The county is awash with festivals this month and, we expect, for some months to come. Here’s a round-up of those we think you will enjoy plus a few other events chosen by Tony Greenway.
FESTIVALS
June 21st-23rd
Beverley Festival
A music festival for everyone not just folksy-folk. On this year’s bill you can expect Gretchen Peters (all the way from the good ole US of A) and comedy songsmith John Shuttleworth (aka the creation of Graham Fellows, all the way from… well… Sheffield) plus Ian Rankin, Show of Hands with Miranda Sykes and, topping the bill, The Proclaimers. Music, dance, comedy, film, children and youth events, workshops, craft stalls and loads more, all in the lovely little East Yorkshire town of Beverley.
Beverley Racecourse 01377 217569 beverleyfestival.com
June 14th – 29th
Grassington Festival
How about this for a Dale’s diary? This year’s festival line-up in the insanely pretty town of Grassington features Jack Dee, the Black Dyke Band, Guardian columnist Steve Hewlett, the Swingle Singers, Jools Holland and His Rhythm and Blues Orchestra (now sold out, sadly, but not surprisingly), the Levellers, the Orchestra (featuring various members of ELO), guided walks, the World Yorkshire Pudding Championships, a festival food event and, naturally, dry stone walling workshops. All life is here.
Various venues 01756 752691 grassington-festival.org.uk
June 1st & 2nd
York Spring Food Festival
Dive in. The food is local and lovely. Stalls, a drinks programme, dinners, markets, cookery demos and lots more besides in this teaser taster to the main September foodie event.
Various venues York 01904 635149 yorkfoodfestival.com
June 22nd – 30th
Hebden Bridge Arts Festival
The full festival programme hasn’t been released as I write this, but singer Tracey Thorn (from Everything But the Girl) is appearing. She’s not performing, mind: instead Thorn, who has reinvented herself as a writer, will be talking about her best-selling memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, which tells the story of her rise from unknown indie singer to an international superstar selling nine million albums. Also on the bill is London art duo Public Service Broadcasting who do weird and wonderful things with vintage public information films, archive footage propaganda films… and banjos. Best not to ask.
Various venues hebdenbridgeartsfestival.co.uk
May 25th – June 8th
Swaledale Festival
Rated as one of the best music festivals in the country, this year’s Swaledale Festival features everything from Bach to Barry Cryer and the Northern Sinfonia to John Williams. Take a look at the festival website for full details.
Various venues 01748 880019 swaledale-festival.org.uk
June 29th & 30th
Leeds Waterfront Festival
Music, dance, arts and crafts, art walks, guided walks and Dragon Boat racing. The full programme was still to be decided at the time of writing — so log on to the website for details.
07917 780 151 leedswaterfrontfestival.com
June 4th – 15th
TakeOver Festival 2013
A unique festival run by a team of 11-25 year olds, coming to the York Theatre Royal for a second time. The programme includes acappella group Out of The Blue (Tues 4th), followed by Mike Daisey’s The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs (Wednesday 5th). The Takeover team are joined by Les Enfants Terribles and The Trench (Thursday 6th), a play inspired by the story of a miner who becomes entombed in a tunnel during World War I. The week finishes with The Enormous Turnip (Saturday 8th) a giant of a show for all the family.
York Theatre Royal and Beyond York 01904 623568 takeoverfestival.co.uk
June 12th - 16th
Sheffield Doc/Fest
Perkins, a Python, Channel 4’s chief creative officer Jay Hunt, behind-the-scenes with the BBC hit Who Do You Think You Are? and a documentary about Bradley Wiggins plus Melvyn Bragg on arts. Yep, the Sheffield Doc/Fest features a really strong line-up for its 20th year. Michael Palin in Conversation is a bit of a must-see if you ask me, along with BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow talking about how the BBC2 schedule has changed under her leadership. Ooh look! Her inquisitor is Sue Perkins, whose shows, The Great British Bake-Off and Heading Out, appear on Hadlow’s channel.
Various venues 0114 276 5141 sheffdocfest.com
June 8th
Tastes of Yorkshire Food & Drink Family Festival
A relatively new festival which showcases fine foods and cooking talents from Yorkshire including those of Ripon-based 21 Engineer Regiment who give a field catering demonstration using fresh and composite rations. There are cookery demos too from the likes of Great British Menu chef Steph Moon and chocolatier Sophie Jewett from York Cocoa House plus lots of gourmet food stalls.
Ripon Racecourse tastesofyorkshire.co.uk
June 2nd-6th
JFest International
A week of entertainment from internationally successful bands, dramatists and comedians come together to celebrate Jewish-related performing arts. The line-up includes jazz saxophonist Joe Leader, rock ‘n’ roll band Christie, top London Ladino band, Los Desterrados, New York musical ‘A Jew Grows in Brooklyn’ plus top drama in the form of ‘Kafka and Son’ and ‘The Secrets of Venus’ plus stand-up comedy from Adam Bloom and Sol Bernstein.
The Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds info@makor.co.uk/0113 2680899 leedsjewishfestival.com
EVENTS
June 15th,
Open Air Shakespeare: As You Like It
Open-air Shakespeare performed by The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. This should be interesting as TLCM are an all-male company and As You Like It features cross-dressing as part of its narrative. Of course, in Shakespeare’s day, there were only all male productions (and the recent production of Twelfth Night at the Globe featured Mark Rylance as Olivia) but, if new to you, get ready to see a man playing a woman playing a man.
Fountains Abbey 0844 249 1895 fountainsabbey.org.uk nationaltrust.org.uk/events
June 1st & 2nd
Sheffield Branch of the British Cactus & Succulent Society
Annual Show 2013
A show for horticultural lovers everywhere and it’s free, too. The aim of the British Cactus & Succulent Society is the study, conservation, propagation and cultivation of cacti and other succulent plants. The Sheffield branch has been in existence since 1946. Find the show at the Demonstration Centre at the Thompson Road end of the Botanical Gardens. All visitors welcome.
Sheffield Botanical Gardens 01246 231109 sheffield.bcss.org.uk
June 12th
Special 250th Event: Tasting Series: Exploring Lord Fairfax’s Cellar
Celebrate 250 years of Fairfax House in York, billed as the finest Georgian town house in England, with a talk from wine expert Richard Goodacre about champagne; and why wealthy 18th and 19th-century families glugged it down like there was no tomorrow. Tickets are £24 and include fruit punch on arrival.
Fairfax House York 01904 655 543 fairfaxhouse.co.uk
EXHIBITIONS
June 8th & 9th & 15th & 16th
North Yorkshire Open Studios
Leading artists (more than 100 of them) from across North Yorkshire open their studios to the public. These include painter Neil McBride, designer-maker of architectural stained glass Alan Davis, Steph Black (who makes one-off decorative ceramic vessels) and Charlotte Black who uses unusual tools, methods and materials to create subtle, abstract and emotive paintings.
Venues across North Yorkshire 01756 748529 nyos.org.uk
Until September 29th
William Scott
This year is the centenary of the birth of abstract painter William Scott who died in 1989. Scott was, coincidentally, a Scot (born in Greenock) and a contemporary of Pollock, de Kooning, Kline and Rothko. This exhibition at the Hepworth is his first major showing in the UK for over 20 years.
The Hepworth Wakefield 01924 247360 hepworthwakefield.org
THEATRE
June 14th – 22nd
Tristan & Yseult
One of Kneehigh Theatre’s best-loved shows — the one, in fact, that first gave the company national recognition. Cornish King Mark is at war; he rules with his head not his heart. But he hasn’t counted on falling head over heels for his enemy’s sister, or expected the arrival of the enigmatic Tristan.
West Yorkshire Playhouse 0113 213 7700 wyp.org.uk
June 6th – 8th
Two’s Company
Harrogate Theatre’s mini-festival is back for its third year, with four different theatrical experiences: Les Hommes Vides (Invisible Thread); My Heart Is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree Street (J Fergus Evans); The Great Spavaldos (Il Pixel Rosso) and This Is Just To Say (presented by Hannah Jane Walker, devised with Chris Thorpe).
Harrogate Theatre 01423 502116 harrogatetheatre.co.uk
June 5th
Olive Reed: Wild Thing
If you look up the definition of ‘hellraiser’ in the dictionary, it says: ‘See Olly Reed’. The late Reed was a great actor (his best performances were in Women in Love, as Bill Sikes in Oliver! and in the Michael Winner-directed Hannibal Brooks, where he played a PoW on the run in Nazi Germany… with an elephant for company). Sadly, he was also a great drinker and, in the end, his alcoholism did for him. In this one man show, Rob Crouch plays Reed and spends the evening recounting tales of his legendary bad behaviour.
Harrogate Theatre 01423 502116 harrogatetheatre.co.uk
June 17th – 22nd
Agatha Christie’s Go Back for Murder
A classic from the queen of crime starring Liza Goddard (no, honestly), Sophie Ward, Robert Duncan, Gary Mavers, Lysette Anthony and Ben Nealon.
Harrogate Theatre 01423 502116 harrogatetheatre.co.uk
May 16th – June 8th
The History Boys
Alan Bennett’s comedy set in a Sheffield grammar school, so where better to stage this production than The Crucible? A group of pupils preparing for the Oxford and Cambridge entrance exams have other things on their mind than their studies.
Crucible Sheffield 0114 249 6000 sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
June 24th – 29th
Rising Damp
Porridge, Steptoe and Son, Yes Minister and Dinnerladies have all been turned into successful theatre shows so it was only a matter of time before theatre producers raided the TV vaults again for more material. Rising Damp, though, is a brave choice to turn into a stage show. It didn’t really matter that the actor who played Sir Humphrey in the theatre version of Yes Minister looked or sounded like Nigel Hawthorne but Leonard Rossiter was so perfect as seedy landlord Rupert Rigsby that’s it’s impossible to think of anyone else playing the part. In this production, however, the unenviable task of ‘doing a Rigsby’ falls to Stephen Chapman (a face from TV that you’ll know well, even if you don’t know the name). In its favour, it’s written by the brilliant Eric Chappell, who wrote the original TV show, and it’s directed by Don Warrington, who played lodger Philip in the original cast. My God, Miss Jones! It also appears in Bradford next month.
Lyceum Sheffield 0114 249 6000 sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
CONCERTS
June 23rd
Rod Stewart
Proof that time does stand still for some men: Rodders is back again to support his new album, bizarrely still sporting the same shaggy ‘do — and the same set of hoarse vocal chords — that he did in the 1970s. One thing he’s not wearing, though is his skin-tight ‘Do Ya Think I’m Sexy’ leopard print leggings anymore. (Thank heavens.) Sixty-two hit singles (including 31 top 10s and six number ones) can’t be wrong. Can they?
Motorpoint Arena Sheffield motorpointarenasheffield.co.uk
