In our fourth In Focus feature, our Community Engagement Manager Jason White, explores Barnsley Folk Festival; what is was, what it is and what we hope it could be.
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The building that is home to Barnsley Civic has a long history of folk music and folk culture. Barnsley Folk Club, which was established in 1962 and had it’s original home at The Alhambra Pub on Sheffield Roan, moved to the building’s Centenary Rooms in the very late 1960s. Barnsley Folk Club was a weekly gathering of singers of traditional folk songs and musicians associated with the then folk revival, which emerged from 1950s skiffle and coffee bar culture. A number of famous names on the British folk circuit visited the club, including Martin Carthy, The Watersons and Fotheringhay featuring Sandy Denny. In 1978, the Barnsley Longsword dance team performed as part of Barnsley Civic Hall’s ‘100 Years On’ performance.
The building’s theatre has hosted many folk concerts over the years, and even in it’s current form, the main theatre of Level 3, has seen concerts with Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman, Lindisfarne, Show of Hands, Rachel McShane, The Demon Barbers and many more. In 2023, the stage was graced by double-headliners Martin Carthy and and influential Barnsley musician and barnsley Folk Club founder Dave Burland in 2023, as Martin celebrated his 80th birthday.
As Barsley Civic starts to celebrated 18 months of 150th anniversary celebrations, the programming team at Barnsley Civic got to thinking of ways to mark the occasion. One idea was to bring back Barnsley Folk Festival, a multi-day event that started 40 years ago this year, which included concerts, sessions and workshops at the then ‘Barnsley Civic Hall’ and buildings no longer with us, including The Wheatsheaf pub and Barnsley Conference Centre.
While 1986 marked the first ‘Barnsley Folk Festival’ by name, it was by no means the first folk festival in town. The Civic hosted a ‘festival of folk and contemporary music’ in December 1969, featuring The Strawbs and local stars The Foggy Dew-O.
We found a suitable gap in our spring/summer programme, avoiding clashes with Wath Festival, Holmfirth Folk Festival and Bearded Theory in Derbyshire, and booked the dates.
We were initially nervous about approaching Kate Rusby as our first headliner because to be honest, our theatre is so much smaller than those she usually performs in, but Kate was gracious, wanted to support us and make it work, and so by opening our festival on Friday night in our main theatre, as just a three-piece band, our festival becomes a rare and very intimate hometown show, and we can’t wait for it.
Kate will be supported by the amazing indie folk duo Eletto. And it goes without saying, kate and her family understand festivals and the importance of them to the local economy and culture. They ran the Underneath the Starts Festival in Cawthorne for ten years.
She said this of her memories of the first Barnsley Folk Festival…
40 years WOW! 40 years ago I was inspired to be an actual singer, I was 12. In the old Barnsley Civic, Barnsley Folk Festival, there I was in the dark sat beside my dad, who was sound engineer for that concert. I was captivated by Barnsley’s own Dave Burland.
I remember the moment, thinking to myself, how lovely and amazing that would be to sing to people like that, tell stories, make people laugh, move people to tears, all through music. I had been brought up with folk music of course, but also listened to anything and everything I could get my hands on via the incredible Barnsley Library music department, I had learnt to play fiddle and chords on the guitar, worked out chords on the piano, but that was “the moment”.
Here we are all these years later, 34 years in the music industry, lucky enough to tour the world (always told the audiences how brilliant Barnsley is) but always it remains…. Barnsley in my blood, Barnsley in my brain, born to be an advocate of all things Barnsley, now a very proud Freeman Of The Borough…… all due to music and that moment.
I cannot wait to take to the Barnsley Civic stage myself 40 years after that “light bulb moment”. Full circle complete.
You never know, there may be another 12 year old in the audience at the new Barnsley Folk Festival who may be inspired! Such a fabulous weekend of music planned, come along, bring your kids too, you never know what will happen!!
Thank you Dave Burland. Thank you to my folks who brought me along to the gig.
Kate Rusby, Freeman Of The Borough Of Barnsley.
We didn’t have much time to plan, and while we knew we couldn’t go big in the first year, we wanted to cover a lot of ground. Kate was confirmed to headline a seated theatre concert on the Friday evening and on the Saturday night, we will host a standing concert with five Barnsley acts, who are all influenced by folk music and storytelling; including Passions Killers (former Chumbawamba), Parson’s Lot, The Rolling Down Hills, Common Culture and the dup Gabriela Y Antony.
During the day on Saturday, in our own Mandela Gardens, we celebrate all things traditional with folk dance teams Barnsley Longsword, Silkstone Greens North West Morris, Wath Morris and Wath Morris Minors, and the amazing students form Horizon Community College, who perform all around the country with their fusion on contemporary dance, morris and rapper. On the day there will also by live music from four acts The Rhythm Chaps, Barnsdale Hood, Katrina Tia Charles and The Stormy Sals, storytelling with Ian Douglas and his magic lantern theatre, willow weaving with The Art Room, more family crafts with Timmy Sweetcorn Kids Club, a licensed bar, coffee cart, food and market stalls. Something for everyone, and the whole family event will be free!
On the Sunday we close with a free ceilidh in our theatre, hosted by caller Chris McShane and the Penistone Folk Ensemble. Chris is one of the people who has been pivotal in shaping folk music and folk culture in Barnsley for many years, and is recognised for his performances, teaching, and passing on the culture to the next generation. They are joined by Barnsley U3A’s Ceilidh Group, who perform a guest spot.
And that will be it for 2026. We are tentatively starting small, as we want to see what works, what can change and what we can have more of for next year. We have already secured dates AND headliners for 2027, and we’ll announce those once this festival is over. One thing we can guarantee is there will be more workshops, sessions, more ways for people to join in and more Barnsley folk artists (some you will know and some you won’t).
We sincerely hope that you will join us celebrating our amazing folk community. It is something that Barnsley is truly exceptional at, and we at Barnsley Civic would love to see that carry on, as we enter our 150th year.
See the full Barnsley Folk Festival line-up and book tickets here.
