Wickham Festival 2022 gets underway with 10CC and Los Pacaminos but no Chris Difford from Squeeze

However, there was disappointment for some after Squeeze frontman Chris Difford, who was expected to be opening the main stage this evening by performing a solo set, had to cancel just hours earlier.

The festival’s Twitter account said only that: ‘Due to unavoidable circumstances Chris Difford has had to reluctantly cancel his appearance.’

Instead traditional Scottish folk musician Alistair Russell stepped into the breach.

Up to 7,000 people are expected each day at the festival, which is hoping for a better year than 2021 when Covid precautions and foul weather combined to devastating effect.

Other acts playing on main stage on the opening night included the tequila-loving Paul Young-led Tex-Mex act Los Pacaminos, and headliners 10CC who played their greatest hits, including Dreadlock Holiday, Rubber Bullets and Wall Street Shuffle.

Over on the second stage indie troubadour Will Varley drew a good crowd, before popular folk singer Grace Petrie. Veteran folk-punk act Oysterband finished off a raucous night.

Helen Jones, 57, and Nigel Page, 52, originally from Hampshire, emigrated to New Zealand 12 years ago. They decided to come to the festival while on their first trip home to see family in more than two years.

Nigel said: ‘We thought we had better get out and enjoy ourselves while we’re here, and this looked like good fun. It’s just nice to be able to come to a gig.’

And Ross Edwards, 43, from Swansea, had been at Ideas Fest, which had been on the same site for Wednesday and earlier on Thursday, and opted to stay on and enjoy the music.

He said: ‘I’m just going to chill and enjoy the music. That’s the great thing about music festivals, when you come to something like this, it’s about the experience – the different types of music and the community.’

Fran Wright, 62, from Southsea, added: ‘We come semi-regularly, and we call it our “Wickham Bubble” – we see so many people we know, and it’s such a chilled out experience. It’s got a lovely mix of people and it’s very civilised!’

The festival runs until Sunday with The Waterboys, Levellers, Martha Wainright, The Saw Doctors and more expected to play.