We can’t believe we are now in our eighth year of sponsoring the Swaledale Festival! 

Swaledale Festival is an annual festival of music and arts which takes place in Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale, set against the beautiful backdrop of the rural Yorkshire landscape. 

Founded all the way back in 1972 it begins on the Saturday of the late May bank holiday and runs for two weeks. Many of Yorkshire's historical locations become venues for a range of fantastic musical events including small, intimate churches and heritage sites such as Richmond’s Georgian Theatre Royal! 

Despite it being a local festival, artists come from all over the world to perform including Antonio Forcione, Dave Kelly, Evelyn Glennie and Alexander Markov. A range of art exhibitions and stunning guided walks also form part of the festival.

This year we sponsored the fantastic blues event which saw legendary musicians Dave Kelly and Bob Hall perform with Hilary Blythe. Guitarist Dave Kelly and keyboardist Bob Hall have cut their teeth with the likes of Howlin Wolf, Buddy Guy and Muddy Waters and have been extremely influential in the 60’s blues scene. The night was a huge success and the various famous blues tunes had everyone on their feet!

The Muker Silver band will also be performing tonight which our own director Allan is a part of! Allan has strong family connections with the band as his father, Norman has been in the band for 70 years along with his two brothers and various other family members. 

The band is so popular the event is actually sold out and we can’t wait to see Allan, who has been part of the band for 43 years, perform in the village hall which is celebrating its hundredth anniversary! The band is also celebrating 125 years almost to the day it formed for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 to perform at the village celebrations. 

We are very proud of our partnership with this annual event which also champions a range of local talent from the Yorkshire area. It is also great to work alongside Malcolm Creese, the festival's Artistic Director who, along with his team, has put together an amazing programme of acts once again!

As part of our partnership with this long-running local festival, we support the annual event through donations as well as developing and maintaining their website, ticketing system and designing the main programme.

Whilst the fantastic Muker band event is sold out there are still some tickets left to see the entertaining early jazz era band The Versatility Serenders in the evening as well as a performance from mezzo-soprano Lotte Betts-Dean and guitarist Dimitris Soukaras!

To find out more about the festival or see what's on please visit their website.