Swaledale Festival
The Swaledale Festival was founded in 1980 by Trevor and Emma Woolston, to celebrate the music already within the Yorkshire Dales, England and to bring internationally renowned musicians and composers into the area. The main focus of the Festival is on small-scale classical chamber music. Choral music, folk music, brass bands and jazz also feature, as do talks, films, exhibitions, poetry readings, workshops and guided walks.
In 2011, the Festival was described by The Guardian as one of the 10 best classical music festivals [1], and by the Daily Telegraph as one of the 25 opera and classical festivals of the season [2]. It attracts around 7,000 visitors a year [3].
The Festival takes place over two weeks in May and June each year. The focal point is the village of Reeth, but most concerts and performances take place in churches, chapels, castles, ‘Literary Institutes’, pubs, fields and village halls scattered around Swaledale, Arkengarthdale and Wensleydale. The largest venue is St Mary's Church in Richmond, which seats about 400 people; the smallest venues may seat as few as 40.
A key feature of the Swaledale Festival is the commitment to new commissions, which are premièred each year at Festival concerts; new works by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Graham Fitkin, Gavin Bryars, Tim Garland, Gwilym Simcock and Adam Gorb will be performed during the 2012 Festival, which runs from 19 May to 3 June 2012.
