FORMER TV talent show contestant Antony Hansen, front, has set himself an even bigger challenge.

Along with friends Amie Evans and Charlie Worthy, back, he is starting a new summer festival, which will compete with the long-established Truck Festival.

Their Shire Fest event at Grove Farms, Harwell, will compete with Truck, held just down the road at Hill Farm, Steventon, on the weekend of July 21-22. Mr Hansen, who appeared on BBC’s Any Dream Will Do in 2007 to find the next star of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, said: “Even though it’s the same weekend as Truck I think we will do okay – we have already sold about 1,000 early-bird tickets.”

* See Monday’s Oxford Mail for the full story.