Newnham’s wonderful gardens and buildings proved to be the perfect fairy-tale setting for a June Event themed around ‘Once Upon a Time’.

After queuing for about an hour, during which time the committee had had the foresight to distract everyone with bags of popcorn and sweets, the queue gave way to the expansive gardens of Newnham. Greeted with champagne, ballet dancers and a string quartet, suddenly, the bags of popcorn felt very out of place. This strange mismatch of styles continued throughout – with gardens transformed into both a formal Rapunzel’s Tower and a psychedelic Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, with everything from Hansel and Gretel’s Enchanted Woods to the Arabian Nights featuring in between.

The different areas of the gardens were meticulously delivered – what Mad Hatter’s Tea Party would be complete without giant oversized chairs, croquet, miniature cupcakes and gin served in teacups? Food was plentiful, and ranged from the decidedly mundane pizza and burgers, to much more exciting candy floss, gingerbread mess, and toffee apples. It was, however, mostly all gone by 11p.m. The drinks, on the other hand, kept flowing almost all through the night, with themed cocktails including the pleasant Glass Slipper (gin, lime juice and lemonade), the tolerable Poison Apple (vodka, cranberry and apple juice, and lemonade), and the far from handsome Prince Charming (rum, pineapple juice, coconut juice and orange juice).

The musical choices were, on the whole, very good. Laurie Lewis and the Fat Cats, performing a set remarkably similar to that which they had delivered at the Union Society Garden Party on Saturday, warmed the audience up for the headline act Hunter and the Bear at 11p.m. The headliners were well-timed, riding the crest of the evening’s energy with their crowd-pleasing but ultimately inoffensive (and even bland) Mumford and Sons-esque folk rock. However, the silent disco that followed them saw the night out on an even bigger high and went down well with the crowd at the Main Stage, which was reminiscent of one of the smaller and more intimate Glastonbury stages.

The Acoustic Stage in the Arabian tent was a refreshing change, and in some ways delivered more musically than the acts on the Main Stage. Toby and Max Mackrill’s excellent acoustic performance set the bar high in the Arabian tent, which remained full all night – possibly due to the added attraction of warmth. Things got a little weird in the Arabian tent at the end of the night, with the questionable and bemusing Burlesque act featuring a rap battle between Emmeline Pankurst and Snow White (Pankurst won, if you were wondering).

That said, the music did not necessarily dominate the night. There were plenty of other things to do around the gardens, with the dodgems, Ferris wheel, caricatures, and the late night comedy show from the Cambridge troupe No Fixed Abode all drawing significant crowds, and queues. With a night packed with such a variety of things to do, there was absolutely no chance of leaving feeling slightly ripped off, as the entirely reasonable £70 ticket price had certainly been well spent.