The highly-popular Nearly Festival made a welcome return to Colchester this weekend after a Covid-enforced two-year absence.

The event, which took place at Old Heath Recreation Ground over Saturday and Sunday, featured an array of tribute acts which reeled off classics from decades gone by.

There were performances of hits from Madness, the Beatles, the Stone Roses, and Blur, which were well received by festival-goers.

But there were numerous tribute acts from more current artists for the crowds to enjoy, such as Beyoncé, Kasabian, Take That, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, and Rita Ora.

As well as music, the Nearly Festival offered catering and amusement park rides which catered for the younger generation at the event.

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Danny Banthorpe, one of the organisers of the event, was pleased to see the return of the Nearly Festival since 2019.

He said: “It was fantastic to see people laughing and smiling again and we gave everyone enough space to socially distance if they wanted to.

“It’s a tongue-in-cheek fun day out and you get to hear music you very rarely hear live – some of the actual bands you might never see again.

“There were a few new bands who we haven’t had before so we were really happy with them, and The Beatles tribute act went down well too.

There were around 2500 attendants over the weekend, slightly down on the numbers recorded in 2019.

“Generally, we weren’t’ as busy as we were last time round – there’s a 20 to 30% no-show rate at the moment across the sector.”

The weather looked to have held up for most of the weekend, before heavy rain showers on Sunday afternoon resulted in a soggy end to a great weekend of live music.

The weather looked to have held up for most of the weekend, before heavy rain showers on Sunday afternoon resulted in a soggy end to a great weekend of live music.