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Grace Jones and Gregory Porter to play Kite 2020

Getty Images/BBC Grace Jones and Gregory PorterGetty Images/BBC
Grace Jones and Gregory Porter are among the musical stars at the new festival

Grace Jones, Gregory Porter, Sir Philip Pullman, and Richard Curtis are among the artists and speakers appearing at a new festival in Oxfordshire.

Kite 2020 at stately home Kirtlington Park was granted a licence in January and describes itself as a festival of "ideas and music".

Live music and debates will take place between 12 and 14 June at the site, which holds 5,000 people each day.

Other performers include Mavis Staples and This is the Kit.

Those taking part in discussions over the three days include former foreign secretary David Miliband, columnist Marina Hyde, writer Jon Ronson, former home secretary Amber Rudd, director Paul Greengrass, and former political aide Alistair Campbell.

Matt Darwin Kirtlington ParkMatt Darwin
Kirtlington Park's gardens were laid out by Capability Brown in the 1750s

Festival director Ciro Romano said he had attended previous ideas festivals, but "would get an itch to listen to some music and basically have a good time after having been intellectually nourished".

He said the aim of Kite 2020 was to "meld an ideas festival with a music festival so that you get all the interest of great speakers, scientists, thinkers, writers, politicians, journalists, but then have a good time at the end of it".

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When organisers U-Live applied to Cherwell District Council to put on the event Kirtlington Parish Council raised concerns over public safety, "potential public nuisance" and additional traffic.

However, the police, fire service, and environmental authorities raised no objections.

Kirtlington Park is Grade II listed and its gardens were laid out by Capability Brown in the 1750s, following work the decade before by the then Royal Gardener, Thomas Greening.

Funds to put on the festival were raised on Kickstarter.

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