The Burton Agnes Jazz & Blues festival presents a varied line up of funk, traditional jazz, hard blues, dreamy vocals and everything in between.
The Burton Agnes Jazz & Blues Festival is held over three days, with performances both inside the stately Elizabethan Hall and outside in the Hall’s beautiful grounds.
Built between 1598 and 1610 by Sir Henry Griffith, Burton Agnes Hall is an Elizabethan stately home that has stayed within the Cunliffe-Lister family for more than four hundred years. Fifteen generations have filled the Hall with treasures, from magnificent carvings commissioned when the Hall was built to French impressionist paintings, contemporary furniture, tapestries and other modern artwork in recent years.
The charm of the house is that it is clearly a loved and lived in home and visitors are welcomed openly by the family in joining them to spend many enjoyable hours at Burton Agnes Hall.
The main stage on the lawn hosts the festival’s headline acts. With rolling fields behind and pristine woodland to the side, you couldn’t ask for a more stunning setting for some of the UK’s top Jazz and Blues artists to perform. Inside the Hall, intimate acoustic performances mix with original Elizabethan carvings and French Impressionist art to create an inimitable festival experience.
On Friday and Saturday evening the Wolds Top beer tent plays host to the Beverley Arts Trust’s late night sessions of folk, jazz and rhythm ‘n’ blues.
Local food and drink feature heavily at the festival. At the tea tent and food lawn, festivalgoers can indulge in home-baked treats, barbecued local meats, freshly prepared curries, and salads grown in the neighbouring walled garden. In the beer tent award winning Wold Top beer is on tap, brewed just five miles away from the festival site.
A campsite in the field adjacent to the Hall offers welcome hot showers and panoramic views of the Yorkshire Wolds for those wishing to pitch a tent for a night or the whole weekend.
Burton Agnes Jazz & Blues Festival welcomes families of all ages with its safe, easy-going vibe. There is plenty on offer for children including a Children’s Corner with play area, 15 acres of magical gardens to explore including a walled garden with maze, jungle garden and giant games and a woodland walk with forest creatures to find. Free face painting and balloon artistry caps off the entertainment.
Highlights for families:
Family Fun: Burton Agnes Hall and Gardens is a great day out for all the family. Whether you're interested in the Hall, with its magnificent architecture and impressive collection of art, the beautiful award winning gardens, the wonderful annual jazz and blues festival, or the woodland sculpture walk and giant games, you'll find something for everyone.
Children's guidebooks are available from the visitor desk along with the Burton Agnes guide book and our friendly guides are on hand to answer questions about the history and contents of the Hall. Hip seats are available from the visitor desk for young children and under 5's are free.
Baby change facilities: There are baby change facilities that can be found within the disabled toilet on the first left towards the visitor toilets.
Courtyard Cafe: A children's menu is available from the cafe and we have 20 different ice cream flavours, the perfect treat!
Children's Corner: The children's corner, towards the bottom left of the courtyard when coming from the house, is a great space for families to relax, enjoy picnics and run around.
Published on 04 May 2012 by Wayne Feltham
