Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival celebrates 40th anniversary

BBC News

22-02-2025

A festival which celebrates an age-old tradition of bootlegging on Yorkshire's canals is marking its 40th anniversary.Slaithwaite Moonraking Festival features a series of events inspired by tales of moonrakers – locals who smuggled alcohol in boats on the Huddersfield Narrow Canal in the 19th Century.The event was founded in 1985, and takes place every two years, but was put on hiatus between 2017-2023 due to funding issues, and then the pandemic.A week of activities culminates with a spectacular night-time parade featuring handmade paper lanterns, during which locals re-enact the moonrakers' story.
In the 19th Century a series of licensing laws were introduced to control the sale and production of alcohol – especially spirits - which led to the smuggling on the canal."They smuggled it in because it was very heavily taxed in those days, and beyond the reach of ordinary people," says Kath Shackleton, one of the organisers of the Slaithwaite Festival."Back in the 1800s, we think around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, booze was hard to come by in West Yorkshire - and locals who wanted their hooch had to resort to imaginative ways of getting hold of it, and the moonrakers hid their booze in the canal.She explained how the smugglers came to be known as moonrakers."One night it was a very clear night - in the middle of the winter - and there was a bright, shining moon, and as the constabulary came by asking them what they were doing, they saw the reflection of the moon in the water and they told them that they were 'raking out' the moon."The constabulary bid them on their way and after they had gone they [the smugglers] celebrated with a good party!"
Slaithwaite's creative spirit is celebrated across the festival week, with ceilidhs and art workshops, as well as the final parade which begins at 17:30 GMT on Saturday.During the week before the parade – which falls in half term – families create lanterns from willow branches and tissue paper which become part of the evening procession.Starting from Carr Lane, on the canal, a giant illuminated moon is floated along on a raft.Women with rakes attempt to pull it onto the bank - 'moonraking' - before other participants, dressed as gnomes with long beards. land the moon using a crane.Once lifted out, the gnomes carry the moon around the streets, leading a procession of lanterns to the top of the town. They are joined by street performers, entertainers, poets and musicians.
Today the festival is funded by Kirklees Council, the National Lottery and local businesses.Ms Shackleton said it provides a lovely opportunity to bring the young and old in the community together, describing how the parade creates "a stunning view across the village, and the lanterns all snake down the hill" in the centre of town.Nowadays, bootlegging is thankfully no longer necessary, with alcohol much easier to come by in the West Yorkshire town. Manchester brewery, JW Lees, has even named one of its craft beers, Moonraker Strong Ale, after the story.Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.