Mainstays of the Bracknell festival included the perennial compere and soprano saxophonist Lol Coxhill; free improvisers such as drummer John Stevens, trombonist Paul Rutherford, drummer Tony Oxley and saxophonist Evan Parker; many musicians in and around the Mike Westbrook orchestra, such as John Surman; South Africans such as Dudu Pukwana and Johnny Dyani; drummer Roger Turner, sax player Elton Dean, and other members of the so-called Canterbury scene; pianist Django Bates and other bastions of the British modern jazz scene. The festival was always opened by local talent, the Berkshire Youth Jazz Orchestra.