A FAMILY-ORIENTATED festival has celebrated a successful summer solstice weekend – marred only by a thief who rooted through the tent of a pregnant woman as she slept.

The Willowman Festival, held at Knayton, near Thirsk, enjoyed near capacity-crowds at the weekend. The four-day festival featured acts including Echo and the Bunnymen, Hazel O’Connor and Dreadzone.

Bands local to the region also proved a big draw, including Bessie and the Zinc Buckets and the Charlotte Yanni Band from South Shields and Big Red and the Grinners from the Durham area.

Thousands attended from all over the region to see the live music and colourful side events.

The festival, now in its sixth year, was kicked off by DJ and former Old Grey Whistle Test presenter Andy Kershaw on Thursday, June 18.

There were also acoustic performances in large Bedouin-style Berber tent where the grand final of the Amp Awards were also held, which showcases music talent from schools across Yorkshire.

The festival features several sites for people bringing their own caravans and tents, including one for late-night revellers and a family site.

But one thief brought misery to campers.

Pregnant Lauren Preston said she was sleeping in the family camping area when she woke at 3am to discover the tent door open. They had also unzipped the sleeping compartment door and rooted through her belongings, before stealing her husband’s mobile phone and wallet.

“We called security and it became clear a few other tents had been targeted, in fact two handbags that had been searched through were laid on the ground near our tent," she said.

“No one can say we had too much to drink and were careless with locking the tent or hiding our items as I am pregnant and therefore not drinking and my husband hadn’t had that much to drink either. We also pitched our tent in the area specifically for families.”

She said she got up to report it to the security team who said they would pass on the details to the day shift security team to report. When the couple returned later that day, they said it hadn’t been reported to police, so reported it themselves.

Steve Williams, who organises the festival said it was a fairly isolated incident and that they found out who it was and ejected them from the festival grounds.

He said the four-day festival had otherwise been a great success with good weather and large crowds.