Festival Roundup

So the lineups for the big festivals have been announced and all the tickets for the biggest ones (including our own Leeds Festival) have been snaffled. If you’re anything like me you were still trying to find your glasses to check whether you’d read the price right by the time the last ticket was sold.

But who needs them anyway? We’re spoilt for choice in Yorkshire when it comes to local festivals, run more for love than for profit, and for the most part doing a darn better job of capturing what a festival should really be than any of the corporate sponsored affairs could ever dream of. So don’t despair – you’ll have a better time at any one of these anyway...

The Deer Shed Festival
This shiny newcomer in North Yorkshire will be a family friendly occasion, with kids events and workshops taking pride of place in the programme as much as the regular stuff for adults (of which there will also be plenty). There’ll be arts and crafts with a real get-involved ethos, alongside main and acoustic stages with headliners confirmed as The Wedding Present. Very much a civilised affair, this festival will also boast its very own cocktail bar!

Cleckheaton Folk Festival
Something of a calendar stalwart after more than 20 years as a West Yorkshire fixture, Cleckheaton Folk Festival returns this year with 25+ confirmed acts so far playing over the weekend in various venues around the town. And if you like your festivals to carry that will-it-won’t-it risk of rain, never fear – there’s a campsite available in the town so you can get the best of both worlds. There’ll also be all the ceilidhs, singalongs and local talent you’d expect from a fine folk fest, with added extras like a festival parade and even a continental market to stock up for the campsite.

Willowman Festival
Something of an alternative Glasto, this, taking place a week before the UK’s biggest festival. Willowman sells itself as a hippyish affair, with plenty of dubby and acoustic music including the likes of Dreadzone, The Beat and The Blockheads. For an eminently reasonable £49 in advance, you’ll also be able to pamper yourself with a healing area and spiritualists on site.

Swaledale Festival
Offering an epic two weeks of individually ticketed and free events across a gorgeous swathe of the north Dales, Swaledale festival incorporates classical, choral, jazz, world and folk music, as well as offering art trails, exhibitions hosted in pubs, and much more. Situated in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, this festival is ideal for dipping into with its packed programme of events taking place in intimate venues.

Whitby Folk Week
Another jam-packed programme in Whitby for the town’s traditional Folk Week, incorporating over 600 events in 30+ venues over the course of the festival. No acts have yet been confirmed, but you can expect a full range from the biggest names to those spontaneous fringe events which so often prove the mettle of a town-based festival such as this. With camping available for festival-goers and all of the usual sights of Whitby to boot, this should prove a great late summer break for folk fans.

Burton Agnes Jazz & Blues Festival
For the fourth year running, gorgeous Elizabethan estate Burton Agnes will in 2010 host its Jazz Weekend, with a range of tickets available from full weekend with camping, to individual evening and daytime sessions. 26 acts are to be announced in total – but headlining the Saturday night will be the award-winning trombone star Dennis Rollins with his outstanding Velocity Trio. Picnics are actively encouraged in this idyllic setting, where a barbecue selling local meats will also be available.

Moor Music Festival 2010
With a maximum 2500 capacity, the Moor Music Festival has earned its excellent reputation over the years, offering a full six marquees of music this year, as well as art installations, silent disco, kid’s (and grown-up kid’s) play activities, and the Dub Luv VW field. No acts have as yet been announced but a lovely atmosphere is guaranteed at this independent, non-corporate event. This year the festival has been extended by a full day, meaning three days’ entertainment and four nights camping! Buy tickets here...

Cocoon In The Park
For one day and night, techno legend Sven Vath will have his wicked way with the awesome venue of Temple Newsam estate, bringing with him such luminaries as Ricardo Villalobos, Loco Dice and Adam Shelton (with more acts to be confirmed in the coming weeks). It’s not quite a festival, but it’s outdoors and will be boasting some fine music – so it just scraped into this here roundup!

With plenty more festivals going on around the region, keep checking back for more previews of up and coming happenings

Image by Gavin Freeborn

Moor Music Festival

Driving up the track to Heslaker Farm, we started to worry the sat nav was playing one of its drive-you-to-the-edge-of-a-cliff type tricks. With 200yds to the postcode given as our destination, there was not a single visual hint that there may be a large gathering of festival folk nearby. Even the sheep looked nonplussed.

And therein lies the (literal) beauty of Moor Festival. Tucked away amidst the hills of the North Yorkshire Dales, it’s that rarest breed of festival which manages to merge itself with its natural surroundings, leaving one with the impression of being in the countryside, with fresh air and farmyards, and not just in a temporary canvas town in the middle of nowhere.

Of course, the small size helps – 2500 revellers spread over a generous space so noone’s on top of each other, guy-ropes are mercifully easy to avoid, and everyone gets to see all the music they want to.

It’s not a star-studded line-up, granted, with more focus on local and unsigned/indie talent (and some national names thrown in for good measure). Anyone familiar with the Yorkshire music scene, though, knows this is in no way a bad thing, and over the weekend this point is amply proven with a diverse range of stellar performances.

Any regular readers of this page will roll their eyes when I say that, undoubtedly, Wild Beasts were the weekend’s highlight (hey, they’ve just released their second album – we’re allowed to get a little excited again). But we weren’t alone in this assertion – hot on the heels of the release of the sublime Two Dancers, the Kendal/Leeds band played a storming homecoming set to a packed tent. Emphasis was on the livelier numbers from the new album, with a few old favourites peppered throughout.

Elsewhere, highlights included International Trust, with a get-up-and-go set of old school punk, the British way, with plenty of “Oi! Oi!” shenanigans. Despite the vocals being a little low in the mix, frontman Neil Hanson’s sheer energy got the message across, and started Saturday evening’s proceedings off with fists held aloft.

Meanwhile, Jon Gomm was wowing the Earl Hickey stage with his astounding guitar-picking, -plucking, -tapping abilities. Impressively, he managed an inoffensive cover of Radiohead’s High & Dry, not trying to do justice to the original but instead crafting his own version, bringing his virtuosic abilities into the spotlight whilst still prompting a good old-fashioned singsong.

For a complete change of pace, That F***ing Tank were up next, on the rather odd little Shed Stage, stuck out in the middle of the arena in the open air. The set was a dark, heavy dirge: rhythm taking precedence over melody with either repellent or hypnotic effect according to taste. A small crowd stayed the course, nodding their way through, whilst a rather larger one gathered across the way for Utah Saints who, by all accounts, delivered a quality show to their home crowd.

With a constantly bouncing dance tent, workshops in everything from drumming to bath-bomb making, fun for kids and grown-ups alike on ‘The Mummy Of All Slides’, quality food and beer, and even a crazy golf tent, this really was about the most fun you’ll have in Yorkshire this summer. Who needs Leeds Fest?