Blur’s Alex James Hosting Harvest Festival

Blur bassist Alex James is inviting fans to his farm in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, for a festival celebrating music and food.

“Alex James Presents Harvest,” which is a sister event to “Harvest at Jimmy’s,” takes place Sept. 9-12 at James’ farm in Kingham, a village in the Cotswolds. Kingham is located about 4 miles southwest of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.

“My family are looking forward to a celebration of all our favourite things – food, the farm and music. What more could we ask for!” James wrote in a statement on the Harvest festival website.

Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall will be there along with a number of notable chefs including Richard Corrigan, Mark Hix, Rachel Allen, Yotam Ottolenghi and Jay Rayner.

More guests will be announced in March.

The festival will include cookery master classes, exclusive pop up restaurants, gardening workshops, farmers market and a children’s field.

Tickets are on sale now. Adult weekend passes including camping are priced at £105 ($169.54). Single-day tickets are available for £45 ($72.65) each. Discount children’s tickets are also available.

Photo: AP Photo

Damon Albarn, lead singer of British band Blur, left, performs with guitarist Alex James at Glastonbury Festival.

After the release of Blur’s seventh studio album, 2003’s Think Tank, and a few November 2003 gigs, Blur went on hiatus. Around that time James got married and traded in his bachelor’s pad for the 200-acre farm in Kingham. According to the Guardian, a few years after that James teamed up with a local cheese maker and started making his own award-winning cheeses. A Shropshire Blue cheese, called Blue Monday, is named after his favorite New Order song.

Blur last performed in June and July 2009 with a number of United Kingdom headline dates and European festival appearances including sets at United Kingdom’s T in the Park and Glastonbury, Ireland’s Oxegen, and France’s Nuits de Fourviere.

Rumor has it Blur might be recording new material.

Earlier today Blur guitarist Graham Coxon tweeted that he was hanging out with his old bandmates.

“Now off to see the Blur boys and have coffee and maybe switch a tape recorder on!” he wrote.

He added, “We are having a meet up … Might get a guitar out.”

For more information, click here for the Harvest festival website.

Click here for Graham Coxon’s Twitter page.

Click here for the Guardian story.