THE award-winning Swaledale Festival has enjoyed a record-breaking year, with more visitors than ever before.

The festival, which has grown significantly over the last decade, attracted in excess of 8,000 ticket buyers.

About 90 events took place across Swaledale, Wensleydale and Arkengarthdale, including classical, folk and jazz music, family theatre, world cinema, dance, poetry and art exhibitions.

Events took place in over 30 different venues, from village churches and chapels to large halls seating several hundred people.

The superstar cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his friends performed to a sell-out crowd at the Garden Rooms at Tennants in Leyburn, and the current BBC Young Musician of the Year, 17-year-old pianist Lauren Zhang, played to a packed audience in Richmond’s Influence Church.

World music played a big part in this year’s Festival: the Spanish guitarist Paco Peña delighted the audience at St Andrew’s Church in Grinton with his flamenco music. St Andrew’s Church also hosted global music explorers Kabantu, violinist Jennifer Pike, who performed with three top Indian musicians, and Antonio Forcione’s sensational Italian, African and South American fusion.

World cinema also played a part, with films from Spain, Palestine and Chile shown in small venues in Leyburn and Hawes.

One of the more unusual highlights saw pianists Richard Uttley and Kate Whitley performing Stravinsky’s masterwork The Rite of Spring on one Steinway, and then accompanying an historic 1924 silent film by René Clair with a score by Erik Satie.

Banjo wizard, Dan Walsh was joined by Ciaran Algar on fiddle and Nic Zuppardi on mandolin in a new all-star trio, the Dan Walsh Trio, at Reeth Memorial Hall, while The Festival’s Young Artist’s Platform gave talented artists at the beginning of their careers a valuable stage. One of the world’s great violinists, Tasmin Little, conducted a masterclass for five young Dales violinists. Family shows from Mimika Theatre and Trouvère Medieval Minstrels delighted audience members from six months to 80.

Northumbrian pipes and fiddle legend Kathryn Tickell and her group brought the festival to a rousing climax in a sell-out concert at Tennants Garden Rooms on Saturday, and the festival closed with a late-night jazz session led by the talented young saxophonist Alexander Bone in Tennants’ Cloister Room.

Next year’s Swaledale Festival will run from May 23 to June 6 with details revealed in early spring.