Beacons Festival goes on the move to Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester

Beacons Festival has announced that it’s going to have a bit of a makeover. Not only is its name changing to Beacons Metro, but it’s saying goodbye to its former home of Skipton and heading out on the road.

For the 2015 edition of the event, the organisers have confirmed that Beacons Metro will now take place in three locations: Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester, with a series of events due to take place in each of the cities. They’ll also be shifting the festival towards the end of the year, with it now due to take place in October 2015.

Speaking out about their changes to the fest, spokesman Simon Stevens said:

“After a great deal of careful thought and consideration, the Beacons team would like to announce that for 2015, Beacons Festival will bidding farewell to the green fields and valleys of the Yorkshire Dales to take up a series of exciting residencies in Leeds, Manchester and Liverpool, 3 of the North of England’s most vibrant and creative cities.

Despite then feeling that 2014 was the best Beacons Festival so far, the feedback we received from the vast majority of festival goers in 2014 was that the cost of attending a traditional, camping festival was becoming increasingly difficult to meet.

Our desire to make Beacons more accessible combined with the opportunity to work with some amazing partners at some truly unique spaces, was enough to convince us that the time was right to move onto the next stage of the festival’s evolution.

In October 2015, Beacons will be taking over an incredible 3 storey, former textile mill in the heart of Leeds city centre. We’ll be collaborating with some amazing partners to deliver a full 12 week program of cutting edge music, art, film and food events in over 11,000 square feet of previously unused space.

In Manchester and Liverpool the Beacons team will be collaborating on a number of exciting events in some amazing spaces.

Finally, we’d like to apologise to all those who have already purchased early bird tickets for 2015. We have already contacted all customers and will be arranging full refunds as soon as possible. The team would also like to thank everyone who’s attended Beacons Festival in it’s various guises over the past years, we hope you’re as excited as we are about our plans for 2015!”

For more information on the new-look Beacons, head to their website. Otherwise, sit back, relax and await the fest’s further announcements.