| Where: | Wath-upon-Dearne, Yorkshire at All Saints Church on Church Street |
| When: | Saturday of May Day Bank Holiday Weekend |
| Time: | 12 noon |
Wath Festival takes place over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend and features folk artists & musicians, morris & maypole dancing and everything you could want from a spring celebration as well as a unique bun-throwing event. The vicar, attired in historical costume, reads out the will of local resident Thomas Tuke before ascending the church tower. A basket of bread is winched up outside while dancing takes place and as the clock strikes twelve noon, a barrage of buns descends from on high onto the assembled crowd below. The origins of the event lie in the early-nineteenth century bequest by Mr Tuke to distribute loaves to the needy on St Thomas’ Day in December but the current revival moved date to a more clement season which fits in with the folk festival, running now for over thirty years.
Helpful Hints
In 2024 the Festival should take place over the weekend of Friday 3rd May to Sunday 5th May with the bunthrowing on Saturday 4th May.
Click here for the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wathfestival
and here for the website: https://www.wathfestival.org.uk/
Thanks to Ross Parish for drawing my attention to this one!
This is not real
It’s definitely real – I’ve been!
I live in Wath & it’s totally real. It happened yesterday. The custom died out at one point but this year was the 50th anniversary of its revival.