A POPULAR home-grown festival returns to Malmesbury this weekend after its spectacularly successful launch last year.

Since its inaugural staging, Boondocks Festival has picked up nominations in the best new festival, best small festival, best family festival and even best toilets categories at the prestigious UK Festival Awards.

The crowd-funded festival raised £30,000 into just nine days this year to give the festival the green-light and organisers have stepped up their game to make this year’s event one to remember.

One of the festival organisers Pete O’Brien, said there was “buzz around the town” in anticipation for the festival starting on Friday.

“People thought they were turning up at a village fete last year but it turned out to be a well-orchestrated professional event.”

This year’s line-up will feature a host of musical talent both locally and far-afield including Molotov Jukebox, fronted by Harry Potter and Game of Thrones star Natalia Tena, who will be bringing their blend of genres including Balkan fiddle and Latin trumpet.

Martin Luke Brown, who has toured with the likes of Jess Glynne and Jack Garratt and is currently tipped as the one-to-watch in the UK music scene, is also on the bill.

The festival has taken steps this year to not only engage, but support youngsters in north Wiltshire.

Festival organisers have set up a scheme where local schools sold tickets and took a small cut of the price.

Aside from helping schools raise money, the festival has looked at ways to improve the experience for children at the festival itself.

Organisers have introduced a number of new activities and areas at the festival site tailored to make sure families can keep their little ones entertained.

Neil Muttock, one of the Boondocks organisers, said the process has been easier second time round.

“We’ve had more confidence in some areas,” he said. “But we’ve done a lot of new stuff as well, so there are still some challenges.

“We’re motivated to keep driving it and making it as good as we can.

“We’re proud to say we genuinely have something for all age groups at Boondocks 2016: from new-borns, to primary and secondary school pupils.”

This year’s Boondocks will also feature a stall from the popular Sikh blogger Navjot Sawhney.

The 25-year-old from Malmesbury will be educating festival-goers about his religion over the weekend.

Navjot, who runs the blog Nav’s Project 365, contacted Neil to see if he could contribute to this weekend’s festivities.

“I reached out to Neil as I thought I might be able to do something fun,” said Navjot.

“Neil agreed, and offered me space to do some activities. I’ll be running turban tying tutorials – as well as a few other bits and pieces.”

Navjot’s stall will include turban tying, Sikh-themed colouring-in, screenings of Nav’s Project 365 videos, and some information about the work of Engineering Without Borders, who Navjot will be volunteering with at a social enterprise in India come September.

In his blog, which is now followed by more than 15,000 people, Navjot regularly speaks about his religion and is hoping to communicate his passion for Sikhism to festival-goers.

“I love meeting new people and hearing their stories,” he said.

“I also think it’s important to, where I can, to talk about Sikhism and why I wear the turban – this is a great opportunity to do that.

“I hope that people will ask me lots of questions, and leave my tent feeling like they know a bit more about Sikhism.

“I hope I’ll be able to improve awareness of Sikhs, who we are and what we stand for.

“But I’ll also be talking about Nav’s Project 365 and how to make every day count. If I inspire anyone to do a bit more of what makes them happy, then I’ll be very pleased.”

At a time when racially-aggravated attacks have spiked in the fallout to Britain voting to leave the EU, Navjot says it is now more important than ever to engage with people about the subject of religion and race.

“Sadly, there appears to have been a rise in racist incidents since the Brexit vote,” he said.

“I have at least 10 friends who have been told to ‘go home’, or something similar.

“So I feel like it’s more important than ever to take away the stigma associated with the turban and beard, and join together as a community to celebrate our similarities – and our differences.”

To follow Nav’s blog search ‘Nav’s Project 365’ on Facebook.

For more information on Boondocks visit theboondocksfestival.co.uk