The 2025 Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival will be held on Sat 6th & Sun 7th September.

The Rushbearing weekend continues to be a unique local event for family and friends, which contributes greatly to the excellent community spirit in the local area, and which Sowerby Bridge and the surrounding areas rightly hold in high esteem.

Rushbearing is a centuries-old tradition – a late summer opportunity for community merriment and revelry. Our Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival is one of only a few instances of this singular English custom still being celebrated annually.

Rushbearing itself dates back several centuries to the time when church floors consisted of little more than stone flags or beaten earth and rushes were used as a winter covering. Each year, in late summer, the old and rotten rushes were cleared out and new ones taken to the churches in carts. Human nature being what it is, this annual traditional custom developed into an excuse for celebration involving revelry, music, dancing and much drinking of strong ales.

Over the course of the weekend, our own festival, sees the progress of the Rushbearing procession around seven towns and villages visiting many churches, local hostelries, cricket & bowling clubs along the way.

The focal point of the procession is the sixteen feet high, two wheeled, handsomely decorated and thatched rushcart. A team of ladies take turns to ride on top of the cart as it is pulled by sixty local men dressed in Panama hats, white shirts, black trousers and clogs. Accompanying them are a group of supporters in Edwardian dress along with some of the region’s finest musicians and morris dancing teams to provide entertainment for the crowds.

For a full schedule and route, visit the Rushbearing website linked below.