Hebden Bridge News

WOYD Defies the Weather and the Gods

The World on Your Doorstep, Hebden’s free World Music Festival, triumphantly defied misfortune and the climate to set Hebden Bridge rocking in Calder Holmes Park last weekend.

It opened on Saturday morning with the Handmade Parade, an amazing display of colour, invention and fantasy, a community-based puppet parade organised by the arts group HEADS and Thingumajig Theatre. Hebden Bridge has never seen anything like it. As 2 elderly visitors from Pontefract told one of the volunteers on the gate, “We were sitting in a café looking out of the window when suddenly we saw the parade coming past. We couldn’t believe it. First one float, then another, then another. It just kept on coming. We’ve never seen anything so fantastic. It was just wonderful.” They followed the parade into the park and thoroughly enjoyed their day. They said, “So much work has gone into it. Well done.”

The triumph of this magnificent opening, however, could not conceal the fact that the festival was almost over before it began. The roof of the main stage, erected on Friday, collapsed during the night and was a total write-off, sitting unused in the park like a wreck throughout the weekend, an ugly and desperate reminder of what might have been. But the gods that delivered this blow along with the lowering skies and the rain had not bargained on the fortitude of festival organiser, Dave Boardman, and his intrepid crew. While recovery work was taking place, the Calder Valley Voices sang in the open field and Pepperjam performed in Fee Sharples’ food tent. By 4 o’clock, a marquee had been transformed into a main stage and the bands were up and running. Luckily for the festival organisers and the festival goers, while the main stage bands were out of commission, the acoustic tent became the main attraction, and was overflowing with patrons. This was to continue throughout the weekend.

Joint winners over the weekend were the music and the Calder Valley community. On the substitute main stage, several thousand visitors to the park heard Victor and Kylie Brox, the Mojave Collection and Don’t Talk to Strangers, amongst many other bands. In the acoustic tent, which was permanently packed to the entrance and out into the field with appreciative listeners, Dawn Bramley and Dave, Nic Chapman, Mabel Blue, Paul Weatherhead, the Amazing Tom ‘n Ed Brothers from Todmorden and Antonio Tzoumas were among the 25 billed acts over the 2 days, along with many other support musicians. Many of these performers are regulars at the Open Mic Surgery which takes place every Wednesday at the Stubbing Wharf Pub.
At the end of Saturday, as well as on Friday night too, the festival continued in pubs and bars in the town. The Amazing Tom ‘n Ed and Joe Rybicki from Todmorden, Burnley band T-Spoon and Rochdale’s (and Greece’s) Antonio Tzoumas starred in The Stubbing Wharf and in B@R Place, while customers at The White Swan were entertained in the beer garden with acoustic performances from Paul Weatherhead, Boo Long from Bacup, and Hebden’s Marcus James.

World on Your Doorstep is now established as the annual World Music Festival of the Calder Valley and the local region. The organisers, who have put so much work into the festival, not only this weekend but throughout the year, raising funds, booking artists and musicians, securing sponsors, organising publicity and sorting out technical and layout problems, and most importantly enticing all the volunteers with wonderful colour-coded t-shirts want to thank and congratulate everyone who contributed to this year’s success. All are invited to return next year and new volunteers are more than welcome. Roll on 2009.