Summer Fest will never win any awards for musical innovation; they know their audience and cater for them. A lot of the people who visited the event over the weekend might never have otherwise dreamed of going to a festival, but there they were enjoying themselves and who knows where they might be going next.

This one has always showcased local talent and after a couple of promising sets of young ‘uns it was time for the first of the main attracions, the legendary Wailers. There might not be any original members anymore – the only direct link to the immortal Bob Marley is drummer Aston Barrett jr, son of his bassist and band leader, but the music was magical. The classics were all present – One Love, Three Little Birds, Buffalo Soldier, even if Saturday afternoon in a park isn’t exactly the best setting for them. It was a pity that the finest songs of the weekend came right at the beginning, although it did set the standard for everyone else.

They were followed by Isaac Stewart, a young singer-songwriter, who showed why many consider him to have a bright future, as he and his band entertained the growing crowd with a mix of originals and some well-chosen covers.

Next up was Denise van Outen with a DJ set of dance and party favourites, although by now the clouds were growing ever more ominous and the predicted rain started to fall during an all-dancing, all-action set by A1. Even though the grass might have been dampened, the atmosphere certainly wasn’t and a tight, punchy set by The Feeling, themselves no strangers to the festival circuit, was a real rain-defier. As were Scouting for Girls, who appeal to a similar type of audience and who warmed things up nicely for the main attraction.

Before then we had the long-vaunted special guest, which was kept a secret up until it ws announced that Artful Dodger was about to take the stage. That sort of music isn’t to my taste but the crowd lapped it up so I’ll take their word for it.

Ronan Keating is a showman. He knows what’s expected and delivers. Boyzone classics, covers, covers that Boyzone made their own, solo material. All of it was delivered with a polish and flair that defied the damp conditions and the fears that last year’s deluge might be repeated. Luckily it wasn’t, and the audience left damper than they’d have liked but certainly as happy as they expected.

Luckily the conditions were better on day two, when after another couple of local heroes the RJP band livened up the crowd with a set of well-chosen and uptempo classics. Fronted by Rick Parfitt jr, son of the late Status Quo guitarist, they were another well-chosen party-opener, setting the scene for what was to come. Which was, at first, the most unlikely and certainly the oldest hits of the current festival circuit. The Wurzels are now on their seventh or eighth lease of life. With two 85 year-olds amongst their line-up they certainly brought some experience to their set, which went down well with some of the audience and was met with bemusement by others.

Next up were T’Pau, Carole Decker showing that she’s got both a decent band and a voice that hasn’t changed over the decades. They played a tight and tuneful set and there was no great surprise as to the final, arm-waving song. China In Your Hand and the audience helping out.

I have a theory that whoever plays at five-ish is always going to struggle because this is when everyone starts thinking about having a rest, and their tea, before the big names in the evening. This was the fate of Deneice Pearson, cruelly if accurately described as “One Star” by a passing punter. With no musicians, backing singers or dancers a single voice is always going to havr a hard time on such a stage and one-fifth of an eighties studio band was never going to manage it.

Heaven 17 put the afternoon back on track. A set stuffed with songs you didn’t know you knew until you heard them, Glenn Gregory showing that he’s alwaya had one of the finest voices of his generation and with the aid of a couple of equally fine backing singers, an industrial version of Bowie’s Let’s Dance and the set-closer Temptation provided the highlight-so-far of the festival.

It was a hard act to follow but Haircut 100 managed it, playing the hits that were a soundtrack for the generation this festival is squarely aimed at. As far as I could see it was the original line-up, together with a fine brass section. It’s a long time since that salsa funk beat was a regular on Top of the Pops but on this occasion we were partying like it was 1982, although Nick Heyward had to take second place to Gregory in the Whitest Trousers of the Weekend competition.

Which, as the sun went down and the air started to turn chilly, meant it was time for the headline act. The Jacksons have lost members but they’re still going, still giving their all. There aren’t many acts who can feature a video montage and have so many hits that some of their best-known songs have to be crammed into a medley.

Again, the audience were word-perfect and again those on stage shone. Giving the people what they wanted had been the keynote of the two days and the Jacksons provided.