NUMBERS were up at this year’s ever-popular Cleckheaton Folk Festival attracting record crowds in their thousands at the weekend.

Advance ticket sales for concerts were booming with even more being sold on the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday with people queuing at the box office, said one of the festival directors Jim Saville.

An orderly queue was starting even before the ticket office had chance to open at 10am today and Cleckheaton’s biggest event of the calendar year, and one of the biggest in the whole of Kirklees, will be back again at the same time next year with planning already started, Mr Saville said.

“No acts confirmed yet but work is in progress. We’ve had a fantastic weekend, great artists and a great crowd. It’ll be hard to beat but we’ll do our hardest,” he added.

About 300 to 400 people got into the nautical-themed mood joining in the parade which wound its merry way from outside the fire station through the town’s streets made up of bands, dancers, festival organisers, fancy seafarers, Vikings, pirates, musicians and visitors who wanted to tag along.

Organisers of the 28th festival chose the nautical theme because so many of this year’s artists had links to the sea.

Mr Saville set up his own group Shantyfolk especially to kick off the proceedings on Friday with an award-winning line up of artists to follow, many were named in this year's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - including Martin Carthy and best duo Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker and best group The Young'uns.

The main acts were staged at Spenborough Town Hall and the Masonic Hall throughout the weekend but cafes and chip shops were also hosting smaller gigs with informal sessions in many of the pubs too.

Mr Saville said; "The Friday session in The Commercial was really bounding and the singer sessions in the pubs have been crowded out. The fringe stuff was well attended as always - everything went down well."

The street market backed by local traders was also a big hit with visitors and kept the town's tills ringing and there were even expectations of a good turnout for the breakfast session that opened today's programme - despite a late night before for many festival-goers.

And numbers were swelled even more for the free family fun day with street artists and activities for children to round the weekend off.

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