Ryedale District Council supports the Ryedale Festival.

Article in the Malton Gazette, June Emerson in her Rye View column (‘A Note For Your Diary’) in the Gazette and Herald looks back at the very start of the Ryedale Festival 30 years ago.

“It is 30 years since the start of the Helmsley Festival, which eventually became the Ryedale Festival.  Four of us cooked it up between us over many a boozy dinner, and what a wonderful time it was.  There is to be some sort of celebration at the Ryedale Festival this year to mark the anniversary.

“We have been looking back through early programmes, reliving the fun, the passion the excitement and the frequent disasters. We remember bizarre requests from visiting soloists, including a pianist requiring a bowl of water heated to exactly 86 degrees Fahrenheit, and a triumphant clarinettist who, after performing his concerto brilliantly came off stage and demanded, “Now, where can I get a woman?”

“Diaries for those early years will have to be dug out, and mined for stories.”

Photograph (Ryedale Photography) - Mark Padmore, tenor and Simon Lepper, pianist in the garden of Settrington House where they performed Scheubert's Winterreise in the Riding School.  Ryedale Festival 2007.