Festival’s 10th anniversary

The Crown of Lights festival, which takes place in Green Park, Heckmondwike, is 10 this year – and has been extended to 10 hours to fit in all the bands booked to play at the event, on July 21.

Organiser Donal O’Driscoll said: “I want the festival to continue feeling warm, welcoming and appealing to as many locally based families as possible but we can only fit in around 2,000 people into Green Park.

“I’ve been to many different types of festivals over the past 35 years and, now as a parent for the past 18 of them, feel we have all the right ingredients for making it a fantastic experience for all the family with lots of kids’ entertainment thrown in including circus skills, fairground rides, henna and face painting.”

The organisers are still looking for a sponsor to cover the cost of the second stage, which is about £1,600 including VAT.

Donal said: “Andrew Sugden of Yorkshire Gig Guide has offered to put up half the money out of his personal pocket, which is incredibly generous, but I’d prefer a company to step forward who can recover the VAT and offset the expense against their taxable profits.”

Nineteen acts are booked to play at this year’s event, including Dewsbury based band Commonside, whose lead singer is set to emigrate to Australia.

Donal said: “Commonside are hugely popular around here and it seemed only fitting to give them a big festival stage platform for one of their last ever performances together.

“We pride ourselves on showcasing a vast variety of music genres from folk to blues to rock to indie. However none of this would be possible without the continued financial support we get from Kirklees Council.

“We always strive to put on a great festival of music and from the vast amount of comments we receive we haven’t failed yet.

“The festival slogan is ‘Make a big day of it’ so get down early with your rugs and camping chairs and possibly your brollies! It’s going to be another brilliant festival whatever the weather.”

The free family event starts at noon on Saturday July 21 in Green Park, Heckmondwike town centre, and finishes at 10pm. Toilet facilities and food will be available on site.