REVIEW: Wentworth Festival proves a right royal day out

Not only were there a couple of tributes to the Queen, many of the greatest works of the band sharing her title were given a welcome outing.

Booking pop stars or dance acts whose biggest hits came at least 20 years ago means sets are filled out with covers, so we had the unexpected joy of Brother Beyond’s Nathan Moore taking on Footloose and Don’t Stop Me Now, both of which he made a decent fist of.

Like a true pro, when the power when down, the former teen idol hopped down off the stage for a few selfies with the crowd.

Boy band 5ive (who should probably now be referred to as “man-band 3hree” given two members have moved on) had made No 1 in 2000 with We Will Rock You, so that made an appearance.

The three-piece occupied the mid-afternoon pop slot played by S Club in 2019  and went down a storm, thanks to an audience of 30 and 40-somethings who will remember their hits from 90s discos and house parties.

Slam Dunk da Funk, Let’s Dance, Keep on Movin’… they were all eagerly lapped up.

The finest Queen tribute of the day came from Bulsara and his Queenies, a frankly stunning cover act whose singer Gareth Taylor (far left, below) proved himself more than adept at channelling Freddie Mercury’s swagger and vocal flourishes.

Close your eyes and it could be the real thing.

Taylor and his bandmates make no effort to look like their idols but have nailed the Queen sound so effectively they provided the afternoon’s stand-out set, to which a grooving, swaying, rapturous crowd — aged all the way from primary school to pensioners — was in thrall.

Such is the appeal of Queen, particularly when you serve their revered back catalogue so well.

Save Me, Somebody to Love and Bohemian Rhapsody were all exhilaratingly on point.

For once, the rain stayed away and picnics were enjoyed in the autumn sunshine before extra layers were gathered.

Magician Wacky Woody made new fans in the kids’ entertainment tent, the bar staff could be seen dancing along to Soul Sensation and a spontaneous school-age football match developed under the perimeter floodlights.

And Heather Small’s headline performance (far left, above) was one of high energy and no little funk, aided ably as she was by a slick band and polished backing singers.

The aim of Wentworth organisers Toby Foster and Steve White is whether your dream music decade is the 70s, 80s, 90s or a little closer to the present, there is something for you.

And surely the mood of the day was summed up by The Farm, whose frontman Peter Hooton joked that those from Barnsley, Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham and further afield should put aside their differences.

“Hug your enemies!” Hooton cried,  before launching into the band’s still-fresh Altogether Now.

Wentworth’s concoction of nostalgia and cheese certainly hits the spot. In the words of the late, great Freddie himself, “It’s a kind of magic.”