Music at Cow and Calf Rocks, Undercliffe Cemetery and more

It’s an opportunity for families, communities and visitors to come together at locations along a route which begins at the iconic Cow and Calf Rocks on Ilkley Moor on the morning of Saturday, May 17, and ends at the Mirror Pool in Bradford city centre on the afternoon of Sunday, May 18.

The musical odyssey will continue unbroken over the weekend, with the public invited to join the free event at different locations, and stumble across music in unexpected places.

Music will be played on the Cow and Calf Rocks (Image: Submitted) From solo artists to large ensembles, people will be able to enjoy a huge range of musical styles, including Folk, Punk, Bhangra, Gospel, Baroque, Bassline, Brass Band, Electronic, Sufi, Indian Classical, and Minimalist.

The Bradford Progress will culminate at the Mirror Pool, when everybody comes together and the musicians are united for a harmonious climax inspired by the compositional techniques of American composer Charles Ives.

The event will involve hundreds of local musicians and singers who are collaborating with award-winning Paraorchestra, their artistic director Charles Hazlewood, and Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller.

Jeremy Deller and Charles Hazlewood (Image: Submitted) Charles said: "Bradford wears its long history on its sleeve, with terrifically rich musical contours, from old factory folk music and a multitude of South Asian traditions to male voice choirs and brass bands.

“We’re going to stitch all of these bright colours into a fabulous tapestry, borne aloft by our mighty Paraorchestra. We want to create a glistening thread of continuous sound that arcs across the landscape from the moors at sunrise on Saturday to the mirror pool in Bradford city centre on Sunday afternoon.

The Paraorchestra (Image: Submitted) "We want this unbroken musical odyssey to be a sonic meditation and spiritual experience, as well as a collective celebration.”

Jeremy added: "The Bradford Progress is about the people, it's about the city and it's about the rural, and the historical and contemporary connections. Music has the ability to describe the world around us like no other artform."

Jeremy Deller (Image: Submitted) Shanaz Gulzar, Bradford 2025 creative director, said it will be a “remarkable celebration of Bradford’s broad and varied landscape”.

She added: “We can't wait for the surprises and delight that this incredible weekend will bring."

Locations and timings 

Saturday, May 17

4.45am (Sunrise) - Cow and Calf Rocks

See in the sunrise at the ancient Cow and Calf rocks on Ilkley Moor, with a 27-strong ensemble of Paraorchestra string players and a soprano performing Handel’s ‘Eternal Source of Light Divine’ – a dawn ritual to begin The Bradford Progress.

9.30am to 2pm - Leeds and Liverpool Canal

A musical flotilla takes to the water aboard narrowboats, meandering down the locks and waterways of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal with electro-acoustic magic from Paraorchestra’s musicians plus an array of musicians and groups from across Bradford performing Klezmer, jazz synth-pop, South Indian classical and more.

2pm to 4.30pm - Roberts Park bandstand, Saltaire

An afternoon of South Asian sounds from Qaiser Khan, the Shah-e-Marden Group, Song-Geet and a line-up of classical Indian musicians and dancers brought together by Bradford multi-instrumentalist Vijay Venkat.

5.30pm to 7.30pm - Bradford Industrial Museum

A powerful celebration of singing, storytelling and people power. Jennifer Reid, singer of Victorian and Industrial Revolution broadside ballads, will be joined by punk band Queer of Hearts, Fagley Primary School Choir, Mind the Gap Band, Commoners Choir and others to perform music that resonates with the district’s industrial heritage – set against the backdrop of the museum’s extraordinary collections.

8pm  – 10pm - Undercliffe Cemetery

Eeshar Singh, virtuoso on the santoor, will be coming together with electronic duo Gilank to see out the day with a durational performance at dusk as the sun sets behind the Victorian monuments and obelisks of Undercliffe Cemetery.

Sunday, May 18

12.15pm to 1.30pm - Undercliffe to The Broadway

Day two begins with a march into the heart of the city soundtracked by two of Bradford’s musical treasures: the dhol-drum dynamos of Punjabi Roots and the Revolution Show Corps marching band.

1.30pm to 2pm - The Broadway shopping centre

A 66-strong ensemble of Paraorchestra musicians will spread throughout The Broadway to perform Steve Reich’s The Four Sections, with audiences invited to walk, wheel, and sit among them as they perform, in the biggest-ever realisation of a piece called The Anatomy of the Orchestra.

2pm to 3pm - The Mirror Pool (finale)

Paraorchestra, Charles Hazlewood and hundreds of musicians from across the Bradford district will come together for the climactic close of the Progress: 400 musicians playing in dissonance and then harmony for an unrepeatable and unforgettable musical moment – described as the sound of Bradford as you’ve never heard it before.