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...thought I'd add the wordplay for that one kirky, since you'd mentioned it.

...so I could have done without the typo!
SAL not 'seal' of course.

Thank you!

I wasn't able to start this until this morning so am very late with it. I have most of the South-West corner done. I would appreciate not answers but a hint to the three phrases (word count and length in each would get me going). Also I think 25 down is an anagram of T and rain with U being removed from the clue but I cannot find anything to make that work I am looking forward to the joys of yesterday's offering from Oxymoron later.

Hi alwayspuzzled,
Phrase 1: 4 words (4,4,3,7)
2: 2 (6,3)
3 : 1 (4-9)
25d. is thematic and related to phrase 2.

Thank you for that Ginge. I will see where that leads me.

I have got far further with this than I dared hope thanks to Ginge's very helpful hint but have now ground to a halt. I still need 7 across (Saddo wore Levis on vacation trip [5] - loser?), 20 across (Stiffen before age somehow put in danger [4] - geal?), 4 down (Anxiety for some cowmen after rearing herds [6]) and 28 down (Change line without meaning to, upsetting internet provider [5] - telco?) I assume that there are blank spaces in the entries at 33 across, 24 down and 25 down in keeping with the second phrase. I still have to identify the ones which go with the first and third phrases and how those work but will look at it again once I have done some work.

Alwayspuzzled - Your answers are right, I think.

7a anag of (w)ore L(evi)s
20a Ifor seems to have adopted a very feeble approach to the first phrase, simply juxtaposing a fairy with the defiined word which is the entry, or inserting the fairy in the defined word. This gives a non-word as the clue answer. Here the fairy is peri.
4d The definition for the entered word is given by the first three words, then the wordplay gives a 3-letter word hidden, reversed, in the next two words. The third phrase gives the rest of the entry.
28d This must be another use of the first phrase. I don’t know what the fairy is but the definition gives you telco, which is all you really need!
You must be right about the blanks, since the preamble says there are vacant cells in the final grid.
Nearly finished now!

alwayspuzzled/rad - TELCO is a normal answer (it's in Chambers) and there are no blank cells in the finished grid.

Ifor is using the 'VACANT cells' idea to mislead us - hence the capitals, which hints that we shouldn't take it too literally. It's real function is to stop us removing FAIRIES from the perimeter (which, otherwise, would be consistent with the theme... I think...).

28dn - C(hang)E L(ine) minus 'meaning' = 'hang' + TO ['upsetting' is the anagram indicator] gives TELCO