The Green Man Festival has opened for its 16th year with 16,000 music fans plus artists and stallholders camped by the banks of the River Usk at the Glanusk Estate near Crickhowell.

The festival of indie, pop, dance and folk music – plus lots of extras including cinema, comedy, author talks, children’s workshops and a plethora of real ales – has been hosted at the estate ever since 2006 (previously it was led at Baskerville Hall near Hay on Wye).

Visitors to the festival come from all over the UK and further afield, some 3,000 arriving during the week ahead of the festival with ‘Settlers’ camping tickets which enable them to see more of the local area.

The music kicked off on Thursday evening with Public Service Broadcasting headlining. Headline acts drawing the crowds on Friday, Saturday and Sunday are King Gizard and the Lizard Wizard, Fleet Foxes and the War on Drugs. Radio Six Music’s Tom Ravenscroft is broadcasting from the festival - you can listen to his Green Man special on BBC iPlayer Radio.

Green Man is one of the smaller UK festivals and tickets, at £189, are slightly above the £175 average for 20 of the UK’s top festivals. Ticket prices have risen 58 per cent since 2010 – but this is a marginal increase compared to other British festivals some of which have increased by 300 per cent from 2010-2018.

Aside from the headline acts festival-goers are treated to an eclectic mix of music on stages including the Far Out stage, the ’walled garden’ and the Chai Wallah’s dance tent. The bands range from singer-songwriter folk acts to reggae to rock, electronica and everything in between.

Over the years the festival has gained a reputation for bringing some huge names in the music business to a few muddy fields in the Usk Valley. In the past the crowds have seen performances from PJ Harvey, Van Morrison, Jarvis Cocker, Mumford and Sons, Patti Smith, Billy Bragg and the Super Furry Animals.