Pontefract's Big Summer Guide

Yonder is returning to Pontefract’s most regal landmark for a hot summer party!  Strut your stuff to a funky, full line up of live DJ sets and great disco, feast on world street food, stay hydrated at the festival bar, groove to the silent disco and enjoy performers and entertainment throughout the event – all with a festival twist, and all in the regal grounds of Pontefract Castle.

📍 Pontefract Castle, WF8 1QH
📅 Saturday 7 June, 4pm – 10pm
🎫 £20.21 per ticket – booking essential

Get ready for a community event that brings history, wheels and local spirit together! WheelFest transforms Pontefract’s town centre into a showcase of mechanical marvels and historical heritage. WheelFest celebrates everything with wheels, while 1940s Ropergate steps back in time to commemorate Pontefract’s contributions during World War II!

📍 Pontefract town centre, WF8 1BD
📅 Saturday 14 June, 10am – 4pm
🎫 Free

Head to Farmer Copleys and board the good ship Sailorette to join the Old Time Sailors for a night of footstomping, dancing and singing! You’ll be clashing back in time to the rambunctious 19th century where you will join this motley crew for an evening of centuries-old folk and shanty songs. Fancy dress is encouraged, so pull out your best seafaring garments, me hearties, and join the festivities!

📍 Farmer Copleys, WF7 5AF
📅 Saturday 21 June, 6pm – 10pm
🎫 £22.66, booking essential

The Yorkshire Family Day is the first Sunday meeting of the season at Pontefract Racecourse, and it’s a great day out for all the family! Alongside 7 fantastic races the racecourse will host a Yorkshire themed festival. Think Yorkshire puddings, face painting, hunt the golden horseshoe, funfair, bus trips to the start and a flat caps all in one day!

📍 Pontefract Racecourse, WF8 4QD
📅 Sunday 22 June, 11:30am – 5pm
🎫 Prices from £6.00, booking essential

Pontefract Castle’s biggest classical event returns! Proms at the Castle is a magnificent evening of music and light with the West Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra. Bring along friends and loved ones to listen to moving melodies as the sun goes down over the Castle. Prepare to be transported on an orchestral odyssey! The concert will end with a fantastic firework finale.

📍Pontefract Castle, WF8 1QH
📅 Saturday 28 June, 5:30pm – 11pm
🎫 £14.50 – £18.00, booking essential

Wakefield Armed Forces Day is a free, family event at Pontefract Park celebrating the contributions of serving and veteran armed forces members. It features activities like a Wings Free Fall Parachute display, a veterans’ parade, and military displays, offering a close-up view of the armed forces’ capabilities. Visitors can also enjoy street food, a bar, community stalls, a funfair, and a craft market!

📍Pontefract Park, WF8 4QD
📅 Sunday 6 July, 10am – 4:30pm
🎫 Free

Pontefract Liquorice Festival is back! Get ready to celebrate Pontefract’s historic link with liquorice. Sample delicious street food and the speciality market – with many stalls offering liquorice themed products. Enjoy top talent on the stage, fun walkabout entertainment, exciting workshops, face painting, crafts and the HARIBO-themed parade with colourful costumes and Goldbear leading the way!

And locals shouldn’t miss the community celebration Liquorice Shoots the day before!

📍Pontefract town centre, WF8 1BD
📅 Sunday 13 July, 10am – 4pm
🎫 Free

It’s the return of Pontefract Racecourse‘s live music night and beer festival! Flash: A Tribute to Queen is a spellbinding tribute band dedicated to iconic rock band Queen, performing hits including “Radio GaGa”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” “Don’t Stop Me Now” and more.  The Beer Festival located in the Grandstand & Paddock Enclosure features great ales and ciders from four brilliant local breweries.

📍 Pontefract Racecourse, WF8 4QD
📅 Friday 18 July, 4:30pm – 10:45pm
🎫 Prices from £6.00, booking essential

Get ready to groove in the fields and join Farmer Copleys for an electrifying experience at FarmTrax Music Festival, where the countryside comes alive with the beat! It’s the ultimate tribute extravaganza featuring tributes to Pink, Coldplay, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks and many, many more! There’ll be a selection of draught beers, wines and more in the bars as well as plenty of awesome food stalls and other treats to enjoy.

📍 Farmer Copleys, WF7 5AF
📅 Saturday 26 July-Sunday 27 July, 12pm – 9pm
🎫 £25-£40, booking essential

In a whirlwind of balls, dinners and eligible officers, Lizzy Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy stand alone as the only sane, thoughtful people – and they hate each other! Or do they? If your idea of Pride and Prejudice is stuffy costume drama then this sparkling adaptation is guaranteed to change your mind. Bring a picnic and have a ball at Pontefract Castle and enjoy Illyria’s Jane Austen at her vibrant, bitchy best!

📍 Pontefract Castle, WF8 1QH
📅 Friday 1 August, 7pm – 10pm
🎫 Tickets from £10.84 – booking essential

The glitz and glamour of Ladies Day returns to Pontefract Racecourse! The ladies of Yorkshire really do ‘dress to impress’ in an effort to win the coveted Best Dressed Lady Competition. This year’s lucky winner will be jetting off on holiday to Dubai with an all-inclusive week stay for two with flights included! So, big hats at the ready!

📍 Pontefract Racecourse, WF8 4QD
📅 Wednesday 6 August, 12pm – 6pm
🎫 Prices from £6.00, booking essential

Join the Handlebards troupe at Pontefract Castle for a bicycle-powered production of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing like you’ve never seen before! This romantic comedy follows the witty banter, misunderstandings and entanglements of two pairs of lovers: the sharp-tongued Beatrice and Benedick, and the sweet Hero and Claudio. Expect riotous energy, a fair old whack of chaos, and a great deal of laughter.

📍 Pontefract Castle, WF8 1QH
📅 Friday 8 August, 6:30pm – 10pm
🎫 Tickets from £11.92 – booking essential

Pontefract Racecourse‘s last Sunday race meeting of the season is their annual In The Zone Family Day. Enjoy a Behind the Scenes Talk in the Winners Enclosure, join the ex-racehorses for a parade, listen to the expert Punters Panel, enjoy the funfair, free sweets, activity packs and racecards for kids, a ‘Hunt The Golden Horseshoe’ competition and loads more!

📍 Pontefract Racecourse, WF8 4QD
📅 Sunday 17 August, 11:30am – 6pm
🎫 Prices from £6.00, booking essential

Mole yearns for adventure, Rat adores boats and Badger likes peace and quiet. Into their lives bursts Toad, who loves fast cars and can’t seem to help getting into trouble! Can the animals reform Toad’s character and evict the squatters from his ancestral home? Kenneth Grahame’s classic The Wind in the Willows is brought to the stage by Illyria at Pontefract Castle.

📍 Pontefract Castle, WF8 1QH
📅 Friday 29 August, 7pm – 10pm
🎫 Tickets from £10.84 – booking essential