The historic building may have been built to withstand an invasion, but that’s just what Arundel Castle faced on Friday when thousands of people breached its defences for a night to remember.

They had all flocked to enjoy this year’s Arundel Festival open-air extravaganza, a gig which was blessed with a fine summer’s evening.

The Lightning Seeds reminded the masses just how large and memorable their back catalogue is, while Idlewild, brought in to replace original support act The View, put on a superb performance. But it was headline act Supergrass who rightly stole the show.

The otherwise slick event was only hampered by frustratingly-inadequate drinks catering which meant the single bar struggled to serve the thirsty throng without lengthy queues of up to half an hour.

Once served, people quickly took their stockpile of drinks down to the stage where the somewhat quiet sound system pumped out a summer soundtrack into the warm air.

Particular crowd-pleasers included The Lightning Seeds’ Life Of Riley and their version of The Ronettes’ hit Be My Baby.

Supergrass’s Caught By The Fuzz and Moving had the crowd baying for more but there was one song noticeably absent from the headline set – the catchy sing- a-long classic Alright.

With the castle looming over the stage and the rest of the site surrounded by towering trees, this gig had serious scale but with an intimate atmosphere.