TIM HUGHES reports on perhaps the only festival to offer ferret racing alongside kora playing...

GO wild in the country! Get the city smog out of your lungs this weekend by getting out of town and into our county’s rural heartland for a taste of the good life.

Yes, this weekend is all about Livestock.

No, we’re not recruiting for the Young Farmers, though we can promise a goodly number of farmyard animals.

The latest Oxfordshire festival to burst onto the calendar, Livestock looks like being one of the best yet.

Starting off four years ago as a party in the Red Lion pub in Stratton Audley, near Bicester, this year continues with the cosy pubby vibe on Friday, before going al fresco with a session in the boozer’s courtyard garden on Saturday and taking over a whole field at neighbouring Hall Farm on Sunday.

And with the shift outdoors comes one of the most eccentric line-ups of music and entertainment around.

Don’t believe us? Well how does a weekend filled with authentic West African kora playing, jump-jive jazz, blue grass bump’n’grind, Indian street food, Argentinian barbecue, donkey riding, alpaca fancying and ferret racing grab you?

Clearly the emphasis is squarely on having fun.

“It’s a local secret that just keeps getting bigger and better,” says founder and organiser Malachy O’Neill, whose uncle Frank runs the pub, and dad John has the farm.

“You could say we’re putting the ‘boot’ into boutique festival-going!”

The highlight, particularly for younger festival-goers, looks like being Sunday’s family field day. And that’s where the crazy stuff kicks off, with juggling, pottery, welly-wanging, face-painting, circus games, and the aforementioned animal headliners.

“I almost wish I was under 12 myself,” laughs Malachy. “There’s so much great stuff going on for kids.”

Oh… and there’s music. Lots of music – with sets by the likes of Oxford’s hardest-working jazz group – the Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band; Amazonian Cumbia band Los Chinches, Witney-based Senegalese string-maestro Jali Fily Cissokho, sultry Sudanese jazz princess Amira Kheir, Madagascan guitarist Modeste, Armenian Tigran Aleksanyan, Maryland roots-Americana banjo/guitar and keys duo The Seznec Brothers, and West Oxford’s Armaleggan Morris.

And that’s only the half of it.

“We’ll be getting the party started tomorrow evening with two of the most swinging jazz bands in the UK - Harry’s Tricks and the Original Rabbit Foot Spasm Band at the Red Lion. Then Saturday will be a massive day with some of the world’s finest musicians playing in the pub’s courtyard garden. Festival-goers can soak up sounds that’ll take them from Senegal to Sudan, Finland to Madagascar, and Peru to Armenia. It’ll be a musical grand tour all in one day!”

Malachy, whose own band Knights of Mentis also grace the bill, is convinced his shindig can give the bigger, regimented, yet staid Cropredy Festival, from today to Saturday, a run for its money.

“They’ve been going for decades, but we offer the experience of a much more intimate and friendly time,” he says. “Livestock offers a lovely sense of community between artists and audience, and it’s not as disparate as being at a big festival. It has kept the feel of a gig in a pub.”

It also promises to be a delight for foodies, with authentic Argentinian cooking, Asian delights, vegan fare, local ice-cream and even a Livestock Brew created especially for the event by Oxfordshire Ales in nearby Marsh Gibbon. “People should discover it before everyone else does,” he adds. “Get off the beaten track and join the loveliest little festival in the land.”

* Livestock is at The Red Lion, Stratton Audley, from 8pm tomorrow (Friday) to Sunday evening. Tickets are £55 for the weekend and £15 for the Sunday field day. livestockfestival.co.uk