Garforth Arts Festival
The Garforth Arts Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Garforth, Leeds, in the United Kingdom. The events take place over a two week period in July, ending with a full-day ‘Playground Party’ on the final Saturday. The festival features a variety of art forms, including comedy; theatre; circus; music; literature; art and dance. Most events are commissioned educational projects with local children and professional artists.
Location
Events during the festival are held at numerous locations in and around Garforth, such as the Garforth Community College, The Miner’s Welfare Hall, Garforth Working Men’s Club and St. Mary’s Church, Garforth. The ‘Playground Party’ is held in the ‘sunken’ playground outside the school with some acts occasionally performing on Garforth Main Street. By Road:
• A642 North East, leading to the A1M North/South and the A64 to York.
• A642 South West, leading to the M62, Leeds and Manchester.
• A63 West, leading to Leeds Outer Ring Road and A64 York.
• A63 East, leading to A656 Castleford and A1M North/South.
By Rail: Garforth station is on the main TransPennine Express Route between Leeds and York and is within easy walking distance of all Garforth venues.
The Festivals
’05 The festival was launched in 2005, originally 8 days long. It saw collaborations with the SLP College and the Breeze International Youth Festival. That year’s headliner was Shaun T Hunter. This festival also led a musical procession from Garforth Main Street to the College, lead by The Peace Artistes. The Zimbabwean dance group Siyaya worked with local primary schools as part of the main festival event.
’06 In 2006 the festival was extended to 9 days, with the same amount of diversity throughout the festival with even more acts to suit every taste. The festival ’06 saw Dennis Rollins’ Badbone & Co headlining the ‘Playground Party’. Also appearing in the festival were: The Snake Davis Band; Cara Dillon and Chumbawamba.
’07 The festival grew to 11 days in 2007, and once again retained the tremendous amount of various events. From a master-class and a concert with innovative string quartet The Brodsky Quartet; performances by The North Star Steel Pan Orchestra to a night of poetry with Yorkshire comedian, broadcaster and poet Ian McMillan. The Playground Party saw even more stars perform on the stage such as: Cara Robinson; Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers; James Taylor Quartet; Kate Rusby and 2007’s headliner Courtney Pine.
’08 Expanding the next year the 2008 festival was 13 days long, and saw the opening of ‘The Little Stage’ which local groups were able to perform such as local folk group ‘Slania’ and Garforth choir ‘Blue Jeans’. 2008 saw the continuation of family friendly and acts that could allow for different tastes with talks from Tony Benn and author Gervase Phinn. Also performing was Soweto Kinch with support from annual attendees to the Garforth Arts Festival, The Garforth Jazz Rock Band who performed a track from his album ‘A Life in the Day of B19 - Tales of the Tower Block’ and a performance by well know brass band Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band The Playground Party saw Leeds band Middleman; 3 Daft Monkeys and Jazz Jamaica along with Britain's Got Talent (series 2) stars Flava support headliner Richard Hawley.
’09 The 2009 festival saw over 20 events held over the 13 days; more than three quarters of which were educational projects. The event was also host to 400 children who took part in an African music exchange project (with the help from Garforth Community College’s Partner school: Mzuvele Secondary School, Durban, South Africa) also an Indian Wedding Ceremony that joined together to complete that years procession. The 2009 Festival festival included: The Breeze international festival; Samay, a unique multi-cultural music experience; Jazz trio the Fruit Tree Project; Coal Face, a theatre commission about mining; and a unique event featuring Leeds’ virtuoso guitarist, Jon Gomm. One of the highlights of this years festival - Ricky Tomlinson brought his touring show 'Ricky Tomlinson's Laughter Show' which took place in the college hall. The Playground Party again saw 'The Little Stage' this time sponsored by ELFM and was renamed as 'The Everybody Loves Fabulous Music Stage' which hosted more local bands, The Koodoos, A Fair Fight and headliners Myriad. The main stage saw critically acclaimed Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain; Chumbawamba and the African Children's Choir support the headline act, 70’s punk band Buzzcocks.
Committee
The festival is run by the Festival Committee, comprised of students, teachers and parents from Garforth Community College, and some external volunteers: directed by Festival Director and founder, Dave Evans. It is promoted by the School Partnership Trust (Reg. Charity No.1110495), a charitable non-profit making organisation. Any proceeds from the festival are re-invested into the local community. Additional Funding comes from arts@leeds: Leeds City Council’s arts funding programme; Outer East Area Management Team, Arts Council England, Awards for All, PRSF and Aim Higher.