The UK’s only black tie music festival, Henley Festival, returns for its 42nd year, this week. LUX has a look
Mud, sweat and beers. That?s what one associates with music festivals. Well one hopes that there?ll be sun, a friend or two and some good music to make your voice worth losing back at the work the next day. (?Been off ill, have you"?, one hears the boss ask. ?Yes, yes? one surreptitiously croaks. ?Not at Glastonbury"? ?No, no; just a cold??) Not, however, at Henley Festival…
Henley Festival features not only music, but art, comedy and what it calls the ‘Roving Troupe’, groups of roaming entertainers of various sorts.
The town, renowned across Britain for the home of the Royal Regatta, has been pulsing to the UK?s only black tie music and arts festival. The dress code reads somberly that if you are spotted in casual attire, you?ll be ?refused entry to the event.? One pictures security guards in morning suits rather than fluorescent jackets.  Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, England, is home to the Henley Royal Regatta, ?rst held in 1839 as a local festival but now an internationally renowned competition.
Henley, in line with its dress code, ensures that both art and gastronomy are focuses of equal measure to the music, which itself proves to be strong and eclectic.
In the past, Henley Festival has featured Jess Glenn alongside the Heritage Orchestra, Melanie C alongside Goldie, and the Pet Shop Boys as well as Chaka Khan. This year...