They're a hardy lot 'down by the riverside', but jazz fans have weathered more than a little rain over the years and come up smiling.

So it was with Upton's 20th International Oliver Cromwell Jazz Festival, which got off to a soggy start on Friday and Saturday, but ended up in glorious sunshine on Sunday.

The event more than lived up to its billing with an eclectic mix of musical styles from New Orleans and Dixieland to Swing, Jive and Hot Club.

Headlining acts like Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball were predictable crowd-pleasers, as were festival favourites King Pleasure and The Biscuit Boys and the Dutch band Lamarotte, whose Dixieland-style and zany sense of humour are always well received.

The event also attracted a number of overseas bands including Denmark's New Orleans-style Bla Mandag Jazzband and the Hanna Richardson Trio, from the USA, whose musical influences ranged from Gershwin to Fats Domino and Irving Berlin.

But the festival was also a chance for up-and-coming talent, such as the Chase Big Band, Worcestershire Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Elgar School of Music Jazz Band, to rub shoulders with more experienced players.

With 54 bands and nine venues, including three large marquees on Fish Meadow, the event brought an influx of visitors from far and wide. Surrounding fields were turned into camping and caravan sites and the shops, pubs and hotels did a roaring trade.

Evidence that the town has come to embrace the event was visible in the crowd-packed streets that greeted Saturday's festival parade, with its exuberant secondliners and their colourful, twirling umbrellas.

An estimate 1,000 people turned out for the traditional jazz service at the parish church on Sunday.

As a showcase for the famous or a seedbed for undiscovered talent, the International Oliver Cromwell Jazz Festival has well and truly come of age . . . and a year before its 21st bithday.