Scarborough Spa Orchestra

The Scarborough Spa Orchestra returns to the Scarborough Spa for its 115th summer season, with daily concerts in the Grand Hall running from 18 July to 8 September 2027. It's a proper seaside tradition around here, and this season marks over a century of the orchestra playing through the summer months.

The orchestra was started back in 1912 by Alick Maclean, whose first ensemble of 35 professional musicians played daily in the Grand Hall and the Sun Court. The programme back then covered classical music, Viennese waltzes, operettas, and the popular songs of the day — and that mix of the high-brow and the light, easy-listening stuff is still what they do. Musical directors have carried the torch since Maclean, with Max Jaffa leading the orchestra between 1960 and 1986; 2012 was the orchestra's centenary year, so this 115th season sits well beyond that milestone.

While the summer concerts are the main event, the orchestra also has a New Year's Day concert that's become a fixture in its own right — one that famously went ahead even when the Spa was temporarily closed. That particular performance takes things back to Vienna's Golden Age, when Johann Strauss reigned as the Waltz King and a whole host of light music composers found their fame and fortune in the city. The current ensemble blends those time-honoured experiences with a range of innovations, so the old-school seaside sound is still there, just updated for now.

If you're planning to drop in, the concerts run daily in the Grand Hall from 18 July to 8 September 2027, with the orchestra based at the Scarborough Spa, South Bay, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO11 2HD.