Category: Music

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 34, from Gazette & Herald

Mary Anning Rocks at the Yorkshire Museum, York. Picture: Antony Chappel Ross

DINOSAUR museum adventures and the CBeebies house party, CHIC’s good times on the coast and Sparks’ York return after 52 years offer contrasts aplenty in Charles Hutchinson’s choices for the days ahead.

Last-chance holiday activities: Yorkshire Museum, Museum Gardens, York, open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10am to 5pm

AS the school summer holidays enter their final fortnight, the Yorkshire Museum invites visitors to “make the most of the interactive activities, craft sessions and amazing exhibits before term starts again”.

Grab a dinosaur backpack to explore the Mary Anning and Jurassic galleries in dino-themed entertainment for younger ones, while spotting fossils and dino bones on their adventures on August 21, 24 or 28. The final Melsonby Hoard treasure trove crafting session will be held on August 26, although Viking beaded jewellery and bug brooch making are available every day through the summer break. Pay once to receive all these free activities and unlimited return visits for a year. Tickets: yorkshiremuseum.org.uk.

No common ground: Pandora Clifford’s Mags and Liz Garland’s Liz in Handbagged at the SJT, Scarborough. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The Magic Numbers: Brothers and sisters in unison at The Crescent

Siblings of the week: An Evening With The Magic Numbers, The Crescent, York, Friday, 7.30pm

THE Magic Numbers combine two pairs of siblings, Romeo & Michele Stodart and Sean & Angela Gannon, who are known for their unique harmonies, melodic hooks, songwriting craftsmanship and timeless sound, exemplified by Forever Lost, Love Me Like You and Love Is A Game across five albums. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Nile Rodgers: Performing with CHIC at Scarborough Open Air Theatre

Coastal gig of the week: Nile Rodgers & CHIC, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Saturday, gates open at 6pm

IN the final Scarborough Open Air Theatre concert of the summer, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee, Grammy Lifetime Achievement winner and composer, producer, arranger and guitarist Nile Rodgers returns to the Yorkshire coast for the third time with CHIC, the New York City R&B and soul band he co-founded with Bernard Edwards.

Expect such disco dancefloor fillers as Le Freak, Good Times, We Are Family and I’m Coming Out. Acid jazz combo Brand New Heavies support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Sparks’ Ron and Russell Mael: Playing York after 52-year hiatus on August 25. Picture: Munachi Osegbu

York gig of the week: Sparks, York Barbican, August 25, doors open at 7pm  

CULT Californian pop-rock pioneers Sparks play York for the first time since 1974 on their 2025-2026 world tour, coinciding with this month’s release of latest album Live On The Moon.

The Mael brothers, Ron (keyboards), 81, and Russell (vocals), 77, are lining up a euphoric, career-spanning set, picking from such hits as This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us, Amateur Hour, Something For The Girl With Everything, Looks, Looks, Looks, The Number One Song In Heaven and Beat The Clock. Mr. B  The Gentleman Rhymer supports. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

The poster for CBeebies House Party Live! at York Barbican

Children’s show of the week: CBeebies House Party Live!, York Barbican, August 26, 11am and 2pm

DIRECTED by CBeebies superstar Justin Fletcher, CBeebies House Party Live! is a fun-packed family stage show full of sensational songs, stupendous surprises and mega moments.

Throwing an epic party just for you will be special guest Mr Tumble, Mister Maker, York Theatre Royal pantomime alumni Andy Day and Evie Pickerill, Duggee, Nigel Clarke and George Webster, who promise dancing, singing, streamers, giant jellies, bubbles galore and a CBeebies bedtime story. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Lee Gemmell’s Egyptology student Edward Bellingham in Baron Productions’ The Mummy Lot No. 249

Thriller of the month: Baron Productions presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Mummy Lot No. 249, St Mary’s Church, Bishophill Junior, York, August 28 & 29, 7.30pm

FOUNDED by Daniel Wilmot in 2015, York company Baron Productions presents Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 1892 one-act play The Mummy Lot No. 249 as its 2026 summer show, in which Oxford student Abercrombie Smith discovers his neighbour, Egyptology student Edward Bellingham, has used ancient magic to reanimate a malevolent mummy to terrorise and attack his rivals.

Wilmot’s cast features Jack McAdam as Smith, Lee Gemmell as Bellingham, M. Alder as Peterson, Lauren Hegarty as Hastie and Ellie Guffick as Monkhouse Lee. Box office: https://www.ticketsource.com/baron-productions.

The artwork for the interactive Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote at Milton Rooms, Malton

Crime detection games ahead: Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote, Milton Rooms, Malton, September 2, 7.30pm  

HOSTED by super-fan, playwright and PopHorror  co-producer Tim Benzie, cult event Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote comes to Malton with an interactive screening of NBC Universal Television’s classic Murder, She Wrote episode A Fashionable Way To Die, wherein Jessica Fletcher visits Paris to support her friend’s fashion show, but soon a murder takes place that only she (or you) can solve.

Combining games, prizes and audience participation, Solve-Along-A-Murder-She-Wrote features a race to solve the crime, via the Fameometer and the Suspiciometer; a Cabot Cove quiz; a singalong to the theme tune with new lyrics, plus clips and biographies of the campy guest stars. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com. 

The Snake Davis Band: Heading back to Helmsley Arts Centre

Return upcoming: The Snake Davis Band, Everlasting Love Tour, Helmsley Arts Centre, September 12, 7.30pm

SAXOPHONIST Snake Davis is “so happy to be back at Helmsley Arts Centre yet again”, this time showcasing new tunes and his new album on the Everlasting Love Tour with his four-piece band featuring guitar, bass guitar and drums. 

The set will span “floaty to danceable, soul and Northern Soul to pop, jazz to world”, embracing original material and classic sax pieces such as Baker Street and Night Train, as Snake swaps performing arena and stadium gigs with stellar acts for playing intimate venues with his own music choices and favourite musicians.  Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.

Michelle Yim in The Ballad Of Mulan, on tour at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Malcolm Tam

Tour show announcement of the week: Red Dragonfly Productions & Grist To The Mill Productions present The Ballad Of Mulan, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 11, 7.45pm; September 12, 2pm & 7.45pm

COMMISSIONED and performed by West Yorkshire-born British-Chinese actress Michelle Yim, The Ballad Of Mulantells the story of the real woman behind the legendary Chinese female warrior who disguised as a man to join the Empire’s army – and inspired Disney’s animation and live-feature Mulan.

Woman, warrior, legend, for ten years Mulan has fought for the Chinese Empire. Now, after one last battle, she will be going home, but can she return to her old life, becoming a woman again? Yim’s hour-long The Ballad Of Mulan presents a search for identity in a violent world. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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Sparks precede first York gig since 1972 with Live On The Moon album. Back on Earth, they land at York Barbican on Aug 25

Ron and Russell Mael: Bringing Sparks back to York after a 52-year hiatus. Picture: Munachi Osegbu

CULT Californian pop-rock pioneers Sparks will play York for the first time in 52 years on their 2025-2026 world tour on August 25.

The Mael brothers, Ron (keyboards) and Russell (vocals), will take to the York Barbican stage in one of two dates added  in June to a British itinerary already booked  into London, Glasgow, Blackpool, Bournemouth and Bristol. Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe have been on their travel list too.

Their  last York appearance came at the University of York on November 2 1974, they year when Sparks rose to fame with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us and Amateur Hour, both from the album Kimono My House.

Ron, now 81, and Russell, 77, are lining up a career-spanning set next Tuesday on the back of their 28th studio album, 2024’s MAD!, its companion EP, MADDER!, and now Sparks Live On The Moon, released on double CD and download/stream on August 14, to be followed by the limited-edition moon-coloured, marbled double LP, available exclusively from the band’s store at https://store.allsparks.com/ ahead of its September 4 release.

The album cover artwork for Sparks’ 2026 live album, Sparks Live On The Moon

The eternally adventurous, boundary-pushing Mael brothers achieve another first with this 20-track performance, captured in all its heavenly glory, complete with intro and outro contributions by actress Cate Blanchett. 

“After our 2025 World Tour, Sparks accepted an invitation to do a special one-off concert on the Moon, more precisely at the Taruntius Crater, near Mare Fecunditatis,” say Ron and Russell, in an announcement from Earth 2026.  

“Honoured to be the first band to perform on the Moon, let alone at the beautiful Taruntius Crater, we couldn’t have imagined the lunar fan interest, with all tickets being grabbed up within an hour, Coordinated Lunar Time (CLT). Thank you, Moon! 

“And a big thank-you to Cate Blanchett for taking the time out of her busy schedule to accompany us on this journey and perform emcee duties at this special concert.  What a riot Cate was on the mission’s four-day flight, helping us pass the time with hours of gravitational-pull jokes and the like!

The poster for Sparks’ York Barbican debut

“So sit back, close your eyes and imagine the wondrous setting, and enjoy Sparks Live On The Moon.”

The track listing is: So May We Start; Do Things My Own Way; Reinforcements; Academy Award Performance; Goofing Off; Beat the Clock; Please Don’t F*** Up My World; Running Up A Tab At The Hotel For The Fab; Suburban Homeboy (“Ron Speaks” Version); All You Ever Think About Is Sex; Drowned In A Sea Of Tears; JanSport Backpack; Music That You Can Dance To; When Do I Get To Sing “My Way”; The Number One Song In Heaven; This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us; Whippings And Apologies;  Lord Have Mercy; The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte and All That.

The live album comes ahead of a final run of shows for 2026 that will see Sparks return to Southend-on-Sea, as well as York, for the first time since 1974, alongside a highly-anticipated set at Green Man Festival, Crickhowell, on August 23, and dates in France, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Sparks formed in Los Angeles, California, when Ron and Russell, raised in the upscale Pacific Palisades neighborhood, established the band in 1968 while attending UCLA. Now known as “your favourite band’s favourite band”, the duo went on to inspire artists such as Joy Division, Squeeze, Depeche Mode, Björk, Beck and latterly The Last Dinner Party. As producer Jack Antonoff once put it: “All pop music is re-arranged Sparks.”

The album cover artwork for Sparks’ 2024 album, Mad!

After the 1974 springboard of  This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us and Amateur Hour, they  notched further chart success with Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth (1974); Something For The Girl With Everything (1975); Get In The Swing (1975); Looks, Looks, Looks (1975); The Number One Song In Heaven (1979); Beat The Clock (1979); When Do I Get To Sing “My Way” (1994 & 1995); When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing) (1994) and This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Two Of Us, with Faith No More (1997).

In 2021, the Maels were the subject of Edgar Wright’s documentary The Sparks Brothers. That year too, the brothers conceived, wrote and scored visionary French filmmaker Leos Carax’s surreal, dark, meta-fictional rock opera, Annette, which charted the tragic romance between a provocative stand-up comedian and a world-renowned opera singer, whose lives are upended by the birth of their mysterious child.

Earlier this year, Sparks  supported Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 20, having  joined Damon Albarn and co on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on April 9 to perform The Happy Dictator, a collaboration featured on Gorillaz’s 2026 album The Mountain.

Extras tickets were released in June for Sparks’ York Barbican debut but have since sold out. Doors will open at 7pm next Tuesday. Mr. B  The Gentleman Rhymer supports. Box office for returns only: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Sparks: “Your favourite band’s favourite band”

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, In The Beginning…, Welburn Manor Marquee, August 8

Pianist Katya Apekisheva: “Delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered”

THE best-kept secret in the world of chamber music is up and running once again. This 18th year’s theme celebrates the wonders of Creation and is titled accordingly. Fittingly, this includes six premieres over the festival fortnight, at all of which the composers concerned will be present.

The sheer statistics are worth a glance. Over the course of 13 concerts, there will be 58 pieces from 32 different composers covering 300 years to the present. Most featured are Thomas Adès and Schumann with six pieces each, followed by Beethoven and Mozart with four apiece.

There are 28 performers involved, all of them outstanding in their field, including many who return year after year and have become audience favourites.

For those new to the festival, it should be mentioned that although the programmes are published in advance, the names of the actual performers are only revealed just before each event – which adds an anticipatory frisson.

This year’s Young Artists Ensemble is the Davidoff Trio, who had the honour of opening proceedings, which encompassed Opus 1 pieces by Beethoven, Schumann, Berg and Mendelssohn. The outstanding feature of the trio’s treatment of Beethoven’s Op 1, No 1 in E flat was the intelligent pianism of Yona Sophia Jutzi. She maintained an ideal balance with her partners along with smooth momentum.

The ‘Mannheim skyrocket’ of the opening theme had a crisp staccato in all three voices. By contrast, the unusual Rondo slow movement was notable for the pianist’s rubato and the cellist’s interjections.

Much was made of the contrast between the pianissimo opening of the Scherzo and the more robust moments later. There was sparkling wit in the finale, taken at particularly brisk pace, with the strings handling its Mozart-style chromaticism with panache.

Roman Kosyakov highlighted the vitality in Schumann’s Op 1, his Abegg Variations for piano, his first foray into musical acrostics, since the letters of the name (with B representing the note B flat) are the theme that he develops. Kosyakov was clearly aware that their style was largely derived from Chopin and he milked it cleverly, particularly in the highly decorated fourth variation.

Katya Apekisheva, a long-time favourite here, delivered an account of Berg’s single-movement Piano Sonata, Op 1 that you are unlikely to hear bettered. She was totally attuned to the idiom of extremely late Romantic harmony composed when Berg was still a pupil of Schoenberg. Her touch and attention to detail were impeccable, notably as she built towards its big climax.

Mendelssohn’s First Piano Quartet, Op 1 in C minor, brought a third pianist to the podium, Daniel Lebhardt, in company with violinist Charlotte Scott, viola player Elliott Perks and cellist and festival director Jamie Walton. It proved a superb combination. Its opus number belies the work’s extraordinary maturity, which was apparent in the relentlessly detailed piano role in the first movement. Lebhardt handled it impeccably.

There was a truly Romantic soulfulness in the Adagio, largely coloured by the lower two strings. The excitement in the scherzo gave it a sense of acceleration and a power cut during the trio was weathered faultlessly. Battery lights were brought on before the finale which, despite its moderato marking, was taken at a fair clip, growing in intensity into a thrilling coda.

Review by Martin Dreyer

North York Moors Chamber Music Festival continues until August 22. For the full programme, visit:  northyorkmoorsfestival.com.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 33, from Gazette & Herald

Doubles troubles: Husband-and-wife strife for Helen Clarke’s Margo and Jamie McKeller’s ageing club champ, Lionel, in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders

MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Magpies’ folk festival, Sue Slack’s landscape paintings and The Basement’s new comedy club should outshine this evening’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until Saturday,  6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday show

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax on the Scarborough coast

Coastal gig of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, Friday, gates 6pm

FLAMBOYANT, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill on Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of  Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Grim reading: Pandora Clifford’s Mags (a younger Margaret Thatcher) flicking through the headlines in Handbagged at the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Picture: Tony Bartholomew

Political drama of the week: Handbagged, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, until August 29

MOIRA Buffini’s 2013 Olivier Award-winning play imagines what happened behind closed palace doors when two of the 20th century’s most powerful women, Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, locked handbags. Meeting once a week for 11 years, one believed there was no such thing as society; the other committed her life to serving it.

Spanning 1979 to 1990, Handbagged asks if The Queen and the Iron Lady ever found common ground or did their stiff upper lips reign supreme? Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder directs the SJT cast of Pandora Clifford, Liz Garland, Alexandra Mathie, Deven Modha, Simon Darwen and Meriel Scholfield. Box office: 01723 370541 or sjt.uk.com.

The Magpies: Hosting their annual folk festival at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest

Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, Friday and Saturday. SOLD OUT

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).

Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway

Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, Saturday & Sunday, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on Saturday

Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, Saturday, 2pm to 10.30pm

ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience. 

As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.

Nice touch: Chloe Petts feeling lippy about playing Basement Comedy Club’s debut gig

Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch gig, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, Sunday, 6pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.

Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale

Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole, until August 31

NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.

Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.

Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent

American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, Sunday, 6.30pm

HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.

Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

More Things To Do in York and beyond. Here’s Hutch’s List No. 33, from The York Press, from August 15 onwards

Squash on the tennis court: Effie Warboys’ insufferably spoilt Chessie, front left, pushing around her doubles partner, Alexa Williams’s Belle, in Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? In the background are Oscar Langford’s Harry, left, and James Robert Ball’s Tony. Picture: John Saunders

MINISTRY of Sound turning classical, The Basement’s comedy launch night and Johnny Depp’s Scarborough return spark Charles Hutchinson’s curiosity.

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, August 15,  4.30pm, 6pm & 7.30pm

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part are James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

York River Art Market organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway

Open-air art event of the week: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 15 and 16, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market has returned for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day on the third of three weekends, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

Cut Capers: Headlining Main Stage at The Magpies Festival on August 15

Folk festival fully booked: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, near York, August 15

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents today’s line-up on the Main Stage of Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm).

The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office for returns only: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

Ministry of Sound Classical: Taking over the Castle Howard grounds on August 15

Club classics/House/Orchestral party gathering of the week: Ministry of Sound Classical, Grounds of Castle Howard, near Malton, August 15, 2pm to 10.30pm

ENJOY sweeping views of the Castle Howard Estate while listening to a live orchestra reimagining the greatest dance anthems from the iconic Ministry of Sound catalogue as timeless tracks are brought to life, blending classical musicianship with contemporary dance music for an unforgettable open-air experience. 

As well as headline act Ministry Of Sound Classical, artists performing at this festival will be Judge Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, Ellie Sax, Smudged Soul and Alex Malam. Box office for last few tickets: skiddle.com/festivals/ministry-of-sound-classical-at-castle-howard/#tickets.

Hollywood Vampires: Joe Perry, left, Johnny Depp, Alice Cooper and Tommy Henriksen

Coastal gig of the week: Hollywood Vampires, TK Maxx Presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, August 15, gates 6pm

NAMED after Alice Cooper’s 1970s’ drinking club, American rock supergroup Hollywood Vampires return to Scarborough after their sold-out 2023 gig with the regular line-up of Cooper, film star and guitarist Johnny Depp, Aerosmith co-founder Joe Perry and Crossbone Skully and Warlock musician Tommy Henriksen. Punk icons The Damned support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.

Sara Barron: Compere for Basement Comedy Club debut gig

Comedy gig of the week: Basement Comedy Club launch show, The Basement, City Screen Picturehouse, York, August 16, 6pm

CITY Screen Picturehouse launches its new monthly comedy event in the redecorated Basement this weekend. Compered by Sara Barron, the debut Basement Comedy Club bill comprises headline act Chloe Petts, addressing lad culture and identity politics, Manchester comic Shah, shedding light on growing up in an immigrant household and mental health challenges, and Lovdev Barpaga, who specialises in crafting one liners and puns. Box office: picturehouses.com.

Hiker and landscape artist Sue Slack painting above Rosedale

Exhibition of the week: Sue Slack, Finding The Dramatic, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-e-Hole, until August 31

NORTH York Moors landscape painter Sue Slack’s work is inspired by a deep connection with the surrounding landscape. A keen runner and hiker, she draws creative energy from exploring the area close to home.

Working outdoors, Sue embraces the immediacy of being in the landscape and its direct influence on her painting and drawing. In Finding The Dramatic, she presents mixed-media works inspired by the hills, dales and coastline of the North York Moors. Open Saturdays to Thursdays, closed on Fridays; free to visit.

Linda Smith: Bedroom pop at The Crescent

American pop underground act of the week: Please Please You presents Linda Smith, The Crescent, York, August 16, 6.30pm

HOME recording pioneer Linda Smith has self-released her music since 1987, originally on cassette. In the early 1990s, indie labels Slumberland and Harriet Records expanded her reach with two seven-inch EPs.

Brooklyn, New York label Captured Tracks has reissued two complete albums on vinyl and Smith has begun to tour in the United States and internationally for the first time, now visiting York with her bedroom pop. Support act Troutflies play loose, woozy punk and experimental lo-fi pop, occasionally with duelling melodicas. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Silent Disco falls even more silent

CANCELLED: Glasswerk presents Day Fever Silent Disco, York Museum Gardens, August 21, 6.30pm

YORK Museum Gardens will no longer be transformed into “the ultimate outdoor dance floor” for Day Fever’s first ever Silent Disco under the stars that would have followed the organisers’ series of York Barbican indoor events.

“It’s really simple,” said Day Fever’s co-organiser, actress Vicky McClure, before the late cancellation. “Everyone gets a pair of headphones. You’ll be connected to a Day Fever DJ, who will be playing non-stop Day Fever anthems from 6.30pm until 10m. Sing as loud as you like – no-one can hear.” Ticket refunds: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/York/Museum-Gardens/Day-Fever-Silent-Disco/42485814/.

Michelle Yim in The Ballad Of Mulan, on tour at York Theatre Royal.

Show announcement of the week: Red Dragonfly Productions & Grist To The Mill Productions present The Ballad Of Mulan, York Theatre Royal Studio, September 11, 7.45pm; September 12, 2pm & 7.45pm

COMMISSIONED and performed by West Yorkshire-born British-Chinese actress Michelle Yim, The Ballad Of Mulan tells the story of the real woman behind the legendary Chinese female warrior who disguised as a man to join the Empire’s army – and inspired Disney’s animation and live-feature Mulan.

Woman, warrior, legend, for ten years Mulan has fought for the Chinese Empire. Now, after one last battle, she will be going home, but can she return to her old life, becoming a woman again. Yim’s hour-long The Ballad Of Mulan presents a search for identity in a violent world. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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More Things To Do in York and beyond. Hutch’s List No. 32, from The York Press

Donna Maria Taylor in her South Bank Studios studio

GEORGIAN celebrations, a brace of art fairs, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court and The Magpies’ folk festival should outshine Wednesday’s solar eclipse, reckons Charles Hutchinson.

Artists in situ: South Bank Studios’ Summer Artists Open Doors, Southlands Methodist Church, Bishopthorpe Road, York, today, 10am to 4pm

MEET the South Bank artists and makers who work in a broad range of disciplines, from textile art, painting, drawing and photography, to mixed media, letterpress and linocut printmaking.

Visit their studios to see their creative processes in a day of art to buy, art demonstrations and activities, including the loft studios, not usually on view to the public. The cafe will be open for refreshments. Entry is free; all welcome.  

Masquerade Ball at the 2026 York Georgian Festival tonight

York festival of the week: York Georgian Festival, until August 10

HIGHLIGHTING the sights and sounds of 18th century life, York Mansion House and beyond plays host to the fourth York Georgian Festival in a festival programme that ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the York Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms tonight. Talk, tours, performances and workshops feature too. For full listings and booking details, go to: yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.

Carlton Main Colliery Band: Brass At The Proms at Selby Abbey

Rousing concert of the week: Brass At The Proms, Carlton Main Colliery Band, Selby Abbey, tonight, 7pm

JOIN Carlton Main Frickley Colliery Band on its return to the former coalfield town of Selby for a Last Night of the Proms brass concert featuring a vibrant mix of rousing favourites. Seating in the Main Nave will be allocated, with seat and row numbers; Rear Nave seating will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Box office: selbytownhall.co.uk.

Futureproof’s logo for a night of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy

Art and science bonding exercise of the week: Futureproof presents Opposites Attract Scratch Night, York Theatre Royal Studio, tonight, 7.30pm

EIGHT acts perform a mixture of poetry, drag, monologues and comedy. Expect biochemistry, molecular biology, sewing, chalk stream-inspired dance and more tonight.

The theme, Opposites Attract, derives from the idea that many things will give people joy, purpose, belonging and entertainment — such as maths and science — that seem to be mutually exclusive to theatre. Futureproof invites creatives to consider these ostensible contrasts, alongside the concept that theatre is meant to reflect our world and/or be a tool to create new ones. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Comedy event of the week: Kevin Bridges: Warm Up, Grand Opera House, York, today and tomorrow, 8pm

CLYDEBANK comedian Kevin Bridges performs two warm-up shows in York ahead of his UK stand-up tour Here If You Need Me. Tonight’s gig has sold out but tickets are still available for tomorrow, as well as for his Leeds First Direct Bank Arena tour show on November 19. Box office: York, atgtickets.com/york; Leeds, axs.com/uk/events/1240964/kevin-bridges-tickets?skin=leeds.

On the stretch: Jamie McKeller’s Lionel, left, and Stuart Lindsay’s Charles limbering up for the doubles in York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What the Deuce? Picture: John Saunders

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, until August 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

The poster fort York River Art Market 2026. Illustration by Elliot Harrison (@York360)

Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, today and tomorrow, then August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

York River Art Market 2026 organiser Caroline Turner with artist Lincoln Lightfoot on the Dame Judi Dench Walk pathway

Tribute gig of the week: SWT presents Pulp’d vs Blur 2, Milton Rooms, Malton, today, 8pm

PULP’D and Blur2 team up for a double-header of Britpop royalty tonight. Born and raised in Sheffield, passionate Pulp fans Pulp’d came together to re-create the hits, passion and Jarvis Cocker moves.

Blur2 bring the very best of Blur to every show: the energy, the fun, the sound, the looks and the musicianship of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and co. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

Scissor Sisters: Heading to the Scarborough coast tonight

Coastal gigs of the week: Scarborough Open Air Theatre presents Scissor Sisters, today; Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, August 14,  gates 6pm

AFTER their 2025 UK arena reunion tour and that summer’s Saturday night Glastonbury set, Scissor Sisters bring their trademark blend of glam, grit and glorious to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend. Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis and co will be rolling out such favourites as Take Your Mama, Laura, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin, Let’s Have A Kiki, Only The Horses and Filthy/Gorgeous.

Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax in Scarborough

Flamboyant, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill next Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of  Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival at Sutton Park

Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, near York, August 14 and 15

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents next Friday’s Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).

Next Saturday’s line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

Composer Thomas Adès: Presenting new composition at Creation-themed North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: Marco Borggreve

In Focus: North York Moors Chamber Music Festival, August 8 to 22

THE North York Moors Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 18th consecutive year with the premieres of six works by contemporary British composers.

Aptly named Creation, the 2026 festival will run from August 8 to 22, featuring new compositions by Thomas Adès, Huw Watkins (both of whom will perform at the festival), Charlotte Bray, Tom Coult, Isabella Gellis and Helen Grime.

“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation, woven through the festival theme, by six of our country’s very finest composers,” says festival director and cellist Jamie Walton.

Charlotte Bray: Premiering That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone at North York Moors Chamber Music Festival. Picture: David Beecroft

“As part of this narrative, the Sabbath (Sunday) remains a day of rest – and each concert includes works that were themselves groundbreaking or innovative in their time, reflecting music’s timeless power to create, to renew, and to tell a universal story through sound.”

Jamie continues: “Thomas Adès is widely regarded as one of the world’s greatest living composers, so it’s a real coup to have him both write for us and come to premiere the piece, Flower Variations [in the Landspeak concert on August 14 at 7pm at Welburn Manor].

“We’re really proud of the fact that, alongside these six outstanding composers, we have such a stellar line-up of international artists.

Helen Grime: Premiering Time Be Brief. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega

“We’re also continuing to champion visual artists from the moors in the brochure, pairing their work with concert titles. We’ve done this for the past two years and it’s a wonderful way to cross-pollinate and collaborate with more artists.”

Charlotte Bray’s piece for horn and string quartet, That Which You Wove Of Lightest Thread, I Wear To Honour Stone,  will be accompanied by a collaborative artwork by Caroline Burraway, exhibited on stage at St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge during The Dividing Line performance on August 13 at 2pm.

Isabella Gellis’s Creation will be premiered in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby, at 2pm; Helen Grime’s Time Be Brief, at Metamorphoses concert, Welburn Abbey, August 15, 7pm; Huw Watkins’s Oboe Quartet, The Architect’s Hand concert, St Mary’s, Lastingham, August  18, 2pm, and Tom Coult’s Two Nocturnes and A Maze, in its UK premiere, Nightfall concert, Welburn Abbey, August 20, 7pm.

Huw Watkins: Premiering his Oboe Quartet in festival appearance. Picture: Benjamin Ealovega

The festival will take place in four historic moorland churches – St Hilda’s, Danby, St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge, St Michael’s, Coxwold, and St Mary’s, Lastingham – along with the majority of concerts being staged in the grounds of Welburn Manor, near Kirkbymoorside, where the acoustically-treated venue has been enlarged this year to reflect the festival’s increasing popularity.  

The festival was named a Best of British Fund Winner 2026 by Airbnb, representing Yorkshire as part of the North York Moors Beacon for the Arts.

Jamie says: “Our festival celebrates the art of collaboration in an awe-inspiring setting, taking our audience on a musical quest each year through interwoven themes within a central storyline.

Isabella Gellis: Premiering Creation in August 11’s Dialogue concert at St Hilda’s, Danby. Picture: Ella Pavlides

“Over 18 years, we have built a reputation for breaking down barriers to make exceptional music accessible to all, fostering community and cultural connection through friendship and trust. Uncompromising even amid pandemic challenges, our festival was one of the few to present full, live performances in 2020 and 2021.

“August, when the heather is in full bloom, brings the North York Moors to life. Artists are immersed in the National Park, rehearsing and living in a deeply holistic environment, while audiences are welcome to enjoy picnics on the grounds of Welburn Manor, attend concerts, and explore the region’s historic churches and priories.”

The event continues to attract international artists, 28 this year, many of them committing to the entire fortnight by taking up residencies in a festival of 13 concerts featuring 58 chamber works from 32 composers spanning 300 years to the present day. 

Tom Coult: Premiering Two Nocturnes and A Maze on August 20. Picture: Matthew Johnson

This year, these include Alena Baeva, Benjamin Baker, Oliver Cave, Oliver Heath, Alessandro Ruisi and Charlotte Scott (violin); Sascha Bota, Meghan Cassidy,  Emma Wernig and Simone van der Giessen (viola); Rebecca Gilliver, Tim Posner and Jamie Walton (cello) and Will Duerden (double bass).

Taking part too are: Thomas Adès, Katya Apekisheva, Joseph Havlat, Roman Kosyakov, Daniel Lebhardt and Huw Watkins (piano); Ben Goldscheider (French horn); Nicholas Daniel (oboe); Matthew Hunt (clarinet); Jonathan Davies (bassoon) and James Gilchrist (tenor). Completing the line-up will be the festival’s award-winning Young Artists ensemble, The Davidoff Trio.

Tickets for individual concerts are £18; a season ticket for all 13 costs £190. As ever, under-30s gain free entry to any of the concerts. To book, email [email protected], call 07722 038990 or visit www.northyorkmoorsfestival.com. The full programme can be downloaded via https://www.northyorkmoorsfestival.com/.

“Our 2026 festival celebrates the wonder of beginnings and features six newly commissioned premieres that evoke the six days of the universe’s creation,” says North York Moors Chamber Music Festival director Jamie Walton. Picture: Matthew Johnson

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REVIEW: The Songs of Joni Mitchell, with Lail Arad, Jesca Hoop & Naima Bock, The Citadel, Gillygate, York, July 31

Lail Arad: Founder of The Songs of Joni Mitchell

LAIL Arad first sang a Joni Mitchell song in public at her London school concert at the age of 11. Joni’s biggest  British hit, Big Yellow Taxi, was her choice, and it would be her first pick at The Citadel too.

Singer-songwriter Lail first presented The Songs of Joni Mitchell to mark her groundbreaking Canadian counterpart’s 80th birthday, since when she and Manchester-based American singer-songwriter Jesca Hoop have organised two tours and now a summer of special shows and festival appearances.

They have been joined by the varied likes of This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables, cult singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, Irish singer and composer Lisa Hannigan, David Bowie band member (1995 to 2004) Gail Ann Dorsey, Scottish folk and dream-pop singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni, BRIT Award winner Emile Sande and American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Amidon.

The latest addition is former Goat Goal band member and folk singer Naima Bock, whose York appearance was only her second with Lail and Jesca, having met them for the first time to rehearse only the day before her debut.

Rather more settled in the ranks is regular pianist Richard Sears, but he was not the only musician to be seated at last Friday’s concert, played to a full house of Mitchell devotees of differing ages, young and much older, split evenly between women and men.

For each solo number, followed by a song with Richard accompanying her on the keys, Naima brought on a chair, then played her guitar cross-legged in bright socks and afterwards returned the chair to from whence it had come, out of view beyond the door to the side.

“I like sitting down,” she later explained. Certainly it added to her looking and sounding very much at home in this nascent association with “Songs Of”, deeper of voice than Lail and Jesca, when performing Tin Angel and A Case of You in Set One and early Mitchell composition Urge For Going and Shades Of Scarlett Conquering, her best number, in Set Two.

Jesca Hoop: Lail Arad’s collaborator and co-organiser for The Songs of Joni Mitchell shows. The York concert was promoted by Joe Coates and The Crescent

The bright white-walled Citadel was looking spick and span after the £300,000 restoration of its meeting spaces and café, all the more so in the early evening daylight. Built as a place of worship and mission centre for the Salvation Army, and still home to the York City Church, the building’s air or reverence lent itself to the tone of the performance.

Always closer to reverent, never irreverent, but with interpretation rather than impersonation at its root, the approach was typified by Lail slowing down Big Yellow Taxi to a stately glide, eschewing Joni’s trademark laugh at the climax  too.

Lail incidentally was wearing a shirt from Saskatchewan, in honour of Joni’s formative years there (playing her first paid gig at the Louis Riel Coffee House in Saskatoon). “I bought it on Vinted,” our host admitted, before performing For Free (which presumably the shirt wasn’t).

Introduced by Lail, Jesca had opened Set One with Morning Morgantown, whose melody had ‘stuck in her head for 38 years’ and was newly released to electric guitar accompaniment. Joined by Richard, Jesca’s take on Lessons In Survival, from her favourite Joni record, 1972’s For The Roses, located that survival instinct.

Richard had one solo number, Little Green, from 1971’s Blue, and by now the concert lighting was taking greater effect, whether bathing the walls in green, blue, pink, red or taxi- yellow.

Your reviewer most enjoyed the climax to each half when Lail, Jesca and Naima (now standing) united in harmony, but switching positions, with Richard to their side, first for Night In The City. “How does the first line go?” said a stage-whispering Jesca, promptly answering her own question by breaking into Rainy Night House.

Lail told a story of mistakenly thinking Joni was singing “’A little money riding on the make-beliefs” on Raised On Robbery, until she married a Canadian who put her straight about the “Maple Leafs”, as Set One closed on a surge of Richard’s boogie-woogie piano.

Naima Bock: Making only her second Songs of Joni Mitchell concert appearance in York. Picture: El Hardwick, for Sub Pop Records

The format remained the same in Set Two, opening with Lail in a cappella mode.  “This song is from 1969 but it could have been written today,” she said, introducing the anti-war sentiments of The Fiddle And The Drum, her solo highlight.

Jesca picked Night Ride Home and California, either side of Naima’s Set Two contributions.  “I know about this next song,” she said, in a nod to her roots in Santa Rosa, in rural northern California, and her years in Los Angeles. “I’m just learning to strum, it’s true,” she chided herself  after “fluffing” (in her words) a guitar line. “Thank you, that’s very generous,” came her response to the audience clapping as appreciatively as ever.

Jesca went on to highlight how Joni had been the first female singer-songwriter to divulge details of family, friends and loved ones in her lyrics. “Now we have permission to spill out our experiences, when previously it wasn’t normal.” Step forward Charlie XCX, Self Esteem, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish et al.

Jesca’s rendition of Amelia ensued and then it was time for the grand finale, all four together again for Joni’s Woodstock Festival anthem, Woodstock, the song she did not perform at the August 1969 gathering on account of her manager, David Geffen, fearing the heavy traffic would prevent her arrival at the ABC Television Center in New York to perform it on The Dick Cavett Show. Ironically, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Jefferson Airplane all turned up straight from the festival to join her.

That song “defined not only the festival but the entire generation”, enthused Lail as she took lead vocals, the stage by now resplendent in golden light. She fronted Carey too, where Naima and Jesca’s harmonising was at its most sublime.

Aptly for Both Sides Now, both sides, audience and performers alike, were invited to sing together. All three protagonists took a lead vocal, one each for “I really don’t know clouds at all/love at all/life at all”.

Joni really does know life at all, of course, as Lail, Jesca and Naima’s performances of The Songs of Joni Mitchell testified. Definitely not a “tribute show”, instead they paid her the highest compliment.

Stanley Chow’s poster illustration for The Songs of Joni Mitchell tour with Naima Bock, including The Citadel, York, on July 31

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on York Early Music Festival, International Young Artists Competition 2026, National Centre for Early Music, York, July 11

The Lyons Mouth: Winners of the Main Prize and Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize at York Early Music Festival’s International Young Artists Competition. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

THIS biennial competition, for ensembles of at least three members with an average age no more than 35, attracted 56 entries this year. Nine of these reached the final, three each from the Netherlands and Switzerland and one each from France, Israel and the United Kingdom.

Two featured a solo soprano and one consisted of six unaccompanied singers. The remaining six were purely instrumental. There were three trios, four quartets and two sextets.

So much for statistics. However, they suggest, quite accurately, that there was variety aplenty. Technical standards were extremely high, reflecting the professionalism of early music teaching across European conservatories these days. ’Twas not always so.

Ossian’s Dream: Joint winners of European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize. Picture: Shelagh Bourke

Eleven criteria were listed as assessable by the international jury. Only one, however, touched on that indefinable X-factor that marks out a performer as destined for a serious career: presentation. It involves the kind of charisma that conveys a good deal more than merely the music itself and is intertwined with a performer’s personality. Inevitably this was much rarer here.

Each group was allotted 20 minutes to display its wares. The sextet Ossian’s Dream was distinctive in sticking largely to the 19th century, with the historical clarinet of Claudia Reyes Segovia at its centre. After a crisp, not to say dramatic, account of Mendelssohn’s First Walpurgisnacht overture, there was strong contrast in the slow movement of Weber’s Clarinet Quintet, whose jovial centre was much enhanced by the clarinet. The finale of Mendelssohn’s C minor Piano Trio was truly effervescent.

The stand-out player of the quartet I Mastricelli was Bianca Cucini, whose soprano gamba dominated their set. With her colleagues confined to bass gamba, cello and organ, colours were otherwise regularly dark. A Tobias Hume almain and a lively, cross-accented Recercada by Diego Ortíz were but warm-up acts for the increasingly vivid variations in the Diferencias on ‘La dama le demanda’, by Antonio de Cabezón, which featured riffs from all four players.

I Mastricelli, featuring jury prize for the most promising young artist winner Bianca Cucini. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Recorder, harpsichord and cello provided the underlay for soprano Liron Givona in the Nari Baroque Ensemble. She was fuller voiced than one might have expected in this repertory, but her tone was flexible even when slightly diffuse.

She trilled neatly alongside a sopranino recorder nightingale. The cellist was underpowered more than once here, but delivered some very rapid obbligato in a forceful little melodrama from a Pepusch cantata, ‘When Love’s Soft Passion’.

The French quartet La Mandorle – oboe, violin, cello and theorbo – focused on native composers from the generation just before Bach, all played without scores. Victoire Delnatte’s oboe was engagingly clean and full-bodied and Elodie Brzustowsk’s theorbo proved fluent.

Lagrime: Winners of the Cambridge Early Music Prize. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

The ensemble was rhythmically alive in Clérambault’s La Félicité suite and equally idiomatic in a Robert de Visée suite, in whose Gigue the oboist briefly slapped rhythm on the cello. This group was unlucky not to be among the prizewinners. We shall certainly hear from them again.

Bianca Cucini reappeared in the Swiss trio Tra Noi, playing bass gamba and quinton (a descant viol) alongside recorder and harpsichord. A rather pallid Passacaglia by Andrea Falconieri nearly let them down, but ensemble remained taut in the same composer’s Ciaccona at a rapid tempo.

However it was Nicola Matteis’ Diverse Bizzarrie that showed how technically dazzling a chaconne can be in the right hands. Spearheaded by Silvia Berchtold’s recorder, Tra Noi took all its hurdles in their stride.

Tra Noi: Joint winner of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Handel and his Italian rivals, Porpora and Geminiani, all born within two years of each other, were the targets of Dutch quartet Il Parrasio, with a standard line-up of two violins, cello and harpsichord or organ. It was all very stylish but lacking in daring.

There was clarity and balance in a Sinfonia da Camera by Porpora, and a delicately phrased Allegro in Handel’s Op 5 No 1 trio sonata. Geminiani’s Andante affettuoso (The Enchanted Forest) lacked emotion. It was a case of nearly there, but not quite.

Another Dutch quartet, Quarterino, with Tomasso Simonetta Sandri’s flute replacing one of the violins, took a similar tack, this time with Charles Avison heard between Geminiani and Vivaldi. Avison’s two allegros in a G minor trio sonata were impressive, one a snappy fugue, the other with tight-knit accents. But Vivaldi’s trio sonata, RV84 in D, fell down on two counts, a garbled opening Allegro, taken too fast, and an oddly chromatic ending that failed to convince.

Bianca Cucini: Winner of the jury prize for the most promising young artist, who played with both I Mastricelli and Tra Noi at the International Young Artists Competition. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

The Swiss trio Lagrime boasted the unusual line-up of soprano, Baroque trombone and theorbo, neither of the latter two using scores. All five of their pieces were settings of texts from the Song of Songs and some introduced a modicum of stage movement.

Franziska Blömer’s straight-toned soprano was ideally suited to music of the early Baroque, and Maximilien Brisson’s quietly velvety trombone was superbly controlled. The two duetted beautifully, conversing in Claudia Rusca’s Ego dormio and harnessed movingly in Vulnerasti cor meum by Giovanni Sances.

Finally, we had the British vocal sextet The Lyons Mouth, three female voices, three male, whose name derives from their shared background at the University of York. They appeared barefooted, without scores.

Bianca Cucini receiving her prize from Philip Hobbs. Picture: Charlie Kirkpatrick

Alongside two madrigals from Monteverdi’s Fourth Book, they offered three motets, one of them by the nun Raffaella Aleotti, thought to have been the earliest woman to have sacred music published. The group was remarkable for its ability to maintain a tight blend despite relatively full- throated delivery.

There was nothing precious about Monteverdi’s chromatic Sì, ch’io vorrie morire, nor were they afraid of the scrunchy discords in Sigismondo d’India’s Dispietata pietate. But there was more variation, even tenderness, in Victoria’s Vadam et circuibo civitatem from the Song of Songs.

Perhaps with the advantage of performing last and certainly through their assured ensemble, The Lyons Mouth carried off the overall First Prize, as well as the Friends of York Early Music Festival Prize.

The Lyons Mouth’s profile for the International Young Artists Competition

The European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) Development Trust Prize was shared between Ossian’s Dream and Tra Noi. The jury prize for the most promising young artist was awarded to Bianca Cucini.

The Cambridge Early Music Prize went to the trombone-based Lagrime. As noted above, La Mandorle was unlucky to lose out, but there can be no argument that the rest of the prizes were thoroughly well deserved.

Review by Martin Dreyer

HIGHLIGHTS of the competition will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Early Music Show on August 30 at 5pm and will be available thereafter on BBC Sounds.

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What’s On in Ryedale, York & beyond. Hutch’s List No. 32, from Gazette & Herald

York Georgian Festival, promenading through the streets and taking over York Mansion House

YORK River Art Market’s return, Georgian festivities, Shakespeare sonnets on the tennis court and Britpop tribute acts R catch Charles Hutchinson’s eye as August arrives.

York festival of the week: York Georgian Festival, tomorrow to August 10

HIGHLIGHTING the sights and sounds of 18th century life, York Mansion House plays host to the fourth York Georgian Festival in a five-day festival programme that ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the York Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms on Saturday. Talk, tours, performances and workshops feature too. For full listings and booking details, go to: yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.

Oscar Langford, left, and James Robert Ball in rehearsal for York Shakespeare Project’s Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce? at Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York. Picture: John Saunders

New balls please: York Shakespeare Project presents 2026 Summer Sonnets: What The Deuce?, Holy Trinity Churchyard, Goodramgate, York, Friday to August 15, except August 11, 6pm & 7.30pm, plus 4.30pm Saturday shows

SUMMER at the Goodramgate Lawn Tennis Club finds four doubles teams competing for the chance to play in a Wimbledon amateur tournament, whereupon partnerships and rivalries lead to sabotage and break point. Who has the advantage? Who is at fault? Will the score be love?

Expect further tennis puns aplenty as Rosy Rowley directs Stuart Green’s script that asks a new collection of ten characters to play out this new sporting and unsporting situation where each finds a way to share a Shakespeare sonnet. Taking part will be James Robert Ball, Oscar Langford, Helen Clarke, Sarah McKeagney, Stuart Lindsay, Alexa Williams, Jamie McKeller, Alan Sharp, Christine Bramwell and Effie Warboys. Box office: https://tickets.41monkgate.co.uk/

New York Brass Band line up with Hyde Family Jam members Tom Gill (accordion), back row, third from left, and Will Dreyfus (vocals and guitar), front row, left, ahead of Friday’s York Barbican gig

Mash-up of the week: The Crescent presents New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, Friday, 8pm

TWO of York’s biggest, bounciest musical party troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference. Promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by an eight-piece line up of New York Brass Band, each playing a 40-minute set before rampant folk-rock meets New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of these high-energy street urchins’ biggest hits. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

York Stage’s poster for Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York

Musical theatre celebration of the week: York Stage presents brings Raise Your Voice: MTI Broadway Junior Revue, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Friday, 7.30pm, and Saturday, 2pm and 4pm

THIS uplifting showcase by the next generation of performers features iconic songs from Broadway Junior favourites, showcased by a talented young York Stage cast ready to sing out and shine as they take centre stage with confidence, courage and nascent star quality. Cue big numbers, heartfelt moments and personality aplenty. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

The poster for this summer’s York River Art Market. Illustration by Elliot Harrison (@York 360)

Open-air art event of the month: York River Art Market, Dame Judi Dench Walk, York, August 8 & 9 and August 15 & 16, 10am to 5.30pm

YORK River Art Market returns for its 11th year, bringing more than 30 artists from multiple disciplines to the Ouse riverside each day, this year presenting art and design market stalls on both sides of the pathway.

Described as York’s answer to the Left Bank in Paris, the event is being run for the first time this summer by Caroline Turner, a professional potter and ceramics teacher at Clay Space York. Admission is free.

Scissor Sisters: Heading for Scarborough Open Air Theatre on Saturday

Coastal gigs of the week: TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre, Scissor Sisters, Saturday; Holly Johnson, ABC and Heaven 17, August 14,  gates 6pm

AFTER their 2025 UK arena reunion tour and that summer’s Saturday night Glastonbury set, Scissor Sisters bring their trademark blend of glam, grit and glorious to Scarborough Open Air Theatre this weekend. Jake Shears, Babydaddy, Del Marquis and co will be rolling out such favourites as Take Your Mama, Laura, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin, Let’s Have A Kiki, Only The Horses and Filthy/Gorgeous.

Flamboyant, unapologetically bold Frankie Goes To Hollywood lead vocalist and lyricist Holly Johnson tops the 1980s’ triple bill next Friday, when he performs the chart-topping trio of  Relax, Two Tribes and The Power Of Love, further Frankie smashes Welcome To The Pleasure Dome and Rage Hard and solo hits Love Train, Americanos and Atomic City. Sheffield bands ABC and Heaven 17 support. Box office: scarboroughopenairtheatre.com.

Holly Johnson: Frankie says Relax in Scarborough next Friday

Tribute gig of the week: SWT presents Pulp’d vs Blur 2, Milton Rooms, Malton, Saturday, 8pm

PULP’D and Blur2 team up for a double-header of Britpop royalty tonight. Born and raised in Sheffield, passionate Pulp fans Pulp’d came together to re-create the hits, passion and Jarvis Cocker moves.

Blur2 bring the very best of Blur to every show: the energy, the fun, the sound, the looks and the musicianship of Damon Albarn, Graham Coxon, Alex James and co. Box office: 01653 696240 or themiltonrooms.com.

The Magpies: Hosting their folk festival weekend at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest

Folk festival of the month: The Magpies Festival, Sutton Park, near York, August 14 and 15

RUN by the folk trio of Bella Gaffney, Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers, The Magpies Festival presents a Friday Main Stage bill of Daraa Tribes (6pm), The Magpies (8pm) and headliners Manran (10pm) and Brass Castle Stage bill of True Foxes (5pm), Elizabeth Davidson-Blythe & Daniel Quayle (7pm), SupaLung (9pm) and New York Brass Band (11pm).

The Saturday line-up on the Main Stage comprises Steady Habits (12 noon), Alex Hart (2pm), Blair Dunlop (4pm), Katherine Priddy (6pm), Gnoss (8pm) and headliners Cut Capers (10pm). The Brass Castle Stage plays host to Songs In The Round, with Katherine Priddy, Blair Dunlop and Chloe Foy (1pm), Tarren (3pm), Ophelia’s Beard (5pm), Around About Dusk (7pm) and Suntou Susso & The Gambian Superstars (9pm). Box office: themagpiesfestival.co.uk/tickets.

Katherine Priddy: Saturday set at The Magpies Festival

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What happens when New York Brass Band match up with Hyde Family Jam? Find out at Friday’s party night at York Barbican

Match-up of the day: New York Brass Band, featuring Elita, from Rio de Janeiro, on bass drum, with Hyde Family Jam accordionist Tom Gill, back row, third from left, and vocalist Will Dreyfus, front left. Picture: Liam Van Hymus

TWO of York’s bounciest party/function musical troupes collide at York Barbican for a co-headline show with a difference on Friday.

Please Please You promoter Joe Coates has decided the four-piece Hyde Family Jam will be on stage first, followed by New York Brass Band in an eight-piece line-up.

“I can see why Joe’s done that,” says Hyde Family Jam vocalist and guitarist Will Dreyfus. “To go on after an eight-piece band, to try to ramp things up even more…no, it’s better to do it the other way round.”

After each combo plays a 40-minute set, rampant folk-rock will meet New Orleans brass head on in a collaborative finale of the same length in a match-up cum mash-up of their biggest hits from wedding, busking and festival engagements.

“We did play together in the golden days of the Post Office Club, where we used to do it once a year, when we got Hyde Family Jam to support us,” recalls New York Brass Band founder and sousaphone player James Lancaster.

“But this Barbican gig came about totally by accident. It started with sharing a busking pitch in Parliament Street, when New York Brass Band were trying to flog tickets for our show with my son Charlie’s Heavy Beat Brass Band, which he’d started at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where his final project was to create a New Orleans-style brass band – and they’ve been going for ten years now. The family musical links run deep!

“We ended up doing a few songs together and we thought, ‘OK, there’s probably something in this’. Rupert (Engledow, Hyde Family Jam violinist) and I got talking as the band leaders, and then my son Joe [fellow trumpet player Joe Lancaster] was definitely the driving force behind it.”

New York Brass Band founder James Lancaster with the York combo’s signature sousaphone tuba

The next task has been “trying to get 12 grown men together in one room” for rehearsals. “We travel a lot for weddings and festivals, so to get everyone together is a challenge but we’ve managed it a few times,” says James, the latest gathering being on Monday.

An element of unpredictability will frame Friday’s climax. “Hyde Family Jam don’t have a drummer, so importing our drummer into their sound could either be a car crash or a success,” says James.

“It’s been quite an eye opener for us,” says Will. “We normally take all our cues from Kai [West], whose double bass playing is so percussive.” Or as James puts it, “Slapping it!” “We’re so used to taking our cues from Kai that it’s been like, ‘oh drums, I remember them,” rejoins Will.

James considers the possibilities for Friday’s joint set. “I’ve been to New Orleans a few times, and there’s a Zydeco element, where I looked where there could be a crossover with Hyde Family Jam’s line-up. Like Iko Iko – we play the Dr John version – just fitted together, with Rupert’s violin, the brass and the accordion.

“We’re both covers bands with a twist. I’m relatively hard-headed that I make my living as a musician, so my bottom line is that it’s about disguising we’re a covers band by twisting it.”

Will recalls seeing Hyde Family Jam in a socially distanced gig in Covid times at The Crescent. “I thought, ‘oh this is a brilliant way to do covers’,” he says. “I had a conversation with Rupert about being a ‘dep’ for John [frontman John Holt-Roberts] when he had acting commitments. I was working as festival co-ordinator for York Mediale and playing solo gigs at the time.

“John and Kai had played in Dead Drummer, basically heavy metal on acoustic guitar and stand-up bass, playing everything at 3,000 miles per hour – it was a sight to behold – so Hyde Family Jam play very fast too. Coming in to learn the set list was very intimidating, though now it feels very settled as I must have done 300 gigs over four years.”

Hyde Family Jam’s 2026 line-up: Rupert Engledow, violin, Kai West, double bass, Tom Gill, accordion, and Will Dreyfus, lead vocals and guitar

Will has been working with theatre-makers Wright & Grainger too, latterly at Latitude Festival, where they put together a show called Sonder in a day. “We met at ten in the morning, knowing we had to deliver an hour-long show, having a breakdown in the afternoon, then magically it all came together at night, on the theme of Mary Oliver poems.”

Will also joined up with writer, theatre-maker Casey Jay Andrews for her Feast of Words show in Adelaide, Australia, earlier this year and is working on a scratch show with Phil Grainger under the Wright & Grainger umbrella.

New York Brass Band’s upcoming gigs include a late-night party slot at The Magpies Festival on August 14 at 11pm Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest and Lindisfarne Festival on September 3. “It’s a meeting of crazy Geordies and Scots, where they all dress up as Vikings,” says James, whose first  Barbican gig came in his days as the trumpet player in Big Ian Donaghy’s Huge, performing the test event at the Barbican Centre, as it was first called, in 1991.

Looking ahead, he says: “We can visualise getting together with Hyde Family Jam again – if it goes well with the audience and with the accountant.”

 “Every time I walk past the Barbican, it’s lovely to see the poster up – and the Barbican staff have been very supportive,” says Will.

Friday’s concert will have one other fresh ingredient. “After we played the Rio de Janeiro carnival, I caught my son Charlie learning Portuguese In 300 Days on Duolingo, as he’d met a girl there called Elita. They kept flying over to see each other, and eventually she proposed to him and they married on a beach in Rio last year.

“She now has a visa, so she spends half the year in Rio, half  over here playing the festival season, and she’ll be playing bass drum on Friday. She’s an absolute ray of sunshine, and we now have Grace [James’s daughter] and Elita to balance the general maleness of the band!”

New York Brass Band & Hyde Family Jam, York Barbican, August 7, 8pm. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

John Holt-Roberts

Did you know?

HYDE Family Jam founder member, singer and guitarist John Holt-Roberts still performs with the York band on occasion, when not clashing with his acting commitments. This summer he played Costard in Shakespeare in the Squares’ 10th anniversary tour of Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare’s comedy of flirtation, foolishness and the irresistible pull of love, directed by fellow York theatre alumnus Toby Gordon, from June 3 to July 12.

Will Dreyfus says: “When John doubled down on his acting, it worked out well for me as I love playing with these guys. He still does some gigs with the band, and he’s very much the the consummate actor-muso, hopping around the stage whereas I’m more about the chat than the moves.”

Did you know too?

HYDE Family Jam double bassist Kai West will be flying back from Sorrento tonight in good time for Friday’s gig at York Barbican.

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What’s in store at 2026 York Georgian Festival? Here are Aug 6 to 10’s highlights

York Georgian Ball: Festival highlight on Saturday at Grand Assembly Rooms

YORK Georgian Festival returns for its fourth year, filling the city with the sights and sounds of 18th century life from August 6 to 10.

Hosted by York Mansion House, the five-day festival programme ranges from free displays of dancing and military drills in St Helen’s Square to the splendour of the York Georgian Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms, in Blake Street, and includes talks, tours, performances and workshops too at a variety of venues.

York Mansion House manager and curator Richard Pollitt says: “We’re looking forward to another fabulous festival, with a busy programme lined up exploring the fascinating history of this era. We’d like to thank all our partner attractions for supporting the festival once again.

“The popularity of the Georgian and Regency period shows no sign of slowing down with people finding so much joy in recreating the fashions and social occasions of the time, and we aim to bring some of that joy to the streets of York.

Author Terry Deary: Talk on Murder in the Georgian Theatre at York Mansion House on Thursday

“We’re hoping to see the city centre full of Georgian splendour over the weekend with so many people coming to York for the festival.”

The festival promenade will return for a second year on Saturday, starting from Clifford’s Tower at 11am and making its way through the city, via Coppergate and Parliament Street, to York Mansion House at 11.20am, led by red-coated members of Pulteney’s 13th Regiment of Foot, a group of military re-enactors. Anyone interested in dressing up in Georgian and Regency dress to join the promenade is invited to book a free place.

The Pulteney’s regiment will be demonstrating its drills on Saturday and Sunday at 12.15pm and 3.45pm in St Helen’s Square, complemented by displays of Georgian dancing by the Galliard Folk Dancers at 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3pm.

The regiment has stepped in to help the festival at the 11th hour, after the previously booked military group, His Majesty’s 33rd Regiment of Foot, cancelled through unforeseen circumstances.

Promenade through York: Passing through Coppergate en route from Clifford’s Tower to York Mansion House on Saturday morning

Visitors to the Mansion House can find out more about the uniform and kit of soldiers of the time in afternoon talks by the visiting redcoats on Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm.

Richard says: “We’re very grateful to Pulteney’s for helping us out at such short notice and are looking forward to seeing them in action, leading our promenade and recreating military drills in front of the house in St Helen’s Square.”

Saturday’s evening highlight will be the Masquerade Ball, from 7pm to 11pm, traditionally an extravagant occasion when guests would wear elaborate fancy dress and masks to disguise their true identities. Live music will be provided by Eboracum Baroque with guidance from dance mistress Lottie from Dance The Past, all with the support of ASK Italian and York Gin.

The poster for No Priest But Love, the Church Conservation Trust’s fundraising event featuring Helena Whitbread and Angela Clare’s play about Anne Lister

Anyone wanting to prepare for the Masquerade Ball can take dancing lessons at The Guildhall on Friday and there will be free fan language workshops at York Mansion House, where you can learn how to send secret messages across the dance floor.

Talks and tours include the return of Horrible Histories author Terry Deary, who will explore Murder in the Georgian Theatre, at York Mansion House on Thursday from 6pm to 7pm; self-led and bookable festival tours of the Bar Convent; curators’ talks on fashion and dress at Fairfax House and York Castle Museum and an examination of how women were treated by the Georgian justice system in PhD researcher Tom Ellis’s talk Convict Women in York and Beyond at Barley Hall on Friday from 6.30pm to 8.30pm.

One of York’s most famous Georgian visitors, “Gentleman Jack” Anne Lister, will be the subject of Helena Whitbread and Angela Clare’s new play, No Priest But Love, at Merchant Taylors’ Hall, on Sunday at 4.30pm, preceded by a 2pm look around Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, where Anne Lister and Ann Walker celebrated their commitment made to each other on March 30 1834; a 2.30pm to 3.30pm talk by Angela Clare and a guided walk to Merchant Taylors’ from 3.30pm to 4pm.

On the concluding day, Monday, a series of talks at York Mansion House will include York St John University students launching a new edition of correspondence exchanged between writers Charles Ignatius Sancho, one of the first Black Britons known to have voted in a parliamentary election, and Laurence Sterne, vicar of St Michael’s, Coxwold, and author of Tristram Shandy, at 3.30pm. Further topics will be Georgian men’s shoes at 1.30pm and the campaign to abolish the slave trade at 5.30pm.

Find full listings and booking details at: www.yorkgeorgianfestival.co.uk.

Eboracum Baroque: Playing at Saturday’s Georgian Masquerade Ball at the Grand Assembly Rooms

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