Signs of Spring - Swaledale Festival programme...

For two weeks every year, in May and June, the Swaledale Festival returns to the northern Yorkshire Dales and Richmond. The artists are of the highest international standard, and come from all over the world. With over 50 events of all kinds (talks, guided walks, classical music, folk music, brass bands and jazz, art exhibitions, poetry and comedy) the Festival is reason enough to book a stay in the Dales - and many people do!

The full programme is at swalefest.org. Booking opens 11 March, but be warned... Festival Friends will have had two weeks of advance booking by then, so if you're not a Friend you should prepare your shopping list now and move fast on the 11th - because some events can sell out very fast! All the events are individually priced, so you can drop in and out as you like. Venues range from tiny chapels to 400-seater auditoriums, from the giddy heights of upper Swaledale to the broad acres of lower Wensleydale.

Need somewhere to stay? Take a look at our Accommodation section, for hotels, inns, B&Bs and snug cottages in some of England's loveliest countryside.

Nothing, but nothing, can beat the experience of leaving an evening concert at St Andrew's Church in Grinton, to see the summer sun setting on the Swaledale fells. Magic...

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