Friday 6th June – Sunday 15th June 2025

Following on from the success of last year’s event, Otley Music Festival returns for 2025 even bigger and better. It remains primarily a celebration of Otley’s extraordinary musical talent and with an unprecedented 60 acts taking part we have been forced, once again, to spread the festival across a 10 day period!! We are proud to run the festival in association with OTLEY PARISH CHURCH and, in keeping with the church’s ethos, ours is a community-based charity event – the organisers, helpers and the local musicians taking part are all giving their time and effort for free to maximise the amount we can give to good causes. All profits from the festival will be shared between Otley Parish Church’s “Local to Global” charity initiative, Otley Community Larder and Otley Food Bank. Last year we donated over £4000 to good causes and we’re hoping to do even better in 2025.

Once again, the church have kindly agreed to let us use their beautiful venue for 2 showcase ticketed sessions on the evenings of Friday 13th June and Saturday 14th June (7pm start) and a “pay as you feel” session on the Saturday afternoon (11.30am start). Teas, coffees and cakes as well as bottled wine and beer will be available in the church on the Saturday afternoon and a licensed (cash only) bar serving wine, soft drinks and locally brewed cask ales on both evenings.

For 2025, we are delighted to continue using the BLACK HORSE public house as an additional main venue. The pub offers a superb range of food and drink as well as a large upstairs function room and covered stables, ensuring that the festival will remain free from weather disruption. The entire first weekend of the festival (6th – 8th June) and the final full session (Sunday 15th June), will be held at the Black Horse. Meanwhile, our regular Thursday open mics will continue at the HORSE & FARRIER public house on Bridge Street. For the festival period these will include a featured act. For 2025, we will also be running a couple of additional gigs at the Horse & Farrier on the 21st and 22nd June. If the weather permits, these will be held outside in the pub’s beer garden, which is a wonderful space away from traffic noise. Any donations/profits from the Horse & Farrier sessions will be added to our charity efforts. The pub has a well-stocked bar, including an excellent range of real ales and is now serving excellent food as well.

Many thanks to all of our sponsors (see separate page for details) and to Mags Elliott – Art & Illustration for our fabulous festival logo. We are also hugely indebted to Otley Parish Church, the management and staff at the Black Horse and Horse & Farrier and (of course!) the incredibly talented musicians who are giving so freely of their time in support of our event. We hope that you, the people of Otley, will support the musicians in their endeavours and help us to raise money for some extremely worthwhile good causes.

FESTIVAL PROGRAMME – Download here!

MAKING DONATIONS
Although some of our events are ticketed, our charity fundraising efforts rely primarily on donations and sponsorship. We have buckets to accept cash donations at every event as well as a machine for accepting donations by debit/credit card. However, we can also accept donations online at any time via our fundraiser. Please consider supporting our fundraising effort in this way; every donation, however small, makes a difference. Thank you! You can donate via Gofundme by following the link below:

PLEASE DONATE HERE

OUR HEADLINE ACTS

In addition to the line-up of top local musicians, we have invited some nationally acclaimed professional acts from a little further afield to headline our ticketed evening sessions. On Friday 6th June, the upstairs function room at the Black Horse will play host to the wonderful singer/songwriter Hannah Scott and the dynamic folk duo Reuben and the Bridge, ably supported by respected Yorkshire wordsmith Chris Manners and Otley singer/songwriter Tim Marshall. On the evening of Friday 13th June the Parish Church will echo to the fantastic young folk trio Jon Doran & the Northern Assembly and the wonderful father/daughter folk duo Louise & Chris Rogan, with excellent support provided by top local acts Hazjak, CJ Smith and Malcolm Connell. Then, on the evening of Saturday 14th June we close out the church sessions with the acclaimed Rachael McShane & the Cartographers. Rachael is a brilliant singer, fiddle, cello and viola player best known as an original member of folk supergroup Bellowhead. Superb support comes from top local acts The Fabulous Mustard Brothers, The Silver Reserve and Jon Budworth & Hill View. On Sunday 22nd June, in partnership with the separate “Folk at the Farrier” programme, the fabulous Skinner & T’witch bring their unique brand of folk and flamenco to the function room at the Horse & Farrier. All of these sessions promise to be unmissable!

For the above ticketed sessions, we aim to keep prices as low as possible to make them affordable to the widest possible range of people. All of the other festival sessions are “pay as you feel”. There will be collection buckets to make cash donations as well as links/QR codes to make your donation online. Although we aim to be able to take card payments this year, we still encourage festival goers to pay in cash wherever possible to avoid giving a “cut” to the banking sector!

OTHERS UNMISSABLE ACTS FROM FURTHER AFIELD!

Our line-up for 2025 also includes some other superb acts from a little further afield.

On the evening of Saturday 7th June, in the function room at the Black Horse, we feature Karl Robins and Amanda Martin, who are based in the Scottish Borders. Karl is no stranger to Otley, having lived and performed here in the past. Karl and Amanda perform a range of original, traditional and contemporary folk songs, with excellent harmonies and an engaging presence.

On the afternoon of Saturday 14th June, in Otley Parish Church we feature 3 more superb acts from “out of town”, all of whom should not be missed! Cambridgeshire-based Soloman Smith, performing with Otley’s own Mark Tunnicliffe, writes and performs memorable and thought-provoking songs laced with a wry intelligence. His musical influences include: folk, roots, country, blues, soul, funk, and more. Tyan is an acoustic duo comprising Peter Michael Rowan and June Swift, who will be remembered here in Otley as half of the excellent Cumbrian-based Errant Thieves. Florence Glen is a brilliant singer/songwriter from North Yorkshire who stunned us all at the Horse & Farrier open mic a few months ago.

TOP LOCAL ACTS!

Given Otley’s long tradition of folk and acoustic music, it is inevitable that our festival includes a considerable amount of such music. However, we also make a concerted effort to represent other genres of music as well and some of our headline acts are rock bands. On the afternoon of Saturday 7th June, in the stables at the Black Horse, we will be treated to another rare performance by Luigi ana da Boys. This is a long established prog rock project from ace guitarist Duncan McFarlane – think Wishbone Ash meets Camel and you won’t go too far wrong! On Sunday 8th June we feature a welcome return for local country, rockabilly and blues band Coaltrain, combining the fabulous musical talents of Dave Vermond, Johnny Hardcastle, Chris Swindells and Andy Thornton. Later the same day, we welcome Christopher Smith’s blues band “One Foot in the Groove”. Closing out the session will be the brilliant Sean Harrington. Chris (CJ) Smith performs an acoustic set in Otley Parish Church as part of the ticketed evening session on Friday 13th June. Also, the festival proper will close on the afternoon/evening of Sunday 15th June at the Black Horse with a performance by Otley’s own rock “supergroup” Mr Love Pants, featuring several of the town’s finest musicians – Nick Wood, Rory McLeish and Jon Budworth. With other top local acts The Ale Marys, Jon Palmer Acoustic Band, Another Planet and Strummash all performing the same day it promises to be a fitting finale!

FULL FESTIVAL LINE-UP