MULTI-million-selling band Scouting for Girls are to headline the first Rugfest Wallingford music festival for three years. The Brit Award-nominated bestsellers will be joined at Wallingford Rugby Club by gritty London girl duo Rews, Anglo-French singer Michael Baker and Bristol bhangra collective RSVP. There will also be the usual huge selection of ales, lagers and cider, a cocktail bar by Wallingford's Old Post Office and a new, bigger children's play area. Main organiser Guy Hewitt, who founded the festival in 2008, said he spent months chasing his biggest-ever headliner to make this year's event the biggest – and most expensive – yet. He said: "It took a lot of persistence and a targeted approach but eventually they said yes. "They're so much fun, and we're hoping they're going to sell us out. "Off the back of that, we deliberately said we were going to invest more this year to put Rugfest back on the map: we're coming back with a bang." After becoming a firm favourite in the town calender for eight years, the rugby club had to cancel the 2016 event as it was in the middle of a massive refurbishment to its club house and changing rooms. Last year, having just completed a £70,000 drainage scheme on one of the pitches, the club decided that having 2,000 people stomping or driving across it would not work. Mr Hewitt admitted: "It has taken a big breath to come back, and us all saying 'let's make it happen'. "It is a little scary, but as a club we just all enjoy doing it – it's so much fun." He also said Rugfest regulars had been 'absolutely persistent' that the festival must return. This year's event, on Friday and Saturday June 22 and 23, will also feature the usual host of local bands, including Wantage ska six-piece Quadrophobe, who have played every festival. Bands and fans will enjoy a new, upgraded sound system – brought in partly to cater for the heavyweight headliners – and the children's area will include stilt walkers, circus skills and 'trash drumming'. As well as raising funds for the rugby club, the organisers have named this year's charity as the Footsteps Foundation in nearby Dorchester on Thames, which provides grants for disabled children to use the village's Footsteps physiotherapy centre. Mr Hewitt added: "We're hoping to get up to 3,000 people but with such a good headliner I've no idea what this year's going to be like. "All I know is it's going to be a stonker." Early-bird weekend tickets are on sale now for £30 at rugfest.org