Music festival could be brought back after hiatus

Plans to bring the Bingley Music Live festival back after an eight-year hiatus are being discussed.

The event, held in Myrtle Park, began in the 1990s but was taken over by Bradford Council in 2007.

It hosted performances from bands including Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, Shed Seven, The Charlatans and Happy Mondays but was cancelled in 2019 after running at a loss of £300,000 the previous year.

Councillor Stephen Place said the authority was considering reviving the festival as well as the Bradford Mela - a celebration of South Asian culture - in Manningham Park.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Reform councillor Place said: "In order that Bradford can celebrate itself and all of its culture we are intending to hopefully bring back Bingley Music Live in Myrtle Park and the Bradford Mela in Manningham Park."

Writing in a post on social media, he explained what he and fellow councillors had been working on since they came into power last month.

The council leader had suggested the council could revive the music festival at a meeting of West Yorkshire's Business Board earlier this month.

He suggested the decision to book High Flying Birds in 2018 had led to the festival's demise.

At the meeting he said: "I think that's what did it. It got too big too fast, trying to pay people like Noel Gallagher. They couldn't afford it."

The original two-day Bradford Mela, which ended back in 2012, was held in Lister Park.

Back then it was run by the council, but last year it was brought back by a commercial operator as the Bradford Food and Lifestyle Mela.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.