A NEW festival is heading to the Ribble Valley this summer.

The organisers behind the award-winning Cloudspotting Festival have announced details of A Break in the Clouds which will be held on Saturday, June 23.

The date is the closest weekend to the summer solstice.

The music line-up will be headlined by high-flying Lancaster band The Lovely Eggs. Other bands to feature are psych-fusion group Flamingods, world music outfit Kabantu and the highly regarded new folk talent Jim Ghedi.

Local band Good Foxy, from Clitheroe and Mr Ben and the Bens, also from Lancaster, complete the main stage programme.

The family-friendly festival will feature a specially commissioned piece of interactive outdoor participative theatre The Sorrowful Stag.

This mass participation performance will combine street theatre with an adventure game for families in the forest,

“A Break in the Clouds is effectively a slimline version of Cloudspotting, happening a little bit earlier in the summer,” said co-producer Matt Evans.

“This year was about trying some new things and this shorter event opens things up for a new audience who perhaps haven’t been able to make our main event before.

“It will be really intimate with two performance areas but the quality of the acts will be cutting edge as always with a mixture of some returning favourites and acts who have not played at Cloudspotting.”

Cloudspotting Music and Arts Festival was awarded ‘Best Small Event’ at the Lancashire Tourism Awards in November and was attended by more than 800 people in 2017.

“We are a small team and we felt it was right to take a break from the full 3-day format this year after five years of annual festival organisation,” added Helen Ficorilli.

“It has also meant we can produce some other events in the wider area, like the Snowmoon Festival family arts event we just produced in Clitheroe.”

“We are committed to working with the Forestry Commission to attract family arts audiences to the forest to explore this fabulously remote location and we believe this event will be exceptional value for money.”

Camping is available on Friday and Saturday night and a bus service will be running from Clitheroe to the site for those who want to visit just for the day.

A Break in the Clouds, Stephen Park, Gisburn, Saturday, June 23. Tickets are available from the Grand Venue Box Office, Clitheroe on 01200 421599 or www.thegrandvenue.co.uk