• The Doghouse at Wychwood
• New for families at Wychwood
• 'Wychwood in your pocket' - The Podcast

The Wickwar Stage is the third stage at Wychwood in our busy bar tent.It is a great place to catch some new and up coming acts, as well as some brilliant comedy. This year we will be welcoming some new friends from the North in the form of Halifax music promoters The Doghouse. The Doghouse is a monthly music night that takes place on the first Friday of the month in Halifax. Organiser Michael Ainsworth is a past visitor to Wychwood and he had the bright idea to offer to programme the Wickwar stage on our behalf and fill it with wonderful acts from the north.

Learn more about The Doghouse here and read more about The Doghouse at Wychwood in the Halifax Courier here.

The Doghouse - story so far...

The Doghouse began in March 2005 in Halifax, West Yorkshire.  Based upstairs in the Royal Oak, the promoters provide a mix of eclectic live music. The founders of The Doghouse are Michael Ainsworth and Shack.

Michael promoted his first gig in 1985 and was one of the founders of the now legendary Return Club which in its time put on bands such as Pulp. After the Return Club, Michael took a 13 year break before coming back with The Doghouse.

Over the past two years Michael and Shack have been joined by a collective who look after the web, sound, photography, promo and merchandise and djs for The Doghouse.

Their aims and motivations are quite simple, "we both love listening to music and seeing bands play a small and intimate live venue is interesting and exciting, we are also firm believers in the notion of public service and doing things for the public good, consequently in addition to our regular nights we also hold regular family days and free outdoor shows".  A further development has been the release of a couple of compilations and a vinyl release on The Doghouse record label.

In October 2007, a new doghouse night 'El Campello' was launched. This focuses on folky acoustica and lo-fi.

As for the type of music you can expect to hear at the doghouse, Michael has this to say, "we all have different and wide tastes in music and we put on anything from ska to low-fi to alt-country, folk, electronica, hip-hop and alternative rock, often mixing styles on the same bill. The line-up we have selected for the Wychwood stage reflects that approach with a distinctively Northern feel as all the acts are from there."

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This year we will be featuring activities and storytelling from The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. There will be special activities based around all of Roald Dahl's wonderful stories, as well live readings of the stories themselves throughout the day. On a book theme we also welcome the Little Library to the festival this year. This special space provides a relaxing area for children under seven and their families with a wide selection of books to read; picture books, board books, story book and bedtime books, old favourites and new adventures. Books can even be lent overnight so children can carry on enjoying reading in the comfort of their own tent.

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Getting you in the mood early for this year's festival, from 11th February you will be able to get hold of the Wychwood Music Festival podcast. This will be the first podcast of a series in the run up to the festival that will give you a flavour of what is in store at the 2008. Ably presented by good friends of the festival club DJ, radio and TV presenter and African music expert Rita Ray and the multi-talented DJ/writer/compiler/radio presenter/musical director Max Reinhardt the podcast will be the same eclectic music mix as Wychwood and some interviews with its stars.

The first podcast is now available to download and subscribe to at itunes here

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