Wakefield Long Division music festival to end after 12 years

by techlowdown · 17 January 2023

Andrew Benge

A music festival which has brought big names and emerging artists to a city in West Yorkshire for more than a decade is to end.

Since 2011, Wakefield’s annual Long Division festival has seen bands and artists play at venues in the city and often attracts up to 4,000 gig-goers.

But organisers of the event have said it was “not financially viable” in the long term due to many factors.

They said they would “sign off in style” with a last festival on 10 June.

Artists Billy Bragg, The Cribs, Asian Dub Foundation and The Fall have been among the 1,000 performers to have graced Long Division’s stages since it started.

An education programme has run alongside the festival, aiming to inspire young people in the district to get involved in live music.

The festival, which is run by a not-for-profit company, saw a slump in finances during 2020 due to the impact of the Covid pandemic on the arts, but was kept afloat by a community crowdfunding drive.

Dean Freeman, Long Division founder and director, said the final festival would be “the culmination of 12 years of madness in Wakefield”.

“Long term, it’s just not financially viable for lots of reasons,” he said.

“We didn’t want to compromise or dilute what we do and we also felt passionately that getting to write your own ending is perhaps something many festivals, shops, labels and bands don’t get to do.”

The festival would “end on a massive high”, Mr Freeman added.