As the light gradually faded over the spectacular clearing at Sherwood Pines, Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker began working up the crowd with his trademark banter: "You do know Robin Hood came from Sheffield, don't you?"

To a mixture of laughter and jovial booing, the highlight of the weekend's fun in the forest got under way.

After events in Niigata it was going to take something pretty spectacular to ruin the weekend for some 4,000 people who attended each of the concerts on Saturday and Sunday.

And while last night it was Jools Holland and his band who entertained in the woods close to Edwinstowe, Pulp were the second line-up to put on a cracking show on Saturday.

The Forestry Commission promoted the events and set the tone by inviting fans to bring their own chairs along. And although they specifically outlawed gazebos, rarely can a gig have felt so relaxed and tranquil as this among the towering silhouettes of the pines. Pulp's latest album We Love Life was an attempt to get back to nature - so a tour of forests was the logical step.

Jarvis, ambling on stage in a cagoule and with an acoustic guitar, started appropriately with The Trees.

He soon lost the jacket to reveal a green shirt and brown cords - in tribute to someone even more legendary than him who has been known to put in an appearance at the famous forest.

"I'm trying to get a bit of Robin Hood thing going on," he said.

Musically, you knew you were getting something a bit more substantial than the pop-pickers watching Gareth Gates et al down at Donington Park. In Jarvis you have a real idol.

Second song of the evening was the festival favourite Sorted For E's And Wizz, and it was followed by energetic versions of Joyriders and Babies. From This Is Hardcore there was the harrowing Help The Aged, reverberating around the wooded enclosure.

And to everyone's delight the song that made them big, Common People, popped up in the second encore - albeit second time around after the first attempt was aborted when somebody, somewhere, pressed a wrong button.

The thousands stumbling over protruding tree roots (and the more well behaved who stuck to the path) in a bid to find their cars and taxis, seemed delighted with their night. The music was tops, England won the football and the rain stayed away. It all felt very, well, natural.