Online booking for the 2017 Swaledale Festival opened on Monday 27 March.
The award-winning festival of music, arts and walking, now in its 46th year, takes place from 27 May to 10 June - mainly in charming village churches and halls dotted around the breathtaking landscape of the three northernmost Yorkshire Dales - Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale.
Swaledale Festival, which is a registered charity, is attracting larger audiences each year. Around half of the audience members live in the area and the other half come on holiday especially for the Festival.
Highlights include pianist Stephen Hough, vocal group VOCES8, London Mozart Players Chamber Ensemble, Red Priest, The National Youth Jazz Orchestra, The Unthanks, Urban Folk Quartet, John Potter’s 'Amores Pasados', Northern Monkey Brass Band, Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments, and a trio of stellar guitarists: John Williams, John Etheridge and Gary Ryan.
Swaledale Festival’s Young Artists Platform this year includes the extraordinary cellist and reigning BBC Young Musician of the Year Sheku Kanneh-Mason who will perform with two of his equally talented siblings, as well as Jess Gillam, (the first saxophone player to win the Woodwind Final in the same competition), the sensational young chamber orchestra Arch Sinfonia, and the virtuoso classical accordionist Bartosz Glowacki.
There is outdoor Shakespeare, a celebration of the world’s first ballet, a film about Hieronymus Bosch, poetry, art exhibitions, Dales brass bands, talks and guided walks. And for the first time in the Festival’s history, under 25s can buy tickets to every event (except one) for just £3 each.
The Festival has won numerous awards for its artistic achievements, and also for its extensive community and education work. Every year the Festival sends top musicians into local care homes to play for those who are unable to attend the regular concerts. And this year the Festival has launched a major music and visual arts project entitled JAZZ! in which hundreds of children in the Catterick Garrison area will have the opportunity to hear and study jazz music and history, attend a special concert by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and produce artworks for a series of exhibitions during the Festival.
Artistic Director Malcolm Creese, now in his tenth year, says: “I’ve been fortunate to secure a fantastic line-up of world-class performers for 2017, and there really is something for everyone. It’s my strongest programme yet.”
Full programme details and tickets are available at: www.swalefest.org