This year saw Cornbury Festival resume what it does best. After a brief unsuccessful divergence in 2009 with booking chart pop headliners, Cornbury returns to what its audience loves — men with acoustic guitars.

The weekend begins with such a man, Joshua Radin, whose set is one of the weekend’s highlights. Drawing a huge crowd for a 1.30 set, Radin’s great 2010 continues with a terrific hour of lilting love songs and gentle ditties, lapped up by the sun-soaked crowd. Charming and note perfect, I’d Rather Be With You, Brand New Day and Only You have the crowd reciting every word. He’s a future headliner. No question.

Another act who have had a terrific 2010 are the Noisettes. With hit singles Don’t Upset The Rhythm and Never Forget You they pull a big late afternoon crowd. Their set is business like, going all out for the big singles and more reserved for the other tracks. After this are a disappointing Squeeze, who produce a ramshackle 60 minutes. Although the hits are all there, they’re delivered in a scratchy manner, not befitting the pop gems they are on record.

The day’s surprise success story is Ben Montague, who plays a well-attended set over on the Riverside Stage. A rising star, his heartfelt ballads could see him enjoy the same success James Morrison has been accorded; his new single Broken, in particular, has hit written all over it.

The day ends with a career spanning set from David Gray. These days, Gray has a full eight albums under his belt and as a past headliner in 2006, he’s a favourite with the crowd. His set is great, full of joyous sing-a-longs and spine tingling moments. Sail Away, Babylon and This Year’s Love all sound wonderful. He is a fantastic way to close the day.

Sunday starts less well. Reef have always been, and will remain, a band with one hit. Their main stage slot briefly has the crowd’s interest during Place Your Hands, but barely ends up as background music. Much better are Charlie Coombs and the New Breed who play a sparky set of jaunty rock ’n’roll songs. Better still is acoustic maestro Newton Faulkner, who draws a huge crowd for his 5.30pm slot. Jovial and vivacious, his set is one of the weekend’s best, with Cornbury turning into a huge choir for Dream Catch Me and Gone in the Morning. He’s another who could top the bill in the future. The Feeling can’t top Faulkner, but their set is robust enough, packed with rousing power pop like Never Be Lonely and Love It When You Call, which has the crowd jumping.

The festival closes with Jackson Browne, who delivers a solid set, including The Pretender, Somebody’s Baby and Running On Empty. It’s a little underwhelming as an event closer, but perfectly fine.

Cornbury Festival was a lovely weekend, mostly sunny throughout. It had some great sets and a cosy atmosphere. Roll on next year — hopefully with Joshua Radin as one of the headliners.