There’s no need for John Mitchinson to put himself out for Cornbury Festival. He works ridiculously hard running QI in its various forms, has just celebrated his 50th birthday and should be allowed to enjoy the event on his doorstep in relative peace.

But that’s just not his style. Instead John has organised a QI feast of entertainment called The Festival Of Words over this weekend boasting the likes of Alan Davies, Katy Brand, Phil Jupitus and an invasion of elves on hand to answer all your questions.

A headache to organise maybe, but John is still inordinately pleased with the outcome and relishing the opportunity to spread the QI word even further. “It’s been hard to juggle but enormous fun and a great addition to the carnival of loveliness that is Cornbury,” he says.

Besides, if the QI bandwagon is going to roll out anywhere, then Cornbury is the obvious location. After all QI was born in Great Tew, at the bar of The Falkland Arms to be precise, where John met John Lloyd, of Blackadder and Spitting Image fame, and explored their vision for the Quite Interesting juggernaut. “It was terribly ambitious, but it’s been great fun and now here we are 10 years later,” John M smiles, perhaps at his own understatement.

Fun for him, hilarious for us as the QI bug continues to spread around the world, its latest incarnation being in Sweden, while the BBC screens Series J. The inordinately successful TV show with Stephen Fry, the plethora of books, franchising and publishing shows no sign of abating. In fact, the only hiccup seems to have been the ill-fated members-only club in Oxford.

And yet when Hugh Phillimore, Cornbury Festival organiser, came to them and asked QI to join in, the Johns put on their thinking caps and took several years to fine-tune their ideas, the finished result being revealed this weekend. So what took them so long? “We wanted to do something ambitious with readings, comedy and a streamlined Elved presence. But because there are so many festival-goers and so few of us, we had to make sure there was something on, in or around the tent, all weekend. So we’re pretty excited because it’s a bit more rock-and-roll than a normal literary festival.”

2013 is definitely the year when QI comes to Cornbury in style, complete with celebs, talks, book signings, Unbound Publishing and its brand new and very exciting elf machine, a factual version of Willy Wonka’s gum machine. Choose a subject and the internal elves will spit out an answer, plus there’s the QI 90-second test, klaxon leader board and table of experiments to look forward to.

So much is going on in fact that it’s going to be hard to squeeze in Alan Davies, Katy Brand and Phil Jupitus doing stand-up, Julie Burchill and Hugh Cornwell discussing their books and Robert Llewllyn reading from his new novel, as well as lots of performance poetry. “Lord knows how the fact machine will go down but the elves are young and keen.” Cornbury Festival must be delighted either way, because with QI fame rocketing, the Festival Of Words should be a massive hit. “The point is to have fun and if it works, well ... we are always looking for new ways to perform and it’s always good to get out from behind the QI desks. Whether it makes financial sense who knows,” John shrugs, “but it’s a great way to interact with the public and learn as we go along.”

This is a big departure however, not only for the QI brand but also for the two Johns who have always preferred to stay relatively anonymous, letting the names cope with the QI fame and glory. So has Cornbury turned the tables on that? “We are beginning to step out a bit from behind the scenes so we will see. I’m not averse to a bit of compering,” John admits.

As for the rest of this weekend’s Oxfordshire festival, which bands are John most looking forward to? “I’m a huge Squeeze fan and a huge Van Morrison fan. It’s unbelievable to have him there, and unthinkable not to go and see Wilko Johnson, so it’s all outstanding for me. “I have a huge admiration for Hugh Phillimore because he’s such a brilliant and resourceful fixer and the Great Tew Estate is a great place to have a festival. “Everybody in the village goes and it’s fantastic to get people out and connecting with each other.

“It’s going to be an epic weekend.”

 

The Festival of Words
Cornbury Festival, Great Tew
July 5-7
Visit cornburyfestival.com. For tickets, call 0844 338 0000 or visit bookingsdirect.com