BARNARD Castle’s popular day-long music festival has been axed.
Organisers of the Barney Jam, which for the past two years has taken place on the first Saturday in September, say they cannot commit the time to organising the event, which has attracted bands, musicians and fans from far and wide to the town.
Artists from across the North East joined locally-based acts to take part in the event, which was staged across a number of venues in Barnard Castle town centre.
Last year’s event concluded with an after-show party at the Raby Arms which showcased the talents of four local acts as well as offering others the chance to pick up an instrument and jam.
Barnard Castle-based singer-songwriter Toni Sidgwick, who was part of the event’s organising committee, said the decision to axe the festival had been taken after much deliberation.
She said: “We’ve decided due to the personal commitments of the committee members this year that we can’t run the Jam this year.
“We wouldn’t want to do it half way.
“We are considering putting on the odd one-off smaller event with original and quirky musicians, but there is nothing in the pipeline at the minute,” she added.
“If we do put something on, our aim is for it to be something completely different.”
In a statement posted on the festival’s Facebook page, the committee adds: “Rest assured, Teesdale will go from strength to strength in its promotion of live music. Thanks for all your support.”
In addition to promoting the music of local and regional musicians and bands, the Barney Jam also helped raise thousands of pounds for the Teesdale branch of Cancer Research UK.
Pam Ashmore, of the local branch committee, said the group was sorry to hear there will be no festival this year.
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
