Northumberland residents invited to the National Dialect Festival in Newcastle

The region hosting the event this year is the North East and so the Northumbrian Language Society invites all the canny folk from across Northumberland and Tyneside to enjoy a weekend of entertainment as they welcome visitors from Devon northwards.

There are free evening concerts at 8pm on the Friday and Saturday featuring local singers, poets and musicians including Tony Wilson, Graham Bell, Eileen Beers, Katrina Porteous, Bob Bolam, Kim and John Bibby and the Rothbury Poets, plus daytime competitions for all English dialects and an early morning heritage walk for survivors on the Sunday morning.

There is always a keynote lecture and so this year the festival includes the Northumbrian Language Society’s annual Roland Bibby Memorial Lecture at 2pm, remembering the founding chairman, moving from its traditional Morpeth setting to the national festival venue.

Adam Mearns of Newcastle University is the speaker who will present – ‘We used to take the bairns when the kids were little: interactions between dialect words and the wider vocabulary’.

Adam will be joined in judging the competitions for writing and performing by Society President Katrina Porteous and poet and playwright Paul Mein, with individuals vying for three splendid trophies during Saturday’s competitions and a special award for the best group performance in the evening Merry Neet concert.

All are welcome to these free events where you will hear the distinctive tones of local voices mingling with a wide range of less familiar sounds from Lakeland, Lancashire, Yorkshire and further afield – with each visiting society offering a stall for browsing CDs, books and cards.

NLS Vice-President Kim Bibby-Wilson said: “We’re deed chuffed te be the gaffors for the 2024 festival – it’s nigh on a dozen years since wor region last greeted aal the gud marras we’ve myed ower the yeors, and we’re proper glad te knaa that we’ll see an heor that canny chep Sid Calderbank.

“It was Sid of the Lancashire Society who devised the national dialect festival, originally just one day, and he has definitely done such a good job in establishing this now annual celebration of the different dialects of English.”

While events are free, it is wise to contact the NLS in advance to ensure there will be enough seats. For more details, call Mrs Bibby-Wilson on 01670 513308 or go to https://northumbrianlanguagesociety.co.uk