Festival fun #2

 

At the entrance to Roberts Park, I came across these three young musicians busking. Their music stand says 'Francis McCann Music' and I think he's a local musician, possibly from Ilkley. They sounded good to me. 

There was a whole programme of musicians scheduled to perform in the park bandstand. This lady was Cheryl Holland, who describes herself as 'a sober dance music vocalist and DJ from Leeds, who writes uplifting, positive music'. Well, we can all do with lots of that. I only caught the last song of her set but I enjoyed it very much.

Good Rhythm Drumming Circles had taken over one of the park shelters and were inviting anyone to join them in playing the djembe drums. I even had a go myself. I couldn't hear the sound of my own drum against the others (though I could feel its vibration) which made it hard to find the rhythm but it was a few minutes of good fun. They work in the community, in care homes and schools, to celebrate the collective and bring enjoyment and laughter. Circles of Joy!

The two young ladies below were both doing a great job of picking up the beat. 

At the other end of the promenade, 400 Roses were dancing to music played by their band, t’Thorns. They are a unique group of tribal folk fusion dancers from Yorkshire and Lancashire, blending UK-style folk dance with tribal belly dance moves.  It's always fun to watch and they too had attracted quite a crowd. 

Festival fun #1

September sees the annual Saltaire Festival and there is always plenty going on in the village. It was drizzly and I had other engagements but I managed to fit in a brief visit on the first Saturday. 

I came across this amazing music collective playing in a corner of the church grounds. They were 'Mojojack Music', whose strapline is 'Disability Rocks'. Some if not most of the performers had some kind of learning disability but their music was excellent and quite a crowd had gathered to listen. They are apparently very inclusive. One young man playing the keyboard was simply playing a single repeated note but it all fitted together beautifully and everyone was enjoying it hugely. 

I've done a little research as I didn't know anything about them. It seems that what used to be Salts Sports Club Bar, which had been empty for a while, has been taken over as 'Salts Hub', a day-care centre for adults with learning disabilities, neurodivergence and autism. I hadn't heard about this but it's existed for about three years now. Mojojack Music is a dedicated day care service centred around enhancing the lives of individuals with learning disabilities through music. In the same premises, Skills Kitchen is 'a fun & practical home cooking day service, providing training & skills while promoting self reliance & independence'. What good stuff. 

Harmonic Fields

There was an installation recently on Baildon Moor, where the plateau around the trig point became the setting for an orchestra of wind-powered instruments.

Devised by composer Pierre Sauvageot, 'Harmonic Fields' was part of Nature Season, a programme of nature-themed cultural activity across the district. An array of woodwind, string and percussive ensembles; vibrating drums, windmill xylophones, harmonic cellos, bamboo flutes, propeller sirens, gyrating musical boxes – were played by both the elements and ‘wind farmer’ characters.

It was quite an amazing experience to listen to the unique 'music' whilst enjoying the views from this elevated position on the moor. I'm not sure that I could hear all of it (with my hearing loss) but I could discern enough to enjoy it. Some of the sounds carried in the wind for a very long distance. 

The circle above simply had some kind of tape or wire that vibrated in the wind. The sounds seemed to vary according to the tautness and length of the tapes. It was a weird but beautiful and amazing effect. 

There were more conventional-seeming instruments: cellos and drums, that were played by wires vibrating in the wind. The wind-farmer below was adjusting or tuning the instrument. To sit in the middle and hear them all was an evocative orchestral experience, quite soothing in a way. 

My favourites were these metal balls, simple shapes, each with an aperture at the bottom almost like a bell. They sounded to me a bit like the singing bowls or steel tongue drums used in some meditative practices. I loved the sound and could happily have sat there all day (despite the chill of the wind!) They were hung through a series of archways and also from branched 'trees' dotted around the site, apparently called 'The Nantong Tunnel and Trees'. 

I also enjoyed the bamboo flutes, each pierced with slits through which the wind played, the sound varying according (I guess) to the diameter of the tube. I suppose it was a similar principle to organ pipes or a recorder. I didn't try it but I guess you could also have varied the sound by covering some of the holes. 

Some of the instruments were driven by little propellors that activated cogs and hammers to strike keys or drums - very cleverly conceived. 

It was really rather magical and worth the long, steep walk to get there! 

Happily, you can access a website to listen to the soundscape HERE (below the audio descriptions), so you can hear some of it too. 

 

Hurdygurdy men

I was fortunate to be able to attend a short concert of Medieval Music in Skipton Castle. The musicians, Marco Cannavo on the right and Steve Tyler on the left, were proficient in a wide range of rather complicated-looking instruments. The tunes were rhythmic and mostly quite stately - suitable, I suppose, for dancing. We just lacked a banquet and (me) appropriate clothes! 

In the photo above, Steve is playing a hurdygurdy, which (Google says) is a stringed instrument that produces sound by means of a hand-cranked rosined wheel that rubs against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood or metal—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.

In the photo below, Marco has a portative organ, a popular instrument from the 12th to the 16th century, that uses sheepskin and wood bellows, a keyboard and pipes to produce a flute-like sound. 

Here Marco is playing a bladder pipe, an early simplified form of bagpipe. 

I'm not 100% sure of the name of these small guitar-like instruments but they are possibly called citoles. 

Here Steve is playing a small Gothic harp. 

And the hurdygurdys again:

Anjaana

There was a stage with music at the Creative Earth Eco Fest at Cliffe Castle. I happened to be there when Anjaana were playing. They are a band formed in Bradford in the late 1970s, focusing on pure Punjabi folk and classic Bhangra rhythms. They were honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2025 UK Bhangra Awards. Led by artist Paul Chand, the group has spent over 50 years performing traditional South Asian music across the UK and India.

The (mostly) traditional instruments they are playing are (from left to right): dohl drum, tabla drums, a vaja - a type of harmonium - and a keyboard. 

 I really enjoyed their music. 

Elsewhere in the park there was an elegant young lady teaching people some Bollywood dance moves, which are high energy and rhythmic. I loved watching her - though my own dancing skills are less than zero! 

 

Mass Wuthering

Why, you might ask, was there a steady stream of people dressed in red climbing to Penistone Hill, above the Brontë family home in Haworth? 

It was what is known as 'The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever', held in July each year, which sees thousands of people across the world recreate the video to Kate Bush's 1978 song Wuthering Heights, inspired by Emily Brontë's novel. Dancers pay an entry fee, which raises money for charity. 

My daughter, son-in-law and younger granddaughter (all of whom simply LOVE 'dressing up') were participants so I and my older granddaughter (we don't love dressing up!) went along to watch.  

There were a few practice runs first. Though the 500 dancers were supposed to have learned the moves beforehand, the extent to which that had happened (or not) was abundantly clear!

Then - the dance. Given that it hasn't rained here for weeks, the fact that it was very windy, quite cold and very wet was ironic. They all got soaked to the skin. It was certainly 'wuthering' (definition: blustering, stormy, or roaring loudly like a heavy wind)! Remarkably, it didn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm. 

There were quite a few men in frocks and dogs in frocks. The men were allowed to dance, the dogs weren't!

BBC and ITV News were there and there’s a video HERE.

The 'stream' home again was more literally that, very damp indeed. Aw. We went for a pub lunch to warm up and dry off. I'd like to say it was good fun...  

Rae Gala 2026

The first Sunday of July is always the annual Rae Gala, commemorating the gift of Northcliffe Park from the philanthropist Sir Norman Rae to the people of Shipley in 1920. It's quite a small event but a wholesome and community-focused celebration. This year it suffered by being on the same weekend as the Dragon Boat Racing, so there seemed to be fewer attendees. Those there had an enjoyable time and were entertained by our local Morris dance team, Rainbow Morris, and by the Shipley Hallroyd Brass Band. 

There was food and an ice cream van, plenty of stalls to browse, some children's races and a display of dancing by children from Stars Stage School. The most popular attraction seemed to be the miniature railway, based in the park, with members of Bradford Model Engineering Society providing rides on the two different circuits. As always, it was a good afternoon out - and, though it was a heavily overcast day, it stayed dry, which always helps. 

St Andrews - St Salvators

Fife holiday 2026 #13

The unexpected gem of my perambulation of St Andrews was the beautiful college chapel of St Salvator, dating back to 1450 but much changed since then (largely due to the Protestant Reformation when it was stripped of most of its iconography). What we see now owes much to the Gothic Revivalist style popular in Victorian times, and some sympathetic modern additions, but the chapel retains a dignity and serenity that I found most appealing. 

Behind it is a quadrangle of university buildings. I gather that the Prince and Princess of Wales resided in St Salvator's Hall during their first year at St Andrew's University (which is famously where they met) but the buildings behind the chapel are not the student halls of residence, which lie beyond. 

As I was nearing the Chapel, a large tour bus stopped outside to deposit its passengers. I upped my pace in order to get inside before they did! So I at least had a few peaceful moments to myself, and took all the interior shots with my phone in order to speed up the process. I am quite pleased with how they turned out.  

As I left the Chapel, I noted a man in a full Scottish kilt outfit entering. I then realised that there was about to be a wedding. Guests were gathering outside the main entrance on the street side of the Chapel and there was a bagpiper who began to play, so I was delighted to see that. It was an unexpected bonus, since if I'd arrived a few minutes later I would not have been able to go inside. Serendipity.