Enchantment came to the Cotswolds in force and with great fun last weekend, when the Fantasy Forest festival set up stall at Sudeley Castle.

It was a stunning, leafy location for a celebration of the weird and wonderful imagination, as fairies and hob-goblins rubbed shoulders with a Dalek and a Stars Wars storm-trooper, not to mention the odd knight in armour or two, and even Viking marauders.

There was a strong steam-punk theme too, including working full-sized steam-punk vehicles, courtesy of Mechanical Menagerie, and plenty of live music, including a pirate band, which never seemed to lose energy all day long and showed their piratical credentials with regular yells of “Arr!”

Big names from the fantasy industry included Brian and Wendy Froud. Wendy designed the puppet ‘Jedi master’ Yoda for The Empire Strikes Back and Brian gave a well-attended talk which touched upon his work for the forthcoming The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance series, which will start on Netflix in August.

Other famous figures from the fantasy world gave talks, including illustrators Linda Ravenscroft and Anne Stokes; and Terry English, one of the world’s leading armourers, gave a talk about his extensive work in the movie industry.

It was the Festival’s first time at Sudeley, and uncertain weather meant that crowds were not quite as large as they might have been; but hopefully a new annual tradition has been established.