The south-east corner of England used to be a bit of a dead zone when it came to live music. With one or two notable exceptions, if you wanted to see any big names playing, your best bet was to hop on a train to London.
That all changed with the arrival of the Hop Farm festival in 2008. Promoter Vince Power's event has grown from a one-day festival focusing on folk and independent music, to a full-blown three-dayer with an increasingly eclectic lineup.
Below are a few of our picks from this year's artists, along with links to our coverage, exclusive videos, playlists, and various other bits and pieces to read, watch and listen to – kicking off with our video highlights from last year's festival.
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• Are you attending Hop Farm festival? If so, let us know how it goes. Tweet @guardianmusic and tell us about the best and worst things you've seen. Or if you've got the Guardian's iPhone app, you can use the "Send us a story" function at the bottom of the homescreen to tell us more. We'll be rounding up your views next week when we review the festival.
• Are you taking a camera? If so, we'd love to see your photos. Our Festivals 2012 Flickr group is the place to upload your pictures from this summer's outdoor music events. We'll be featuring some of our favourite pictures from the group on guardian.co.uk.
Bob Dylan
Saturday, main stage
In April Jonah Lehrer wrote about the neuroscience of Bob Dylan's genius – an edited extract from his book Imagine: How Creativity Works. Taking a slightly different tack, John Harris recently wrote about Dylan's music as the sound of age and experience – but if you'd rather, you can take a look at these iconic images taken from the first five years of the star's career.
Patti Smith
Saturday, main stage
To mark Patti Smith's 65th birthday, the Observer recently spoke to several musicians who have been influenced by the "godmother of punk", including Johnny Marr, Juliette Lewis and Shirley Manson. Plus, here's a selection of quintessential Smith images.
Suede
Sunday, main stage
Suede frontman Brett Anderson visited the Guardian studios last year to play his single Brittle Heart, a track from his album Black Rainbows – you can watch it here, and read the interview in which he desribes his behaviour during the making of Suede's Head Music as "weak and selfish and thoroughly horrid".
Ray Davies
Friday, main stage
Ray was joined by the Leisure Society for this world exclusive performance of his track Sane last year. As director of 2011's Meltdown festival, the 60s icon was "in giddy form" during his own performance. Kitty Empire found him to be a genial host, while Meltdown itself was "sometimes mystifying."
Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Sunday, Big Tent
Watch Benjamin performing Atlas Hands from his album Last Smoke Before the Snowstorm at the Guardian's recent Spotify Live show the Lexington in north London. The same song as remixed by Mike Skinner also featured in Michael Cragg's New Music blog.
Frightened Rabbit
Sunday, Bread & Roses
Frightened Rabbit featured heavily in Graeme Thompson's recent report on Scotland's thriving music scene. You can also take a look at this interview with the band from 2010.
Field Music
Friday, Bread & Roses
Watch the Sunderland indie-rock band's visit to the Guardian studio to perform their single, (I Keep Thinking About) a New Thing, and check out their interview with the Observer's Tom Lamont.
Bellowhead
Saturday, main stage
We squashed the 11-piece folk band into one our studios for this exclusive performance of New York Girls from their 2010 album, Hedonism. In this interview from the same year they describe themselves as 'a party band with serious intellectual pretensions.'
Lianne La Havas
Friday, Big Tent
Watch Lianne La Havas perform an intimate gig in this video, part of a Tate series entitled This Is Britain.
• Not enough? Here's a special Hop Farm playlist from the festival organisers to get you in the mood.
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