Guernsey has held of one Europe’s only music festivals of the summer this past bank holiday weekend. With the island free of Coronavirus since late May and ending social distancing measures in June, the Vale Earth Fair was able to go ahead as normal and attract over 3,500 islanders for a 12-hour line-up of bands, DJs, poets and more.

Attendees were treated to 70 local acts across six stages, all in the grounds of the medieval ruins of Vale Castle. Tickets sold out the night before, and the festival proved so popular that organisers had to turn others away at the door. With ferries to the UK mainland cancelled in an effort to curb the spread of coronavirus, all bands playing were local acts from Guernsey. Topping the bill were Buff Huddleston, The Recks, Lord Vapour, and Clameur De Haro.

Talking to the BBC, festival organiser Yannic Bearder, said “It was a great day, lots of people out celebrating in the sun. It was unfortunate we had to turn some people away at the door towards the end of the day, but we can only let so many people on the site.

“It was amazing to see all those local acts and our thanks to them as well as all the volunteers who help us put on the festival.”

Many festival-goers shared images and videos of the event on social media, which makes a strange sight for a summer destitute of live music. One happy attendee tweeted that it was “a cracking afternoon and evening. Can’t have been easy pulling that together under the circumstances. Got to see two of my fave local bands.”

The Vale Earth Fair has been run by volunteers since 1976, with profits raised from this year’s festival money to the charities ‘Free Tibet’, ‘The Burma Campaign’, and ‘Safer’.