Festival Blog
To view comments on this year's events, and to add your own, just click HERE.
Classic Car Results
Best Car :
Entry 109 - 1947 MG TC
Gerry Tempest, Harrogate
Best 4x4/Commercial :
Entry 83 - 1949 Series 1 Landrover
Andrew Starkey, Burley Woodhead
Best Bike :
Entry 26 - 1971 BSA A65 Lightning
Richard Keith, Burley in Wharfedale
Visitors Choice :
Entry 29 - 1969 Jaguar E-Type
Martin Ribchester, Guiseley
The Burley Moor Run
The Burley Moor Run is a festival event to bring together all the runners/joggers in Burley to enjoy the Moorland that we are lucky to have on our door step. If everyone who runs in Burley were to enter it would be a really great event. The route is marked and Stewards will be on the course for as long as it takes for the slowest participants to finish. It doesn't matter if you walk the ascents and jog down hill. This is your local run,
so please enter by October 6th.
The Entry Form, and more information, can be accessed
HERE.
Festival Photos
We will be compiling a series of Photo Albums to create a pictorial record of this year's Festival, and would welcome contributions from
anybody with a digital camera.
For some guidance on our requirements, please read
THIS PAGE.
ps - there will also be an informal competition for the best shots taken.
Burley Summer Festival
Report for Saturday 28 August
The day began with a group of women beginning to learn the elements of Raqs Sharqui (Egyptian belly dancing) in the elegant surroundings of the Grange and ended with opera in the Methodist Church. Raqs Sharqui was a taster for the classes planned to take place in Burley and Menston over the winter and it was the first of the three dance sessions held on Saturday. Following their popularity last year we repeated the adult ballet and the ballroom and latin class. We know that some people who took part last year were encouraged to go on and join regular classes. In the morning a good number of adults and children gathered at Scalebor Park for rounders, organised by Julie Melechi and Janet Brumfit and we have picked up interest in having a regular team. While playing they watched a good sized group of walkers led by Duncan Ault setting off to Bingley over the moor for what proved to be an enjoyable walk. There is a strong interest in finding out more about the history of Burley and this year we added walks by John Horton to the established ones led by Dennis Warwick. 15 people joined John’s second walk on Saturday in less than ideal conditions but they had fascinating time. In the afternoon we had the last of the activities provided by the Extended Schools Programme – kite flying. We have yet to hear if participants were able to try out their kites at the end of the afternoon. The day reached a climax with the opera evening provided by Sarah Estill (soprano) together with Ben Kerslake (tenor) accompanied at the piano by David Burnett. We were treated to a varied programme of arias and duets mainly from the Italian and French repertoire together with some lighter opera items from Lehar and Gershwin after the interval. In their solos and duets the artists established an excellent rapport with the large audience. In her solos Sarah Estill drew us into the characters she was portraying and took us into the worlds of La Traviata and La Boheme as convincingly as those of Porgy and Bess and The Merry Widow. She and Ben Kerslake worked naturally together and communicated effortlessly the spirit of their duets. Burley experienced a real treat and we hope these artists will return.
Report for SUNDAY 29 August
It could be confidently claimed that the Methodist Church on Sunday morning held a service different from others in the village. The congregation was given a wonderful flavour of the activities that children had experienced during the festival week‘s ‘Big Top’ as it was taken through the themes and activities for each of the 5 days. The special experience the week provided for the 70 children enrolled for the week and their 30 volunteer leaders was apparent to all of us. Elsewhere in the morning over 40 people were introduced to the Sun Lane Nature Reserve by Anne and Peter Riley. The reserve is a very special place in Burley so if you aren’t as yet familiar with it do go along and enjoy what it has to offer in later summer. The Annual Show and Displays predates the Festival by many years but coming at the end of Festival week it forms a very important part of the whole event. As ever it is a pleasure to look at the exhibits and frequently to marvel at what has been grown and produced. Many of us go away resolving to grow new things ourselves and to enter at least one class in the show next year. A late event in the Festival week was an Urban Golf Tournament in aid of repairs needed on St Mary’s Church spire. It was a rather cold and windy afternoon but that did not deter participants at this event or for the Mitchell Cup on the cricket ground. Lots of children and parents went to the Disco in the Social Club while a good crowd was in the Queen’s Head for the Pork Pie Contest. This year there were 17 pies, up from 5 last year and from the samples we tasted there is no need to worry about a decline in traditional pie making skills. The day finished with the RISK board game final, won by Paul Grant, and the regular Quiz Night in Queen’s Head.
Please send your photos of events to web@burley-in-wharfedale.org and let us have your reflections on the Festival and the events you attend.