We chatted with Gill Mitchell about the quintessentially British Festival that is Henley.

What is the ethos of Henley Festival? 

The ethos is magical extraordinary and unexpected, 3 weird words but that’s what we are. It’s also a 'not for profit' organisation so I have to add charitable as well in there but it’s a one off unusual festival. 

How do you select the charities? 

Henley festival is owned by the Henley Festival Trust, which is our own charitable trust, the charities we support have to be involved in music and the arts. Supporting local and regional disadvantaged, disabled or disengaged teenagers. We have a new project this year called 'The Wall' and we’re engaging a very well known street artist (not Banksy) from the London Gallery. They are going to be doing sessions in schools for the disadvantaged and working with Stoke Mandeville in the spinal injuries unit creating murals which are going to be street art murals to be exhibited at the festival itself.

We also have an orchestra for children that can’t afford their own instruments; we set this up 6 years ago. We bought them all the instruments and give them lessons. This is an example of what we do, we’re a lovely party with a beating heart. 

Is there anything new for this years Festival?

There’s always something new that’s why it’s magical and unexpected, it’s on the banks of the River Thames in Henley and anyone that comes along says wow because there are always unusual unexpected things happening. We obviously have the main stage with major artists each night but the music is really just a small part of what we do. As you walk in you might be greeted by a granny sitting on a trolley whizzing around and then you’ll walk through the enclosure and in the past we’ve had a Salvador Dali statue or they’ll be Getty Images in the gallery.

You can go and see a cabaret somewhere or a dance band and we have our own night club, so there are all sorts of things going on and every year it has something very brand new.

After the main stage act everyone walks to the lawn and looks across the river which is heaving with boats and it’s a beautiful setting with the backdrop. On the other side of the river we light the fireworks and on the banks of the river where everyone is standing we do this spectacle and this year it's called Pandemonium. We have the drummers from the opening ceremony of the Olympics playing the music from the opening ceremony, its going to be fabulous and the fireworks will be in time with and drumming, so yes something different every year.

The line-up is very diverse, how do you go about booking the acts?

This is our 31^st year and when we started we were completely classical and now as you say we’re very diverse we have moved along and obviously we have to try to sell tickets.

We need to give people what they want but we don’t want to be just another pop/rock festival. We try and keep themes of different genres going and we just have contacts from all across the board in all different fields from our classical roots. I know Jamie Cullum isn’t classical but his more that side and we have developed roots through his management because of our classical roots. The Beach Boys approached us, we are the only UK event they’re doing this year.

Madness was an interesting story, last year their manager  (who lives near Henley) was asked to come along and obviously he brought Suggs who got really drunk and ended up on stage with Sting. But we asked them along to see if they’d be interested in performing and they said yes, once people do perform at the festival they want to come back. We have had all sorts of artists who love coming along.

It's quite an intimate festival there’s only 5000 people who can attend it and when your sitting in front of the main stage it is very intimate, but very civilised.

What is the variety of food on offer?

One of our key selling points is that we have the biggest A La Carte restaurant in Europe it seats nearly a thousand people its in a marquee, Albert Roux & Michel Roux Jnr are the chef patrons. Its Michelin starred chefs cooking the most unbelievable food.

A thousand people each night sit in a beautifully decorated marrquee looking out across the festival eating food cooked by Michelin starred chefs that’s obviously at the top end. We do have various restaurants all the way through and we do we have various mobiles like a toasted cheese sandwich unit, we have hog roast and Chinese noodle mobiles so there is a huge diverse range of food.

But it is a black tie event and we insist that people come in black tie. Young girls particularly that have bought their prom dress and never had a chance to wear it again, love getting dressed up and we are a very elegant refined festival.

There are so many festivals around now which is brilliant and fantastic but we don’t want to be like the other festivals, we have to retain our black tie dress code as that’s what really sets us apart. We are just 5000 tickets so you know when you get there your not going to be 1 of a 100,000 people, your going to get really up close and personal to the stars

Considering the heritage of the festival what pressure is on you to get it right?

You are never going to please everybody and we were completely classical at the start and if you look at he line-up we are not now. Although we do have a classical slot every evening, we have to make money for the trust. We are 'not for profit' and there’s no point in running the event if we are not raising money for the trust.

We have to put on a programme on that appeals to people to buy the tickets. People will come to the festival anyway and for more than one night, but yes we have to sell tickets at the end of the day. Therefore there is huge pressure each year to do better than last year. So far touch wood we keep doing it, last year we opened with Sting and the day after Tom Jones but this year we don’t have such massive big name.

That’s because you can't keep having big names because it would be to expensive. We are very conscious that we have to try to keep this as reasonable as possible, but it is an expensive event and it is a lot of pressure and it’s hard to balance.

I think this year’s programme is one of our strongest overall, the whole 5 nights combination is very strong. Some of the side attractions we have got are going to be fantastic.

We have Claire Jones who was the royal harpist as one of the early evening classical slots and we have Alexander Armstrong from pointless who’s coming along to do a comedy section so it is a very goods strong package this year.

What contingences have you put in place for this year in the event of bad weather?

We had pretty bad weather last year and we were one of the few that didn’t cancel. We take place on the banks of the site Henley Royal Regatta which happens the week before which has been going for about 150 years now and the grass that we are on is so well drained.

They have spent 150 years improving the grass so the only time we would have to cancel would be if the Thames flooded. People do make the best of it, they wear their black tie & evening dress’s with welly boots, to be fair we have had quite a few wet years in the past but the old British bulldog spirit comes out!

People do just bring those umbrellas and welly boots and in fact this year we have had a giant wellington boot especially made to sit on the lawn. Chances are it’s going to be a bit wet again this year so we’re embracing it.

There’s nothing you can do about it you’ve just got to make it as enjoyable as you can for people, so over the years we have increased the number of covered venues. That’s another reason why we are only accommodating 5000 ticket holders. The regatta probably has 20,000 people attending each day, we could increase to 10 or 15 thousand but what we want to do is make sure people have a wonderful time and come back. Therefore we offer covered venues and we only sell what we can accommodate in a covered venue. We try our best and we are very proud of it.

Henley Festival 2013 takes place at Henley On Thames, Oxfordshire Wed 10th to Sun 14th July 2013. Acts booked to appear at this years festival include.

The Beach boys Wed 10th July

Jamie Cullum Thursday 11th July

Madness Friday 12th July

James Bond evening, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Saturday 13th July

Paloma Faith Sunday 14th July

Tickets on sale HERE.

Interview with Linda Game