WYLAM WINTER TALES 2026
Dear Friends and Supporters, a warm welcome to our 2026 website for what will be our 11th annual celebration of arts events and activities to brighten up those doldrum days before Spring arrives again. This year the festival moves forward with new directors, Simon and Gail Davies-Fidler, who moved to Wylam in 2016 and created Wylam Singers and Tyne Valley Voices. We (Simon and Gail) have enjoyed the festival so much over the last ten years and have felt privileged to perform in it several times. We’re grateful to Gareth and Simon (and the whole WWT team) for all they have done to lift our winter gloom over the last decade and we hope that we’ll see them as participants and performers in the future. We look forward to welcoming you to our Festival in 2026.
OUR 2026 “NEW BEGINNINGS” PROGRAMME
SING WITH THE UNTHANKS
Saturday 7th February, Wylam Institute
Doors: 9.30am Workshop Starts: 10am
ANDY MAY TRIO IN CONCERT
Saturday 8th February, Wylam Institute
Doors & Bar 7.00pm Show Starts: 7.30pm
WINTER TALES SINGING SUNDAY : HANNAH FUMOLEAU & LEN YOUNG, RECITAL
Sunday 8th February, St Oswin’s Church
Doors & Cafe 2.30pm & Show Starts 3pm
Cafe
No festival is complete without a resident Cafe and ours is no exception. At all of our events (except workshops and pub/farm cafe venues) we will have the Winter Tales Cafe up and running to serve you a warm welcome under our winter gazebo and fairy lights.
Very reasonably priced, there will be a warm drink to get your mitts around with coffee, tea, hot chocolate, juices and snacks supplied by Traidcraft and other fair trade suppliers. Choose your mug for the night and settle in for some great entertainment.
About
It’s not entirely irrelevant that one of us swims in the Tyne every month of the year, or that the others might be tempted to get in during a heatwave in July.
But aside from that…..it started at a local hostelry in Wylam. Doesn’t it always ! We (Gareth Davies-Jones & Simon Hackett) got to chatting and discovered that we all believe in the power of the arts to transform perspectives, enrich lives and bring us out of ourselves. Over the course of several beverages we started to wonder about the seasons and asked ourselves why nothing in particular seems to happen in the depths of winter to help draw us together. Why, when our forebears used to gather round the fireside to share stories and sing songs, do we no longer gather together to share our stories and encourage each other to be creative. Why is it that the sparkly lights all disappear on January 2nd? Why when people need it the most do we not have a bit of light and creativity to help us bridge the gap ’til Spring when all things awaken once again? Soon the vision for a community Arts Festival in late January/early February, based in our local village came to life.
And so with a passion to bring a sense of shared community and celebration, Wylam Winter Tales Festival continues. Hoping to be the spark to ignite your imagination we have a range of arts events to help brighten things up at the darkest time of the year. We hope to help to see you through these doldrum days after New Year and the lull before the Spring. Please come along. Without you - our audience - it won’t be half as good !
Simon & Gail (Festival Directors)
Wylam Winter Tales Festival is a non-profit making voluntary organisation reliant upon grant funding, ticket sales and donations.
Past
Memory
To celebrate our village Wylam Winter Tales Festival is running an ongoing community heritage project called ‘Wylam Way Collective Memory’. We’re collecting as yet unknown memories from local people about the heritage and history of the village and will turn them into art that our wider community can be inspired by and enjoy. The aim is to bring a fresh narrative about our past and a renewed sense of pride and understanding about our Tyne Valley heritage.
More details will be posted here as the project develops. In the meantime if you have any memories you’d like to share with us then please email wylamwintertales@gmail.com
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As part of our "QUIRKY WORDY WORKSHOP" kids and parent of Wylam created the WWT typeface. We worked hard on the most wonderful and imaginative letters. It is now available to download. Enjoy and have fun! Please note: WWT typeface is for private use only. It is a trademark of Wylam Winter Tales and should NOT be used for commercial purposes.
Wylam Winter Tales Festival is a non-profit making voluntary organisation reliant upon grant funding, ticket sales and donations.
Contact
Online Booking
All our tickets are now sold online via Ticket Tailor. We no longer provide paper tickets. If tickets remain unsold we may have a limited number on sale at each of the events - but we cannot guarantee entry. Please check via the bookings links on our website which will direct you to Eventbrite where the latest availability will be shown. All our published prices exclude booking fees charged by Eventbrite unless otherwise stated.
Cancellation & Refunds
Sorry - we can only offer refunds if an event is cancelled. Wylam Winter Tales runs at a time of year when bad weather can have an impact on events. When you buy your ticket you do so knowing that our policy is that if the performer can make it to the venue and our Festival team can make it to the venue, then the event will go ahead. We will take all possible measures to make sure events continue safely for all. In the unfortunate event we have to make a last resort cancellation then we will make all attempts via our website and social media pages to notify audiences that the event is off. We will offer refunds (in the event of cancellation only) via Eventbrite. Thank you for your support.
Disabled access
Most of our venues are wheelchair accessible. Please let us know in advance if you are a wheelchair user or if a disability means that you require additional help, so that we can make arrangements. We are happy to allocate a free ticket to carers or helpers. Please contact us on wylamwintertales@gmail.com
Children Policy
Whilst all of our events are suitable for children of middle school age and upwards, some events may not be appropriate for younger children. Please ask if you’re not sure. Whilst we sincerely hope that all our audiences will enjoy the festival safely and responsibly we would respectfully point out that people attend our events at their own risk and that at every event, children are the sole responsibility of their parents/guardians.
Seating at events
None of our venues have fixed, numbered seating, so seats cannot be booked in advance. Seating position is on a first come first served basis but as all our events are fully seated there will be a seat for everyone.
Volunteers wanted
Without volunteer support, Wylam Winter Tales Festival events would not be happening. That's a fact! So if you fancy getting waist deep in some great arts events and helping our audiences to keep a smile on their face then please contact us at wylamwintertales@gmail.com
Special thanks for making our Festival possible goes to:
Tyne Valley Community Rail Partnership
Festival Directors
Simon and Gail Davies-Fidler
Festival Design
We were delighted that Wylam Winter Tales Festival was able to partner with Great Northumberland and Northumberland County Council to provide some free festival events as part of the GREAT NORTHUMBERLAND WINTER FESTIVAL in 2020/21.
