OTLEY musicians will be singing their hearts out next month during a celebratory weekend of live music in the town.

Otley Music Festival was originally planned to take place in June 2020 but was forced online due to social restrictions caused by the pandemic.

Now the event, which will take place over the weekend of June 10-12, will finally go ahead, showcasing the wealth of talent in the market town and attracting top musicians from elsewhere in the country.

Kicking- off the fun on Friday, June 10 will be singer/songwriter Edwina Hayes, who has performed all over taking in top events and venues from Glastonbury to the Royal Albert Hall . She has also toured extensively with Jools Holland and Nanci Griffith, who described Edwina as having “the sweetest voice in England”.

Outstanding Anglo/Scottish folk duo Janice Burns and Jon Doran will headline the acts on Saturday evening, June 11, and throughout the weekend there will be a number of seasoned local performers including Hazjak, The Broomies, Jon Budworth, Strumash, Andy Aitchison, Chimes, Redwod River Band and Ulallele to name but a few.

Many of the performances will be held in Otley Parish Church, with a finale outside the Horse and Farrier pub on Sunday afternoon and evening. All profits will be donated to the church’s Local to Global charity initiative, which is currently supporting Caring for Life and Kisiizi Hospital in Uganda.

Organiser Paul Briscoe said: “I've been involved in bringing live music to Otley for 20 years now, starting with organising the music side of Otley Beer Festival for many years and more recently running open mics at the Horse & Farrier and Otta's Leah.

“A wonderful community of musicians has built up around these events. They're hugely talented people who collaborate together, write and perform primarily for the love of it rather than to make money; they add so much to the town and wider community in the process. However, they tend not to feature in Otley's other music festivals, so I approached Otley Parish Church to create a new event to showcase their talent on a bigger stage while raising money for good causes.

“Otley Music Festival was the result. It was originally due to take place in June of 2020, but the pandemic intervened and caused a delay of 2 years. We are now delighted to go ahead live as planned.”

The Friday and Sunday evening sessions will be ticketed while the Saturday and Sunday afternoon events will be pay as you feel.

Paul added: “As it is intended as a community event, we have tried to keep the prices down as far as possible to make the music accessible to all. But do please buy your tickets early as it helps us very much with the planning of the festival and, of course, we don’t want you to miss out.”

All remaining details, including a full programme, headline acts and ticket links, can be found at https://otleymusicfestival.wordpress.com/