Local promoters Village Pavilion are hosting two events exploring the folklore of Ilkley.

The first event on Thursday, October 3 at the Clarke Foley Centre, Ilkley (7.30pm) is ‘Shadow over Ilkley’, a talk by Dr Phil Legard, a senior lecturer at Leeds Beckett University. Delving into the contemporary manifestations of the weird on the moors, including UFOs, cloaked spectres, serpentine goddesses, chaos magicians, psychic questers, pagans, and neo-antiquarians amidst the gorse and standing stones.

Following this on Saturday, October 5 (7pm) is an evening of music and performance at the Manor House with Folklore Tapes.

The Folklore Tapes collective is an ongoing exploration of the vernacular arcana of Great Britain and beyond, traversing the myths, mysteries, magic, and strange phenomena of the old counties via abstracted musical reinterpretation and experimental visuals. The driving principle of the project is to bring the nation’s folk record to life, to rekindle interest in the treasure trove of traditional culture by finding new forms for its expression.

For this event the collective will showcase a new bespoke performance for the intimate setting, performing an immersive portmanteau of five excerpts from the book ‘The Witches and Fairies of Nineteenth-Century Ilkley’.

Featuring encounters with Changelings, Red Caps, bathing fairies and the selling of witch’s tongues. This will be performed with modified projectors, torch puppetry, hand-built musical instruments, and automata.

Support comes from local three-piece Hexama and folk singer Stephanie Hladowski plus special guests Hwaet magazine.

Ilkley based promoters Village Pavilion have been awarded funding to deliver these events in the latest round of Arts, Culture and Heritage Grants from Bradford Council.

Don’t miss their very special September event at the Ilkley Moor Vaults (Thursday, September 19, 7pm) with Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman.

Andrew Wasylyk’s gloriously transportational live shows have seen him nominated for ‘Best Live Act’ at the Scottish Alternative Music Awards, whilst his albums have been heaped with critical acclaim. This new collaboration with BAFTA winner Tommy Perman promises to be a night not to be missed.

Tickets to all upcoming Village Pavilion events are available via Eventbrite.

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