10 Best Performing Arts Venues in Yorkshire, England

Devoted to compositions written before the 18th century, the Early Music Festival is held each July in York. There's also a Christmas program in early December.

The town of Harrogate hosts music and crime-writing festivals in July and a literature festival in October, as well as musical recital and lecture programs throughout the year.

This lavish Victorian auditorium dating back to 1878 hosts touring West End and other musicals, pop musicians, and major stand-up comedians, in addition to performances by the leading regional opera and ballet companies, Opera North and Northern Ballet, which are based here.

The Victorian Town Hall hosts a season (October through May) of some 200 concerts featuring top national and international orchestras as well as chamber ensembles and renowned pianists. Jazz, world music, rock, and brass bands also play free shows at outdoor bandstands in city parks.

In the heart of Leeds's cultural quarter, this ultramodern theater's adaptable space makes it eminently suitable for staging both new works and classics.

Scarborough is firmly on Britain's theater map, largely thanks to the presence of noted playwright and local resident Alan Ayckbourn, who was for many years the artistic director of this theater and premiered most of his acclaimed plays here. His legacy lives on in the theater's commitment to new writing and its strong summer repertory season. There are two stages, plus a cinema, restaurant, and bar.

Held every February in York, this weeklong commemoration of the conquest of England by the Great Viking Army in 866 (only the British would hold a festival celebrating a losing battle) has more than 60 events, including a longship regatta. In addition, a Viking Games competition culminates in a battle reenactment featuring hundreds of combatants, and the invading Norsemen confront the Anglo-Saxon defenders using real (!) weapons. There are workshops for kids ranging from Viking-era crafts to fighting skills like archery and swordplay, as well as historical lectures, a banquet, and a Best Beard competition. It ends with a Norse mythology-themed son-et-lumière display.

Music, traditional dance, and storytelling are among the offerings during Whitby Folk Week, usually held the week before the late-August bank holiday. Pubs, halls, and sidewalks become venues for more than 600 performances by British artists.

This twice-yearly alternative music event, held in late April and late October, sees Whitby flooded with thousands of visitors from around the world to celebrate the Goth and steampunk subcultures and watch bands perform at various venues across town. Aficionados of Goth style head to the Bizarre Bazaar, a market with over 100 stalls.

Based in a lovely 18th-century building, the York Theatre Royal hosts theater, dance, music, and comedy performances, as well as readings, lectures, and children's entertainment.