What is the Morpeth Gathering?
In September 1966 a modest concert of Northumbrian music and song was held to raise funds for Morpeth Antiquarian Society. It was the inspiration for a one-day Northumbrian festival in March 1968 which evolved into the Morpeth Gathering. The festival includes a vast array of competitions including crafts, performance and writing. Events of local interest nave been added to the programme of concerts, singarounds, barn dance, storytelling. theatre and street performance which includes a young people’s pageant as part of the Border Cavalcade. The emphasis of the Gathering is firmly upon the native traditions of Northumberland and. whilst there is plenty of scope for traditional music from all over the British Isles within the festival, the wealth of local culture is well to the fore. This is not blind parochialism by any means, but an attempt to maintain and spread the time-honoured distinctive and worthwhile features of Northumberland and its heritage. The Border Cavalcade is a re-enactm
