MUSICIANS at Cropredy’s summer festival are set pay tributes to compere and actor Geoff Hughes, who has died aged 68.

The Coronation Street and Keeping Up Appearances star compered Fairport’s Cropredy Convention in recent years.

A festival spokesman said there would be warm tributes to the Liverpool-born actor at the August 9-11 festival.

Fairport Convention fiddler Ric Sanders said: “Geoff loved Fairport, and we loved him. As any of you who met him at Cropredy will know, Geoff was warm and welcoming to everyone – a kind and generous man with a big heart. He was also a great talent and has left a body of work which will endure and give pleasure to many in years to come. “The phrase ‘larger than life’ could have been invented to describe Geoff, and our lives will never be quite the same.”

Mr Hughes – who played Eddie Yeats in the soap in the 1970s and 1980s – died on Friday after a battle with prostate cancer.

He had long been a fan of the folk festival but was not due to take the mic this year because of his illness.

Fellow festival compere Bobby Bragg, from Bloxham, said: “Geoff loved Fairport and Cropredy was his favourite weekend of the year. He would turn up at our house on the Wednesday in his Winnebago, next stop would be Sainsbury’s to stock up on booze, bread and beans, and head off with that beaming smile to his Fairport family.

“When I last saw him about a month ago, he had accepted the inevitable with great courage and spirit, he squeezed my hand and said ‘that’s showbiz Braggy, let’s get on with it’.”

He added: “I could never fill Geoff’s shoes as compere on the Cropredy Stage, but I will just get on with it, and try my best.” Mr Hughes lived on the Isle of Wight with wife Sue.