Forgotten Fields, Eridge Park, near Tunbridge Wells, Friday, August 7, to Sunday, August 9

There are some bands that seem made for the special, communal atmosphere of a music festival, and The Levellers are certainly one of them. The 27 year-old Brighton group, who will play at new festivals Forgotten Fields and Together the People, held in Brighton’s own Preston Park in September, are renowned for their emphasis on people power and unity.

At Glastonbury in 1994, The Levellers attracted one of the biggest crowds that Worthy Farm had ever seen. They may not quite command that level of clamour nowadays, but singer Mark Chadwick is still passionate about festivals.

“Festivals are where people come together in the sunshine and have a good time. That’s why we do them, because we love them. These upcoming Brighton gigs will be really good.” Together the People in particular will have “special resonance” with The Levellers as they return to the site where they organised a free festival back in the early 90s (Chadwick has forgotten its name but says “loads of people came”).

One of the main goals of the band’s summer festival run is to attract new demographics, with Chadwick strikingly suggesting that The Levellers “would cease to play if we weren’t making new fans all the time. We’d be bored. We’d hate it.”

The general perception is that Chadwick and company found success in the 1990s – 1995 album Zeitgeist reached number one in the UK charts – without much help from the music press or wider media. Instead, as Chadwick ponders today, the band thrived via “word of mouth. There’s never been any great exposure on us. And you know what, that’s great. You can’t buy publicity; well you can, but it costs millions!”

I ask if, even now, The Levellers receive support from their hometown music scene, through Brighton’s record shops, labels and independent magazines. The response is flat. “Not so much, no. The only people that promote our music is ourselves.”

At any rate, The Levellers’ huge public popularity during the 90s ruffled a few feathers in the punk scene, where the band’s roots lie. Scoring a number one album and achieving commercial success doesn’t exactly chime with the unwritten punk manifesto, but, as Chadwick points out, all The Levellers’ wanted to do was reach people with their music – as many people as possible.

“It’s a paradox in punk, certainly,” he says. “If you become successful you’re not considered ‘punk’ anymore. We weren’t out there killing people and selling arms – we were trying to enlighten people within a market economy. You can’t avoid the market economy. We were accused of ‘selling out’ when we released our first cassette. A homemade cassette! That stuff doesn’t bother us.”

As a liberal, staunchly left-wing musician, writing material through the Thatcher years, the Iraq War, and other (perceivably distressing) eras in recent British history, Chadwick says that his social and political edge will never wane.

“We’re still here, we’ve managed to maintain ourselves through the years and put our message across, to remind people that they don’t have to comply with the status quo. We’re all very realistic in the band, though, not idealistic. You wouldn’t survive for 27 years by being idealistic. The same with ego; if the band was about ego we would have split up about 22 years ago!”

Despite Chadwick’s generally optimistic life viewpoint, I wonder if he ever feels a sense of futility over happenings that neither he, nor his music, can ultimately do anything about. The Iraq War, for instance. Doesn’t he get down about this kind of thing?

“A vast amount of people marched against the war, including myself, and of course it gets me down when nothing is done about it,” he replies earnestly. “It was a minority that made the decision in that case. But that’s how we live, and we have to accept that. Accept it, but then fight it, protest, do whatever you can. Or just sit down and say ‘whatever.’ Those are your options.”

Of today’s political scene, Chadwick simply states that “it’s a bit depressing. When we started out in 1988 we didn’t think this would be the scenario now, but here we are.”

Don’t expect The Levellers to change their approach anytime soon, though. The band have been busy writing fresh material recently, and Chadwick signs off in defiant mode. “We care deeply about political and social matters and we’ll keep waging.”

*Also on the bill at Forgotten Fields this weekend are Super Furry Animals, Basement Jaxx, Razorlight, De La Soul and The Horrors.

*The Levellers also play Together the People in Preston Park, Brighton from Saturday, September 5 to Sunday, September 6.

Forgotten Fields tickets from £99. Visit forgottenfields.co.uk