Ryedale District Council supports the Ryedale Festival.

30th Anniversary Celebration Concert 3

This was a nostalgia fest for the Helmsley Festival, founded 30 years ago, which morphed into the present Ryedale Festival.

Take your pick among Peter and Alex White and Geoffrey and June Emerson, the four original conspirators, to find the founder.

But it was Geoffrey Emerson who picked up the ball as the first director and carried it over the try line.

All this explains the wind band that gathered on Saturday, all of whom were his friends and relatives, among them several original players. Some of us, including The Press, were round the Emerson kitchen table at the moment of the festival’s conception, others have climbed on board more recently.

But all were united in their acclamation of the adventure’s enduring success.

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Photograph - Duncombe Park Saloon