Our Story

"It's the highlight of my summer. A chance to catch up with long missed friends, a chance to do good, and a chance to get down to some proper good tunes"

History

Festinho grew out of celebration. It began with a birthday party, and quickly evolved into 'Mini Chill' a fundraising music and arts festival hosted by the ABC Trust. A friend of the charity generously agreed to host a live music stage in the grounds of their Oxfordshire country home. 450 people rocked up and it went down in history as one of the most kick-ass garden parties ever.

The event has since grown up into Festinho, a more inclusive event for all ages, celebrating some of the finest artists from the UK and Brazil whilst raising funds for a very worthwhile cause.

Festinho is very much inspired by early Big Chill festivals, and picnics in the English countryside. It's all put together by a hard-working team of volunteers, many of whom are friends and have, in various configurations and incarnations, been putting on events, DJing, VJing, and festivalling together for years. Now we're all putting our experience to good use for a very good cause. Every single person on the team, and many of the artists, give their time for free so that as much money as possible goes straight to the ABC Trust.

Festinho is an evolving creature. Every year is different, and every year it gets better and better, thanks to a determined team, talented artists, and most of all a truly fantastic crowd. It's still very small compared to most festivals, and we know exactly what we want for Festinho in the future: to stay intimate, small and with a distinctly Brazilian flavour. This isn't about relentless growth to become a festival behemoth. Small really is beautiful.

It's about nurturing a unique experience to fall in love with - and most importantly, one that benefits the ABC Trust and enables it to continue its work.

Previous bands and DJs that have appeared at Festinho include:

Ugly Duckling, The Blockheads, British Sea Power, Crazy P, Max Cooper, Belleruche, The Bays, Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray, The Correspondents, The Leisure Society, Nancy Wallace, Giles Peterson, Cosmo, Jon Hopkins, The Kleptones, Mixmaster Morris, Hint, Flevans, Andy Votel, Cut La Roc, Hexstatic and Jon Kennedy.

"Total escape from the real world for me, and I loved every minute. Thanks for organising such a great event, and I'm glad to be in the gang!"