Swaledale Festival

Immerse yourself in a two-week celebration of music and art with the Swaledale Festival! Whether it's the quaint chapels or Tennants of Leyburn's stately auction center, you'll come across venues to suit everyone. Plus, explore unique collaborations, from the Wensleydale Creamery at Hawes to the historic Gayle Mill—each offering a special insight into their talent. Get ready for an experience like no other as you journey through some of the Yorkshire Dales' most revered locations, including Swaledale and Wensleydale (plus outside this area).

From May 27 to June 10, you can witness this event in a vast array of places that range from the antiquated town of Richmond with its grandiose medieval church and eye-catching Georgian theater to the minuscule URC chapel at Keld's head of Swaledale. In Wensleydale, the performances will span Bedale (which occasionally includes Masham)—home to one of the Swaledale Festival's staunchest allies, Theakston's brewery—all the way up to Hawes' dale-head market town, which is famously known as Wallace and Grommet's beloved cheese locale.

This year, the event's focus is on its locale and community. With local choirs, bands, and soloists performing concerts, poetry walks through the stunning landscape for all ages to enjoy, puppet shows specifically created for children and families to delight in, late-night star gazing sessions with knowledgeable astronomers conducting workshops, as well as comedy performances from around the globe - Australia, the Middle East, India, Africa, Canada, Japan, China, the UK, and Europe - plus film screenings of international films shown by talented filmmakers from this same region! Not forgetting exhibitions curated by creative artists native to these sweeping hillsides.

Swaledale Festival is renowned for its collaboration with world-renowned composers and artists such as Sally Beamish, Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, David Blake, Graham Coatman, Stephen Goss, Roxanna Panufnik, and Jonathan Dove. The festival also provides an invaluable platform for local talent to shine! Furthermore, this event has been recognized globally, winning the 2018 Queen's Award for Voluntary Service and the Prime Minister's Big Society Award in 2014.