The 2014 Barnaby Festival is set to be bigger and better than ever as organisers announce two significant additions to the event.
When the festival commences on 14 June it will, for the first time in its history, be devoting an entire weekend to live music, and another weekend to visual arts.
The Music Fringe will run from June 27 – 29, and will be the musical climax for the entire festival.
It will showcase live music from many genres, including jazz, rock, indie, blues, pop and metal.
Venues across the town will adopt a particular genre as their theme for the weekend and play host to top-quality music..
Jane Munro, a Barnaby Festival trustee, said: “Music has always played a key part in Macclesfield and the Festival programme.
“A Music Fringe that celebrates all kinds of music by all sorts of people seemed a natural next step and is very much in tune with the evolution of the Festival as a whole.”
The Visual Arts Weekend will exhibit the work of over 100 artists in 40 different, unexpected and unconventional venues around the town. Chestergate’s Charles Roe House, the disused Christ Church and even a hair salon will be transformed for the event.
Next year’s festival will run from June 14-29, and the overarching theme is ‘industry’.
Anna Riordan, Barnaby Festival visual arts director, said: “Industry has been hugely important in this part of Cheshire.
“Macclesfield is synonymous with the manufacture of silk, but the county is also home to industries as diverse as digital and bio-technology, salt mining and cheese making.”
The main programme of events will run over the Big Weekend from June 20-22.
It will include music, comedy, performance and free family events like the Carnival Parade, organised by Barnaby spin-off charity Macclesfield Community ArtSpace.
