Festival season is well and truly on a roll now, and the countdown has begun for one of Berkshire’s biggest and best free events: The Big Day Out which takes place at South Hill Park in Bracknell on Saturday, July 12.

As a long-time frequenter of the annual music and arts extravaganza, it’s a not-to-be-missed day of family oriented fun.

The festival’s coordinator, William Trevelyan, says: “This is definitely the best line-up we’ve had for Big Day Out since it began – and also the most expansive.”

He’s not wrong. This year, there is more going on than ever, with a very strong line-up on the main Fire Stage culled from the best in world, jazz, alternative folk and indie rock.

Expect exceptional performances from Mali’s Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni Ba, who won Best Band at the BBC World Music Awards. They’ll provide a fitting dose of world music in absence of the sadly departed Womad festival, which has now decamped to Wiltshire.

There’s also The Neil Cowley Trio, who won Best Album at the BBC Jazz Awards.

Both groups have performed outstanding sets on the BBC’s Later ... With Jools Holland in the past six months.

Laura Veirs and The Destroyers are also firm favourites on the festival circuit and great artists in their own right.

And something I’m particularly pleased to see is a host of local bands on the bill.

Folk rock troubadours Wire Jesus are a must-see, as they offer an enticing template of harmonic burgeoning melodies complete with double bass and accordion.

They’ve been a firm favourite on the Reading music scene for a number of years and the main stage is certainly where they belong.

Reading performance poet and 24Seven reviewer A.F. Harrold will enthrall with his rhythmic witticisms, while Reading/London electronica duo Sleeps In Oysters will affably capture you into their dreamy web of ambient bleeps and sounds.

Sleeps In Oysters from part of the fringe festival element which takes place at the arts centre’s Wilde Theatre and is a ticketed event. The band are on the bill with Denmark’s experimental pop moguls Efterklang.

Alt-acoustic artist Nathan Ball delivers a Cat Stevens-style warmth and lyrical prowess to the day; while Reading Om Corporation deliver an experimental soundtrack to the weekend.

* More on The Big Day Out next week

Are you off to The Big Day Out? What are you looking forward to?