The Shape of 2021
In 2021 we’re spreading our annual offering of arts and culture over a six-month period and although the pandemic means we are scaling back on the number of events, we are not scaling back on quality.
Concerts will take place in four of our regular larger venues - St. Andrew’s in Grinton, St. Mary’s in Richmond, Tennants in Leyburn and St. Andrew’s in Aysgarth. Concerts will be just 60 minutes long and we’re offering each concert TWICE to enable audiences to be socially-distanced and the venues to be cleaned between shows.
Folk superstars The Young’uns will perform at Tennants on Sun 30 May. The Society of Strange and Ancient Instruments will share their early music adventures on Mon 31 May at St. Andrew’s in Grinton. On Sat 5 June Hildegard Transfigured - a performance of beautiful medieval vocal music with a stunning light show - will be staged at St. Mary’s Church in Richmond as part of the Richmond 950 Celebrations.
On Wed 9 June at St. Andrew’s in Grinton four stellar musicians will perform Josquin to Jones; Schubert to Sting - a celebration of lute songs through the ages, including the world-premieres of brand new songs by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and fellow rock star Sting! And on Fri 11 June in the same venue you can hear Welsh harp virtuoso Catrin Finch with Senegalese kora master Seckou Keita.
Festival Family Fun Days will take place on Reeth Green over the May bank holiday weekend (Sat 29 – Mon 31 May). There will be kite-making, dancing, brass bands, quoits and more, and it will all be free of charge.
Several Festival exhibitions will take place this year, including ‘From Waste to Wall’ by young Yorkshire artist James Owen Thomas at The Station in Richmond from 28 May to 17 June. James began making stunning pictures with discarded scratch cards after noticing one floating in a puddle of water.
Further events are planned in July, August, September and October, including The Hut People, Solus Trumpet Ensemble and Aurora Percussion Duo. As usual, tickets for all Swaledale Festival concerts this year will be available for under 25’s at just £3, and we hope to start selling tickets for some events in March.