Bringing together literature, music, comedy and food, this relaxed festival retains a very indie feel yet manages to get enough big names into the mix to make it very much one to mark on the calendar. Sean Langan, Rosie Boycott and the Idler's Tom Hodgkinson are just some of the authors appearing, while music comes from King Creosote and British Sea Power. Arthur Smith and Murray Lachlan Young provide the laughs, with Rose Prince cooking up a historical tour of the Port Eliot kitchen. Fans of The Wire (see Harrogate festival, too) can catch the Guardian's Marina Hyde interviewing Dominic "Jimmy McNulty" West.