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I know very little about the area in question so I am struggling - I'm sure 25a must be a town name (though I've no idea what the clue means) - can anyone confirm?

Hi Neville, yes, a very well known one, and the event is annual.
Charging is the instruction to put ‘freethinking power’ inside a word for a type of ‘partner’.

The clue for 28 seems incomplete - there's no indication that the answer needs to be combined...

Thank you Jono

I've struggled through to get 8d, and now I'm definitely giving up! Who knew? No way it could be constructed from the clue, as "plague" is very loose.

Well I certainly learnt some things here. Had no idea 8d was from there and didn't know 11a was even a thing. Thankfully I have spent enough time in 5d in the dim and distant past thanks to a long ago failed relationship to not have to Google too much.

FOI took a good while but was 5d itself. LOI to my shame was 27,6 which I have been to but was hung up on cricket for some reason. COD was 17a. Thanks Paul for something a bit different this morning.

I live in the theme, and it didn't help much. Were it not for my overwhelming stubbornness, I'd have done the sensible thing and given up. Not a lot of enjoyment in this one, and I find 28 wanting - OK, it refers to my 2nd least favourite place in the UK*, so I may be inherently ill-disposed towards it, but even so...
*If that's a spoiler - stop reading my diary!

Wow, after what must be decades of doing themed puzzles, this one really struck home. 21a is.

Against my better judgement, I came back to it, and now just have two questions:

the parsing of 11, assuming my answer is right (I can see the pony)

the answer to 19a. I have ?I?D,?P. I can find only two things that fit, and neither makes sense with either part of the clue to me.

Oh, and the parsing of 6a.

I had never heard of 27,6, but it's a clever clue - almost redeems the rest of this tedious slog!