A three-day music and comedy festival featuring synth-pop, rock, and stand-up comedy in the historic York Museum Gardens.
Live at York Museum Gardens returns to the Museum Gardens from 9 to 12 July, its third year running. It's a four-day stretch of music and comedy across the gardens, put on by Futuresound in partnership with York Museums Trust. The site is the gardens themselves—over ten acres of open space around the ruins of St Mary's Abbey and the Yorkshire Museum, which together draw about 1.3 million visitors a year.
The music takes the first three days. Thursday 9 July opens with Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Heaven 17, China Crisis, and Andrew Cushin. Friday 10 July brings Self Esteem, The Big Moon, Moonchild Sanelly, and Joshua Idehen. Saturday 11 July features Super Furry Animals, Baxter Dury, Los Campesinos!, Divorce, and Pys Melyn. It's a broad mix of synth-pop, indie, and newer names, with the bill shifting from the 80s-leaning opening night towards the more eclectic line-ups that follow.
Sunday 12 July hands over to the York Comedy Festival, with Russell Howard, Ross Noble, Russell Kane, Joanne McNally, Suzi Ruffell, Jeff Innocent, Nabil Abdulrashid, and Barry From Watford, all presented by Jarred Christmas. That's eight comics in one afternoon, so it's a long run of sets rather than a single headliner.
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On the practical side, the gardens are an open-air venue with no seating, so you'll be on your feet for the music and the comedy. It's a cashless site, so leave the coins at home. There are separate entrances for general and premium tickets, and the whole thing runs from Thursday through Sunday, with the music on the first three days and the comedy taking the final one.
