Holmfirth Festival Of Folk

Hugh Wilson

You’ll know Holmfirth as the location for Last of the Summer Wine, the endless BBC sitcom that featured lovable pensioner rogues Compo, Clegg, Dopey, Happy and Not At All Funny and always used to be on at your gran’s when you popped round on Sunday.

But Holmfirth has so much more to offer than guided tours of Last of the Summer Wine country. Thank God.

The pretty West Yorkshire village, nestling in picturesque rolling countryside a few miles outside Huddersfield, is also home to the Holmfirth Festival of Folk (7,8,9 May), an event that grew out of the ashes of the Holmfirth Folk Festival (splitters!) in 2005.

HFF is small and perfectly formed. Most of the action takes place in pubs and on the streets and the vast majority is free. It’s fair to say it’s not a starry occasion, but acts already confirmed include Belshazzar’s Feast, Jeff Warner, Miriam Backhouse, Muldoon’s Picnic, Ray Hearne and Ray Padgett. Expect lots more.

It all makes for a bumper weekend of good folk and a very good excuse to spend more time than usual in pubs. Take time to visit Nora Batty’s famous tearoom if you like, but we wouldn’t advise it.

For more information visit www.holmfirthfestivaloffolk.co.uk