Garforth Arts Festival

The Garforth Arts Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Garforth, Leeds, England. The events take place over a two-week period in June and July, ending with a full-day ‘Playground Party’ on the final Saturday. The festival features a variety of art forms, including comedy, theatre, circus, music, literature, art and dance. Most events are commissioned educational projects involving children and professional artists.

Events during the festival are held at the Garforth Academy, Garforth Working Men's Club, St Mary's Church and Garforth Miner's Welfare Hall. The ‘Playground Party’ is held in the ‘sunken’ playground outside Garforth Academy with some acts performing on Garforth Main Street.

’05 The festival was launched in 2005 and took place over eight days. It saw collaborations between the SLP College and the Breeze International Youth Festival. The headliner was Shaun T Hunter. The festival had a musical procession from Garforth Main Street to the college, led by the Peace Artistes. The Zimbabwean dance group Siyaya worked with local primary schools as part of the festival.

’06 In 2006 the festival was extended to nine days, with similar diversity throughout the festival and more acts. Dennis Rollins’ Badbone & Co headlined the main event. Also appearing in the festival were: The Snake Davis Band; Cara Dillon and Chumbawamba.

’07 The festival grew to 11 days in 2007. Events included a master-class and a concert with innovative string quartet The Brodsky Quartet; The Sean Hargreaves Trio; the North Star Steel Pan Orchestra and poetry from broadcaster and poet Ian McMillan. The Playground Party saw performances from: Cara Robinson, Eliza Carthy and the Ratcatchers; James Taylor Quartet; Kate Rusby and headliner Courtney Pine.

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