EARLY bird tickets for next year's Port Eliot Festival went on sale this morning. Last year early bird tickets sold out in 24 hours for the 2017 festival, which, in turn, sold out, so it is worth jumping now to book tickets at the lowest price.

Running from July 26-29, 2018, the festival takes residence on the park and woodlands of the ancient Port Eliot estate at St Germans on the Rame Peninsula in south east Cornwall. It also finds its way into the historic house (the oldest continually inhabited dwelling in the country) and into the oldest church in Cornwall.

Port Eliot wanders from words and music to fashion and food and on to science, wellbeing, art, film, comedy and many places in between and far beyond. The 2018 line-up will be revealed in the new year.

To give an idea of the festival, this year’s event featured, variously, movie star Stanley Tucci reading a children’s story; a dozen-or-so species of yoga; stand-out poetry in all sorts of places from Hollie McNish; a chance to settle down in Dame Zandra Rhodes’s apartment, transplanted to Port Eliot’s Orangery; a rooftop recital in tribute to Heathcote Williams; Presidential revelations by Emily Maitlis; an examination of the workings of the mind of Underworld’s Karl Hyde; a mixed-reality bedroom encounter with Agatha Christie; an impromptu live performance of Bowie’s ‘Where Are We Now’ by Michael C. Hall; and standout sets by Nick Lowe, Saint Etienne, This is the Kit, The Orielles, Karen Elson and The Lilac Time.

All manner of stages come together to fill Port Eliot with ideas, shocks, surprises, treats, unexpected experiences and a chance to relax in a big way. One moment you can be on the Bowling Green joining a discussion on countercultural publishing, polar exploration or the least magnificent Bowie LP, and the next throwing shapes to Indian Man in a hedge bound club, having whittled your own spoon and collected a delicious plate of jerk fries on the way.

There are no off-limits ‘luxury’ areas and no in-your-face sponsors – the ancient estate becomes yours for the weekend. The festival takes its lead from the much-loved legendary Elephant Fayre festival, which took place on the same site 30 years before.

Stages, tents, saloons and wooded glades are curated by the likes of The Idler Academy, Caught by the River, Hole & Corner and Lark’s Haven. The poetry stage, curated by Luke Wright and Rosy Carrick, cements Port Eliot’s place among the most significant homes for poetry of all UK festivals; the Ace of Clubs explodes with blues, soul, rock & roll, and, on occasion, opera; and the Park hosts the festival’s comedy and biggest bands.

Port Eliot takes its food seriously. From the outset, 15 years ago, the festival made beautiful food a big part of the line-up, not just a side dish; now, the Flower and Fodder patch - including the House’s Georgian Big Kitchen and popular Open Fire area - creates flavours, sets trends, shares techniques and reveals the workings of some of the country’s great kitchens all weekend.

Historic rooms, kitchens and nooks in the house become restaurants, tea rooms, galleries and screening rooms; workshops take place from early morning ‘til early morning, offering late night astronomy walks and talks, foraging for medicine, wild swimming, botanical illustration, headdress making, home herbal first aid, archery, beekeeping and many more diversions.

The festival is crafted with families in mind; inventive entertainment fills the Hullabaloo and Pulse stages, outdoor activities happen all over the place, all weekend, and a woodland creche is ready for when parents need to leg it to the bar.

The Wardrobe Department and new Art School stages have made Port Eliot the festival for fashion; many trends can be traced back to a first outing there. The fashion line-up will be a combination of acknowledged global greats – the likes of Dame Zandra Rhodes, Barbara Hulanicki, Stephen Jones – and designers who have entered the Wardrobe Department before going on to bring their own visions to the wider world of fashion – Mary Katrantzou, Meadham Kirchhoff and Louise Gray, to name three.

Catherine St Germans, co-founder of Port Eliot Festival, said, “We are excited to be plotting the 2018 festival and putting tickets on sale, especially after our early sell-out in 2017. There will be announcement-after-announcement in 2018, so if you decide to join in now, you’ll be able to sit back and watch the line-up emerge, safe in the knowledge that you’ll be a big part of it.”

Tickets and more information go to porteliotfestival.com