Kate Bush fans' Wuthering Heights dance tribute on Brontë moors

BBC News

9 hours ago

Red dresses and extravagant dance moves are likely to be the order of the day later this month on the moors above Haworth in joint celebration of writer Emily Brontë and singer Kate Bush.What is known as The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever is held on 27 July each year, and sees thousands of people across the world recreate the video to Bush's 1978 song Wuthering Heights, inspired by the Brontë novel of the same name. This year's West Yorkshire tribute will be held on moorland on Penistone Hill, not far from the famous Brontë sister's home in Haworth.Organiser Clare Shaw, a writer who lives near Haworth, said 500 tickets for the "Mass Wuther" event were snapped up "within hours".
Ms Shaw said she wanted not only to celebrate Bush and Brontë's cultural heritage, but also to raise awareness of a campaign to protect Top Withens - believed to be Brontë's inspiration for the Wuthering Heights farmhouse - and the surrounding moors from a planned windfarm development.
Ms Shaw said wearing a red dress for the event, as Bush did in the video for her classic song, was non-negotiable, meanwhile participants were encouraged to learn the dance moves in advance.She explained that the project was co-hosted by Happy Valley Pride, the Calder Valley LGBTQ+ celebration. "There's a really strong element of of celebrating LGBTQ+ as part of the event, which fits perfectly with Kate Bush because she was always a gay icon, even in the days when that wasn't the thing to be," she said.Ms Shaw said the event would also tie in with a project called Wondering Heights, created for Bradford's City of Culture celebrations, and would fuse Brontë's literary heritage with Bush's pop classic.
Created by artist Lucy Barker, the project was described as a "mass dance meditation for everybody", including dance workshops running between 5 and 23 July inspired by the Wuthering Heights routine. Ms Barker and Ms Shaw said they had been working together to make sure as many people as possible who wanted to join in with the "Mass Wuther" were able to. Ms Shaw said: "The project is part of Bradford 2025, and is about making the moor more accessible, but also making dance accessible."So, people who might not be able to attend the event - either because they can't get a ticket or because they have caring responsibilities or mobility restrictions - can take part in different ways."Ms Shaw said she had long been a Kate Bush fan, but added that supporting the campaign against the proposed wind farm was "the driving force" for the "Mass Wuther". The wind farm development is planned for land on Walshaw Moor, near Hebden Bridge - about four miles (6km) from Top Withens.
Ms Shaw said: "I've been really heavily involved in the campaign against the wind farm, which I never thought I would find myself saying."I'm absolutely a proponent of green energy, but green energy has to mean green energy. "If you look at a wind farm on a blanket bog, that is a habitat for a multitude of really important creatures, on deep peat, it's not green energy - it's an energy factory located in a really important ecological and cultural site."Calderdale Energy Park, behind the proposals, has said it would apply for permission to build 41 turbines on Walshaw Moor.The company's first consultation on the project ended on 10 June. Christian Egal, project director, said it could power up to 250,000 homes, cutting annual CO2 emissions by up to 350,000 tonnes.Mr Egal said: "We are committed to shaping the project by engaging with local people and our first stage of consultation has already received more than 1,000 individual responses."This feedback, alongside detailed technical and environmental assessments, will be critical to shaping the scheme's final design that is sensitive to its moorland location."
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