Swaledale Festival

Founded in 1972, the Swaledale Festival is an annual festival of music and arts based in the three most northerly Yorkshire Dales - Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale - a large rural area of outstanding beauty. Festival venues range from tiny chapels seating fewer than fifty people to halls seating several hundred. Many are charming village churches but there are also heritage sites such as Richmond's Georgian Theatre Royal and Gayle Mill near Hawes. We have recently added Tennants Garden Rooms in Leyburn as a Festival venue - our largest at 600 seats. The Festival starts on the Saturday of the late May Spring Bank Holiday each year, and goes on for two weeks.

The Swaledale Festival's events programme includes a core of classical music concerts as well as folk, brass band, jazz and world music. In addition there is poetry, film, dance, drama, comedy, workshops, masterclasses, exhibitions, children's events, talks and themed guided walks. There are usually a few surprise events too, such as steam train trips, bat watches, archaeology projects and astronomy sessions. There is a particular focus on the extraordinary landscape, the history, the legends and the characters of the northern Dales.

Top musicians and artists come from all over the world to perform at Swaledale, which is consistently described in the press as one of the finest festivals in the country. The list of recent performers includes John Williams, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Dame Emma Kirkby, Peter Donohoe, Alexander Markov, Tasmin Little, Natalie Clein, Tenebrae Consort, Fretwork, Red Priest, Iestyn Davies, Emma Johnson, Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Choir of York Minster, the Brodsky, Fitzwilliam, Carducci and Ŝkampa String Quartets, Antonio Forcione, Niamh Ní Charra, Clare Martin, Martin Taylor, Kathryn Tickell, Martin Simpson, Adel Salameh, Sura Susso, Alan Plater, Brian Sewell, Simon Armitage and Barry Cryer.