Cleckheaton Folk Festival cancelled with ‘deep regret’ as town hall deemed ‘unsafe’ by Kirklees Council

The decision was made by the Festival Board earlier this month after the event's main venue, Cleckheaton Town Hall - which is in need of remedial work to the ceiling above the stage area - was deemed ‘unsafe’ by Kirklees Council.

Explaining why the decision was made, Dave Minich, director of Cleckheaton Folk Festival said: “With the absence of any other suitable venue, the Festival Board made the decision to cancel the event altogether.

“The reason we came to this decision is because we had to let artists know that we can’t employ them.

“People are under an illusion that the festival is just what goes on out in the street, but it is the music event - the street events are an edition.

“We employ £15,000 worth of artists to perform on Cleckheaton Town Hall’s stage, which allows us to sell £75 weekend tickets, which allows us to provide a campsite for the ticket holders as well as the stewards.

“But without the town hall we can’t employ the artists and there isn’t an alternative venue in Cleckheaton that will seat 150 to 300 people.

“People have suggested we use pubs as alternative venues but I can't sell £75 tickets for a pub that holds 20 people.

“All those logistics go round in one massive circle and come back to the fact that without the town hall all the knock-on bits can’t happen.

“It’s really frustrating for us though because Kirklees Council have known about this issue with the Cleckheaton Town Hall stage since last July.

“They cancelled a beer festival in September last year because of these issues and other events since then - Cleckheaton folk Festival is just another one in the edition.

“They are talking about not having any bookings for Cleckheaton Town Hall before September 2023 and when you consider that 2023 is Kirklees’ Year of Music it’s atrocious.”

Explaining why Cleckheaton Town Hall was deemed an ‘unsafe’ venue a spokesperson for Kirklees Council said: “Investigatory works by our technical team and specialists are ongoing at Cleckheaton Town Hall specifically relating to the area above the stage in the main hall.

“We are disappointed that due to these works some events can no longer take place this year, however community activities continue as normal.

“As a listed building, repairs to Cleckheaton Town Hall need to be carefully managed by the council and its specialist contractors and we will update users and residents as soon as we are able to.”

The festival, which was due to take place on June 30, July 1 and 2, was set to present first class artists including Jack Rutter, Bryony Griffith, Alice Jones, Jez Lowe and the world renowned Martin Carthy MBE and his award-winning daughter Eliza Carthy MBE.

Dave added: “All ticket holders will be refunded and we apologise for any inconvenience caused to our visitors, suppliers, artists, sound engineers, dancers, performers and stewards.

“We're sorry it has come to this, believe me, we have done our utmost to find a remedy to the situation, but as there are no suitable alternative premises, we have no other option.

“Other Kirklees Year of Music 2023 festival events are unaffected.”

However Cleckheaton Festival hasn’t gone away completely as there is a major concert set to take place at Dewsbury Town Hall on Saturday, May 27.

The concert will feature a trio called the Young’uns and tickets are on sale now.

For more information or to book tickets, visit https://tickets.kirklees.gov.uk/en-GB/shows/the%20young%20uns%20concert/events

For more information about Cleckheaton Folk Festival, visit https://www.cleckheatonfolkfestival.org/