the ticket price.

In recent days, the team behind the festival have been busy putting the finishing touches to this year’s festival.

Festival director Duncan Wheeler said: “We’re flat-out getting everything ready, building everything on site.

“We produce all of our own artwork, signage, décor - everything is done in house.

“We’ve been lucky with the weather so far and it’s looking good this weekend as well so we’re pleased.”

“Stowaway is very much a festival made by friends for friends, it’s a lot like a little family.”

Other acts performing over the weekend include Artwork, Cinthie, Dillinja, DJ Flight, Joe Goddard, Laura Misch, LTJ Bukem, Oh My God! It’s The Church and Optimo.

Comedians include Kiri Pritchard-Mclean, Laura Smyth and Lindsey Santoro.

Mr Wheeler said: “Stowaway really is a three-day camping festival with a wide range of different types of music, but the majority of the headline acts tend to focus slightly more on the electronic side of things.

“It’s set on Black Pit Farm, which is formerly part of the Stowe estate, which is a Grade One listed park and garden. It’s a very beautiful site.

“We own the site so we’re here all year, building and creating things and ultimately welcoming people into our home.

“Stowaway is about producing something that's an unforgettable kind of human experience, but always with kind of fun and creativity at the heart of everything.”

Mr Wheeler is joined by eight full time colleagues who, besides Stowaway, run a number of different events during the year.

Last year they had 46,000 people through their gates which included providing camping facilities and entertainment for both the British Grand Prix and Moto GP.

Stowaway grew out of The Festival Of Beer which launched in 2017, but events on the site date back to the late 1990s and early 2000s where Mr Wheeler would host, “weird and wonderful,” parties for their friends which over time continued to grow in size.

Their work with events like the British Grand Prix and Moto GP – which includes putting on different stages of music for campers – meant when it came to organising The Festival Of Beer and more recently Stowaway, the supply chain and infrastructure was already in place.

Mr Wheeler said: “We’ve adopted a slow organic growth model which fits how we work.

“We know how to produce a good event, it's all handmade, homemade and really authentic and we send people away at the end of the weekend having had a really good time.

“Word of mouth helps sales and organic growth compared to fancy Instagram campaigns.

“It is a real challenge as an independent festival, this part of the market is struggling probably more than most – you’ve just gotta do a good job.

“We’re fiercely independent, we want to be delivering something that's got our personal touch on it.”

While Stowaway currently hopes to welcome around 4,000 festival goers this weekend, the ambition is to grow to between 6,000 to 10,000.

Mr Wheeler said: “We’ll be very, very happy if we can get it to that size.”

Talking about this year’s lineup, Mr Wheeler said it’s electronic producer and AV artist Max Cooper who he’s particularly excited to see.

“We’ve got some incredible acts this year,” he explains.

“I’m really excited to see Max Cooper, there's nothing really like him out there.

“He runs live visuals on huge projection screens, one of which will cover the entire front aperture of the stage.

“He’s just a feast for the eyes and the ears and it’ll hopefully be a really fascinating and fantastic performance.

“Elsewhere it’s always good down in the woods with some of the older DJs, people like Dillinja and LTJ Bukem and I'm really excited to see Joe Goddard's band play on the main stage.

“There's some less serious stuff. Oh My God! It’s The Church - they're gonna be there and are just brilliant fun to watch on stage.

“On the Saturday night, I'll be down in the woods listening to Optimo because I'm a huge fan of them.”

Aside from the music and comedy performances, there will also be activities including disco yoga, canoeing, bushcraft workshops, lake swimming, paddleboarding, a roller disco, tree climbing, a vintage funfair and a woodland spa.

All of the activities are included in the ticket price – something really important to Mr Wheeler.

He said: “I've got three children that are between six and 10 years old.

“One of the things that happens if you got kids and you go to some events, you just get ripped off constantly.

“There's always something else to buy or something else that costs you more money.

“Here, all of the additional activities are free.

“We've got beautiful vintage fairground rides, they're all free to use, you can swim in the lake, paddleboard, climb a 300 year old oak tree with instructors and harnesses.

“There’s kids’ activities, DJ workshops and it's all free to partake in and that's a really important part of what we stand for.”

Weekend tickets for Stowaway cost £219 for adults, £137 for teenagers and £75 for children between 12 and two. Booking fees apply.

The site opens at midday on Friday, August 16 and closes at midday on Monday, August 19.

For full details, visit https://stowawayfestival.co.uk.