2nd St George’s Celebration

St George's Day is marked quietly in the North York Moors: not with parades but with a day in a village hall, doors open in the morning and music through to late afternoon. Festival on the Moor has used it as its opening event of the year, on the principle that a season of folk music ought to begin with English song rather than wait for the summer festivals.

The shape of such a day is worth knowing if you are thinking of going to one. An afternoon concert anchors it, usually around a guest singer or fiddle player working in the English tradition; around that sit local bands, a community choir and enough short sets that nobody is on stage for long. Admission is bought by the day rather than by the act, and the hall, not a stage, sets the scale of the thing.

Danby sits at the head of the Esk valley, which makes the journey part of the event: the moor road in from either side is the reason people remember these afternoons.