Awake Arise

Awake Arise comes to the National Centre for Early Music on Friday 18 December, a Christmas folk show that brings together five of the English folk scene's most inventive artists. It's billed as Awake Arise: A Christmas Show For Our Times, and the collaboration draws on a wide range of winter traditions rather than sticking to one particular style. The set is built around that variety, with the five artists working together to pull from different corners of the folk tradition.

There's a specific thread running through the night, too. The show is described as a celebration of the riches of varied winter traditions, but it also looks at the hope and resilience that music and song can bring during the darkest season. It's presented as more than just a night out, with songs intended to remind us who we are and why we matter to each other. That's the core of it: winter songs that point back to the people singing them and the people listening.

The venue is the National Centre for Early Music, based in St Margaret's Church on Walmgate, YO19TL. It's a proper folk setting for a show like this, and the date puts it right in the middle of the December run. It starts at 7.30pm and runs until around 9.30pm, so it's a full evening's music rather than a short set.

Tickets are £24, with concessions at £22 and under-35s at £8, plus a £1.50 administration fee per transaction. If you're under 35, that £8 ticket makes it a very easy one to fit in. It's a Friday night in York, so it works as a standalone evening or as part of a wider Christmas plan. The show runs from 7.30pm to around 9.30pm at the National Centre for Early Music, St Margaret's Church, Walmgate, YO19TL.