Standon Calling: Suede/Jess Glynne/Anna Calvi

For anyone who suffers from FIFOMO (festival-induced-fear-of-missing-out), Standon Calling is ideal. It’s like a pocket-sized version of Latitude, borrowing the Big Top and the mix of modern music with nostalgic pop acts, or Wilderness, borrowing the purple domed stage, the need for hot tubs and gastronimical treats. It has the feel of an epic house party, being set in the grounds of a 16th-century manor house 30 miles north of London.

An area called "The Lawn" is home to Hartbeeps who hold daily baby raves in front of a yurt for nappy changing, and around the corner from a swimming pool where DJs play a continual pool-party set of deep house, old skool anthems and hedonistic funk. It feels like hanging out in a friend’s back garden – if you happen to be friends with a Lord of the Manor.

This year’s theme was Legends of the Lost Seas, with cow barns transformed into sunken pirate ships, a tentacle-adorned Octopia tent, pirate fancy dress and beard adornments on offer and a bonkers bunch of bandits giving it a bit of "aaarr" in the Clock Tower – a place of sea shanties, horn bands, dog shows, costume competitions and rockaoke. The Admiral’s Nest, generally a place for quieter audiences and those after tea and cake, saw some spoken word, comedy and lectures, alongside a bar serving London Ale.

While the overall experience feels part luxe and part local, the focus is undoubtedly on the music – the main headliners of Suede (Friday), Jess Glynne (Saturday) and Kelis (Sunday) served the broad audience range of age and genre, while supporting acts of The Hives, Everything Everything and Anna Calvi (same order) showed a real flair for curation in combining new and emerging talents with festival favourites who’ve been on the scene for a while.

After a session toasting marshmallows on the bonfire in the kids area, Friday night served up a feast of cool for indie kids young and old, with The Hives busting out some energetic rock in their staple monochrome suits, entertaining the audience with their wit and charm as much as their music. Then Suede's sublime late-night set saw Brett Anderson (pictured below) cutting a striking figure in emblematic poses, feeling the music to his core - as did the fans - as they sang along to nostalgic Nineties tunes as well as newer tracks.

The proximity of stages means you don’t have far to trek from one area to another, allowing you to successfully plan ahead, and see everything you’re aiming for without suddenly realising you’re a 45-minute walk from where your favourite band is about to play. But the relaxed, mooching vibe of Standon Calling allows for moments of rest and a swing in the hammock of the Kiwi Camp (producing some rather fine Old Mout Cider) or climb in the trees, adorned with otherworldly craft decorations.

Saturday's activities veered from a baby rave, in which I tried to convince myself I didn't need to abandon my children to have a massage, to convincing my children they didn't really want to swing on the high trapeze (there's an eight-year age limit) and then to convince everyone to get up off the new inflatable wind-sock-sofa-thing, once they were comfy and Natty - a North London singer with an excellent soul-reggae-pop sound - had finished performing. So we hung around for Rag'n'bone Man, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the Main Stage. He makes jaws drop when he chats with the audience and suddenly you hear a ludicrously English accent, after the serious Louisiana-blues that drip like honey from the Brighton-born soul singer's mouth. It's perfect festival fodder as we breeze into Saturday evening, and a stop off at the Hippy Chippy.

This year the offering at Standon has expanded with Laundry Meadows, a tucked-away stage hiding behind billowing white sheets and offering up mostly indie and alt-pop. It’s a sterling conglomeration of new musical offerings; indeed some of my favourite festival moments were here, discovering bands such as Inheaven, who are surely a sound of the future. A strong frontman with rather beautiful hair is flanked by a sirenesque beauty on one side, a long-haired retro bass player on the other side and a drummer. They're re-inventing 1990s grunge, with a nostalgic twist and distinctive new flavour - and have garnered a top place on my new download list.

Experimental pop band Everything Everything paved the way for Saturday night's headliner Jess Glynne (pictured above) - the main draw for many of the revellers. And even those who claimed not to know her songs realised they knew almost every word, from airplay, adverts and all that's in between. Her set was the ultimate summer singalong, and she was an authentic and endearing artist, chatting between tracks and explaining the nuances of her songs. It's not hard to see why she has such a loyal following, with her strong, gravelly vocal, gymnastic range, penchant for a good beat and a soulful edge to her melodies. We bopped along to major faves "Don't Be So Hard on Yourself" and "Hold My Hand", and weren't ashamed to admit that we got a little soppy when she dedicated "My Love" to her parents, and all the parents in the arena (of which there are about a quazillion). When we sang along to "There's No Place I'd Rather Be", we really meant it. Trekking past the Big Top on our way to bed, Ghostpoet was drawing a crowd, keeping things real as local young folk prepared to get a little crazy for their Saturday night in a field.

Sunday's antics lent themselves to a gentle stroll down the hill from the family campsit with a taste of kids entertainment here, and a sip of good coffee there. Parking up for the Cuban Brothers at the Main Stage we enjoyed a high-energy afternoon disco of classic covers, ludicrous chit-chat and a few proper belly laughs, before stumbling upon the Hackney Colliery Band who were jazzing up the Clocktower with some relentlessly good brass. Sticking our heads into the Laundry Meadows we were tranfixed by Peluche, a three-piece retro-synth girl band. They have a quirky, effervescent sound of fun indie, great vocals and a hypnotic bounce. Another one to add to the download list. Too Many T's in the Big Top saw some fresh rapping from hip-hip duo Standaloft and Leo Rimes before festival favourite Anna Calvi brought her haunting, dulcet tones to the mainstage and Kelis laid off flipping burgers to bring her Milkshake to the crowds.

Earlier in the day we had trailed past the Meadows for a frankly bizarre, although strangely intriguing set from Meilyr Jones - part psychedelic Euro-stomp, part Welsh indie-pop-art. Baffling for some, enjoyable for others. Later, leaving Kelis to see Hertfordshire don Goldie spinning the last tracks for the late-night revellers, it's clear to see that what makes Standon Calling so successful is its daring line-up - brave in its choice of new music combined with such credible headliners.