FESTIVAL 2012
FOXLOWE RESCUES TOWN’S ARTS FESTIVAL   Officials at Leek”s Foxlowe Arts Centre have come to the rescue of a major arts festival faced with finding new venues for some of its biggest events. Leek Arts Festival was dealt a massive blow when the historic Swan pub was bought by pub giant Wetherspoons who announced plans to close it pending a major redevelopment scheme. Talks to secure a delay in the proposals to allow 15 key arts festival events to go ahead – including Fairport Convention, Albert Lee & Hogan’s Heroes, and  Climax Blues Band – failed at the eleventh hour and the shutters went up at the pub last Wednesday (April25). But nearly all The Swan events will now be able to go ahead at the Foxlowe Arts Centre, just 100 yards or so up the road from the now boarded-up pub. Festival spokesman Phil Edmeades said: “Through no fault of ours or Wetherspoons we were unable to reach a position where The Swan could remain open which left us in the position of finding alternative venues for some of our biggest events. “Happily, the team at the Foxlowe Arts Centre could not have been more supportive and we have been able to move almost everything to the main performance room there. We are extremely grateful to the Foxlowe for helping us out in this way. “The vast majority of events will be going ahead on the same days as originally planned and tickets for events at The Swan will be honoured at the corresponding events at The Fowlowe. We will also ensure that someone from the Festival committee is positioned outside The Swan on the night of each event to direct people the short distance to The Foxlowe.” Just two of the 15 events originally planned to be held at The Swan have had to be dropped from the programme – the Comedy Night on May 3 and the Local Blues Night on May 4. The only other changes are that the Green Dragon Mysteries Society will hold their May 30 event at the Friends Meeting House on Overton Bank, Leek, instead of at The Swan; and Funk Station will now be performing at The Foxlowe on Friday June 1 instead of Thursday May 31. In addition, the Climax Blues Band gig will now not go ahead on Friday May 25, but will happen at the Foxlowe on another date still to be confirmed. Mr Edmeades added: “Trying to sort out all these problems so close to the actual launch of the festival has been a bit of a nightmare and we are extremely fortunate that only two events have had to be cancelled.” Changes to the 2012 Leek Arts Festival programme are listed below:   Comedy Night 03/05 – Cancelled Local Blues Night  04/05 – Cancelled Albert Lee & Hogan’s Heroes 09/05 –  moved to Foxlowe Harvey Andrews 10/05 –  moved to Foxlowe Les Hunt 11/05  –  moved to Foxlowe Folk Day and evening ceilidh 12/05  –  moved to Foxlowe Fairport Convention 17/05  –  moved to Foxlowe Nearly Dan 18/05 – moved to Foxlowe Kings ov Leon 20/05 –  moved to Foxlowe Birmingham Conservatoire Folk Ensemble 24/05  –  moved to Foxlowe Climax Blues Band WAS 25/05 but new date to be confirmed –  moved to Foxlowe Peak District Jazz and String Orchestra 26/05  –  moved to Foxlowe Green Dragon Mysteries Society 30/05  –  moved to Friends Meeting House, Overton Bank, Leek Funk Station WAS 31/05 but now 01/06  –  moved to Foxlowe

© Leek Arts Festival 2009