Weather is best warm-up act for festival stars

DIANA Ross had the crowd on its feet on the opening night of the Henley Festival.

The American singer was accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for what was the final UK stop of her European tour.

Dressed all in black, the musicians were first to appear on the “floating stage” as it teased some of Ross’s biggest hits.

The audience cheered as they eagerly awaited the “Queen of Motown” who emerged dressed in a pink tulle floor-length dress with a diamond-encrusted waistband and pink shawl.

Ross, 81, was one of six headline acts across this year’s five-night festival, which began on Wednesday last week and closed on Sunday.

Twenty-seven thousand spectators descended on to the riverside for the 43rd black-tie event, which featured a plethora of music, comedy and art.

Temperatures peaked at 32C with guests being given hot weather warnings by the organisers with gentlemen being allowed to remove their jackets on Friday night.

Ross opened with her 1980 hit I’m Coming Out, which had the crowd dancing and singing, before running through a medley of Supremes classics, including Baby Love, You Can’t Hurry Love, Come See About Me, and Stop! In the Name of Love.

She emerged from a costume change wearing a dazzling, sequined silver dress, with a matching floor-length coat for her Eighties Motown number ones, Upside Down and Chain Reaction.

Ross danced through the numbers on the stage, joking about how she stays active at her age. “You see how I’m moving my body like this? Because I’m 47,” she joked, before adding: “You know I’m 81, right? They say move it or lose it, so I’m moving it.”

Ross introduced each of the 11 members of the orchestra, who each performed a solo as she covered Billie Holiday’s Don’t Explain.

Each of her four back-up singers wowed the crowds with a solo during a performance of Ross’s 1996 cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive.

Mid-way through the show, Ross brought out her daughter, singer, songwriter and actress, Rhonda Ross.

With a slideshow of family photos playing on the screen behind them, the pair sang Count on Me, written by Rhonda for her mum’s 2021, Grammy-nominated album, Thank You.

Closing out the show, she brought the audience to their feet one last time, for 1970 cover Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, originally recorded by Marvin Gaye and later by Ross herself.

Rows of picnics lined the Lion Meadow car park outside the festival entrance, where people enjoyed champagne and canapés before the entertainment. Among them were friends Fiona and Mike Wellington, Charles and Anne Marie De Soutter and Chris and Susie Turner, from Hurley.

The group have visited the festival together every year since 1989. Ms De Soutter said: “Usually it’s pouring down with rain and we’re wearing bin bags, this year is lovely.”

Mr Turner said: “The atmosphere is just fabulous — there’s nothing like it really. It’s not too big, not too corporate, it has got the river, the sunset, the acts on the stage and, most importantly, coming with fantastic friends.”

Helen Barnett, the former town centre manager, said she would be attending every night of the festival. She said: “I’ve been coming to the Henley Festival for many years because it’s unique, it’s one of a kind, and you wouldn’t get people doing this anywhere else in the country.

“Especially on a beautiful evening, it really is the most amazing place to be and the fireworks are fabulous.”

Siblings Alyssia and Dan Smith were joined by friends Matilda Fuller and Josh Ball, all from Henley, who attended three nights of the festival.

Ms Fuller said: “Everyone is really friendly, everyone’s dressed up and here to have a good time.”

Ms Smith said: “It’s lovely to see everyone put an effort in and get a bit dressed up and treat yourself a little bit while enjoying good music and having a bit of a boogie. I’m looking forward to McFly but that’s mostly because I’ve grown up with them.”

Pop rock band McFly rattled through their hits with youthful energy on the festival’s second night.

The four-piece, comprising singers and guitarists Tom Fletcher and Danny Jones, bass player Dougie Poynter and drummer Harry Judd, dressed in T-shirts and trousers as they ran out on to the stage.

They brought back boyband nostalgia to the crowd already on their feet following a warm-up of Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi being played out on the loud speakers.

The band opened with their 2023 hit Where Did All the Guitars Go? led by Fletcher’s heavy guitar riff.

Going against the tide, Poynter, 37, wore dungarees and Vans trainers as he jumped up and down encouraging the crowd to sing along to their 2008 hit One for the Radio, alongside Fletcher, who requested the audience to raise their hands.

Several boaters had moored their paddle boards adjacent to the stage to watch and screamed loudly with the crowd on hearing the opening chords of Obviously.

Spectators danced all the way through to their best-known hits including All About You and Everybody Knows. Jones, 39, adapted the verse to Obviously from “Get on a plane now” to “Get on a boat” as he jived at the grandeur of the festival on the river. He said to the crowd: “Thank you so much for having us. It is so wonderful to be in your presence. This is the best gig here on the Thames.”

The crowd went into a frenzy as the band then surprised them with their own version of Livin’ on a Prayer about halfway through their set, with revellers on the lawn dancing with each other and echoing the chorus.

One family of boaters, who had moored up to listen to the act, stood on the deck of their boat and dressed themselves in fairy lights as they sang along with the crowd.

Jones asked the crowd to break down the middle, as they sang I’ll Be OK, released in 2005, encouraging each side to sing a different verse as they performed but some guests were puzzled as they struggled to hear the lyrics being sung.

Fletcher went on to tell the audience they were dressed like they would “survive the Titanic”. The band closed with their first UK number one single, Five Colours in her Hair.

After watching the festival’s riverside fireworks display, festival-goers flocked to the Pure Heaven tent for the late-night entertainment Ellie Sax, a prominent dance music saxophonist. Meanwhile, indie singer-songwriter Jonny Morgan performed on the Rise emerging talent stage, singing songs from his 2023 break-up album Good Luck With the Music.

Comedian Ed Byrne, best known for his appearances on QI, Mock the Week and Alan Davies’s As Yet Entitled, took centre stage at the packed Paradiso tent.

A famous face spotted among the revellers was David Tennant, who played the Doctor across four series of the BBC show Dr Who.

Kim Jomar, from Kidmore End, attended the festival alongside her friend Lucy Salek, to mark Mrs Jomar’s 49th birthday.

Mrs Jomar said: “It’s the perfect celebration, really. Next year, it will be my 50th so that’s going to be a big one and that will be on the Friday, so we have to see a good person playing then. Next year, my children might be able to come as well because they will be 16 and that will make it even more special because I always have to leave them to come here.

“I love that you have older generations and younger generations and different fashions and it’s definitely better weather than last year.”

Hannah Gutteridge, 25, and Georgia Edwards, 26, both of Queen Street in Henley, were joined by their friends Iona Mcnab, from Brighton, and Saskia Forster, both 26, from High Wycombe.

Ms Gutteridge, a sustainability consultant, said: “I’ve been coming here for most of my teenage and adult life. We live just down the road.

“We all knew we were going to meet back up because some of us have moved away now and it’s a way to see everyone from Henley again. McFly is a band we’ve all known since we were kids so it was very nostalgic. We have a boat so we do come on that as well. There are not many festivals where you can do this so it’s very unique and it adds to the buzzy atmosphere. If it was just us on the river, it wouldn’t be as atmospheric.”

Eighties pop legend Rick Astley, who headlined Friday night, topped the charts in 25 different countries with his 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up, catapulting him into international stardom.

Now aged 59, the singer, who was dressed in a black tuxedo and accompanied by a full band, performed a markedly different set as he indulged the crowd in a lively performance of swing hits.

After opening with Come Fly with Me by Frank Sinatra, Astley told the crowd they looked beautiful, adding he was glad to see they had “all made the effort”. He joked that he would like to “salute” some audience members who had chosen to keep their suit jackets on, even after the festival had allowed them to be removed due to the heat. Pointing to one man in the crowd, he said: “If you are wearing red velvet you have got to keep it on hey!”

Astley explained that he had been introduced to many of the hits he would play by his parents, adding his father, Horace, was the “Sinatra of the house”.

“I learnt some of these songs because of my dad singing them, not because of Sinatra singing them,” he said. “So some of the words might not make a lot of sense to you but they make a lot of sense to me because they were my dad’s version.”

He sang a number of Sinatra’s hits, including The Way You Look Tonight, Strangers in the Night, Fly Me to The Moon and Cheek to Cheek. With glittering graphics behind him, Astley had the crowd on their feet and swaying their arms along to the music.

He performed a selection of songs popularised by musical theatre, including The Lady Is a Tramp, a song from the 1937 musical Babes in Arms, written by Rodgers and Hart and Luck Be a Lady, composed by Frank Loesser in 1950 for the musical Guys and Dolls.

Astley also treated the crowd to a modern classic, Tom Misch’s It Runs Through Me, which the brass section relished playing.

The star had the whole crowd up again after playing the introduction of Crazy Love by Beyoncé and again when he teased the audience with a false start to Never Gonna Give You Up.

“You can bugger off and get your taxi boats now,” he joked, before launching into a full rendition of the song to which he had the crowd singing and dancing along.

Describing the song as “So good we had to play it twice” he closed the show with another rendition, which included a mash-up of his 1988 hit Together Forever and Kylie Minogue’s I Should Be so Lucky.

He finished the night to rapturous applause before taking a selfie with his band and the audience.

For the late evening’s entertainment, the crowds migrated to the Pure Heaven tent for a DJ set by BBC Radio 2’s Jo Whiley.

Festival organisers had set up tables with cups of water to help people cope with the heat and many festival-goers clutched fans.

Caroline Lock, who teaches year six at Valley Road Primary School in Henley, attended with her husband Jason and friends Richard and Katherine Alderton. “It’s a really lovely excuse to get dressed up for a change,” Mrs Lock said. Mrs Alderton said she enjoyed the “roving eccentrica”, which this year included a giant tortoise, moving lamp-posts as well as a pair of commentators who were making quips at passersby. She said: “We have been coming for about 25 years and I just love all the quirkiness.”

Jamie Richards, of Berkshire Road, was wearing a custom campervan print waistcoat and matching bow tie, which had been made by his mother Moira.

Mr Richards said he was looking forward to seeing Rick Astley perform after watching him previously at Glastonbury in 2023, where he performed with English rock band, Blossoms.

“I am very excited about seeing him tonight,” he said. “I love Rick, who doesn’t?”

Haçienda Classical headlined the penultimate night of Henley Festival and played club classics from the late Eighties to the early Noughties.

The orchestra, now in its ninth year, has performed multiple sold-out shows in the Royal Albert Hall, London, the Warehouse Project, Manchester and the Glastonbury Festival’s Pyramid Stage.

Haçienda Classical, named after the Manchester nightclub, comprises violins, cellos and a piano and was created by Peter Hook, Mike Pickering and Graeme Park.

The orchestra created a vibrant mood during the two-hour performance, incorporating classical instruments.

MC Bez and veteran DJ, Graeme Park, created an ambience which also got everyone dancing, singing and clapping along.

Crowd-pleasers included Anthem by N Joi and Last Night a DJ Saved My Life by Indeep. These were performed by vocalists Yvonne Shelton, Rae Hall and Melanie Williams. Following the titanium fireworks, Magic Radio presenter Mel Giedroyc performed her first ever live DJ set in the Pure Heaven tent. Harriet Scott, Magic Radio breakfast presenter, continued to bring the dance vibe for the final hour before closing.

During one of the hottest days of summer so far, revellers enjoyed cooling down with bottles of champagne served by bartenders in clear bags filled with ice.

Laura Case, 24, manager of a nursery from Greys Hill, attended with her mother, Carole Hunt, to celebrate her birthday.

She said: “We’ve been three years in a row now as a mother and daughter duo. It started with James Blunt, but now it’s a birthday tradition that we come down here every year, as we’re only down the road.

“I have never been to Ibiza because I’m a bit of a homebody but Haçienda with Ibiza classics is such a good vibe for a Saturday and pre-birthday party.”

Duncan Lamb, 54, from Rotherfield Road, a partner at BDO, said: “It’s brilliant and we come every year. Saturday is always a brilliant night. Age groups don’t matter as the orchestra brings a great buzz and the house music is absolutely epic.”

Michelle Pratt, 46, from Harpsden, who has been to Ibiza four times, said: “We have been coming for 15 years and Elton John was our favourite year. The evening never disappoints as I love all the art and the music.

“Diana Ross was amazing too this year but tonight is just about dancing and having a party.”

Matteo Bocelli and Jamie Cullum joint headlined the final night of the festival with separate sets charting their careers.

Bocelli, 27, sang many of his own songs, including Tempo and For You, and the single To Get to Love You, which will be on his new album, coming out in September. He also covered classics such as Tony Renis’s Quando, Quando, Quando, Can’t Help Falling in Love, by Elvis Presley, and Frankie Valli’s hit Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.

For Bocelli, music is all about honesty. He told the audience that he was a massive Ed Sheeran fan and he was delighted when his father joined Ed for a duet on Perfect Symphony.

Cullum, the jazz pianist and singer, then took to the stage and gave an energetic performance which included him jumping on top of his piano to encourage the crowd to dance.

He played many of his own songs, such as Taller, Get Your Way, Mixtape, Mankind, All at Sea and You and Me Are Gone, alongside Nina Simone’s Sinnerman, The Killers’ The Man, Ordinary People, by John Legend, and What a Difference a Day Made, a cover of a Dinah Washington song.

Magic moments included trying to get passing boaters to “blow your horn!” then adding “oh, f--- you” as a comic retort when he couldn’t hear many.

We were told, “this is the only bass solo at Henley Festival, so you’d better enjoy it”, before his bassist, saxophonist and clarinettist all had their own solos.

He added: “This might be the poshest festival I’ve ever seen – I’m surprised they let me in!”

The highlight of the show came when Jamie himself disappeared into the crowd, walking around the audience and continuing to sing.

There were several familiar faces among the crowds, including Lady McAlpine, Sir John Madejski, Sue Ryan and Johnny Ball, who had come with his family. Upon asking, a barman said he’d heard Vernon Kay had paid a visit. The evening was finished off with the big bang of fireworks followed by YolanDa Brown’s Bob Marley Songbook in Pure Heaven.