A BARNSLEY music festival hosted by folk star Kate Rusby will this year move to a new location to cope with a rise in popularity.
Between 9,000 and 10,000 people descended on Cawthorne for last year’s three-day Underneath the Stars Festival which was held at Cannon Hall Farm in July.
But organisers say they now need more camping space and are expecting an additional 1,500 people attending this year.
This year’s festival, in July, will instead be held at Cinderhill Farm on Darton Road, Cawthorne, which is owned by the Barr family.
Joe Rusby, the festival’s creative director, said: “It’s something we’ve been looking at to give us a bit more room.
“At Cannon Hall Farm, there wasn’t as much space available to us this year and they couldn’t offer us the site.
“We wanted to make sure the festival was in the Barnsley area, and keep it local to the village so the new site was ideal for us.
“The festival has become more popular gradually every year. We want to keep it small and independent; it’s not ballooning but there is a need for more room to expand. We want to keep that cosy and relaxed atmosphere that I think the festival is becoming known for, so we are keeping an eye on numbers.
“We’re not expanding the festival, or what it has to offer; it’s just to fit a few more tents in as they take quite a lot of space up on the site. Everything we had on the events field such as activities and concerts and stages will be in the same format.”
Joe said about 3,000 people attended last year’s festival each day, totalling between 9,000 and 10,000 people across the whole weekend.
This year, organisers are expecting an increase of 500 visitors per day.
He added: “We don’t want it to go massive. We just want to establish ourselves at this site this year and see how it goes.
“Moving sites is quite a big deal operationally for us, so we just want to settle in.
“We want to make it a home for the next few years. It’s great that we can keep it in the village and work with people we have known for a long time.”
He said the Rusbys and the Barr family had been close family friends for a long time, and they had been happy to accommodate the festival.
The first names to form the festival line up are expected to be announced this weekend.
