A ‘live’ festival will be broadcast directly from Emmerdale village in celebration of its fortieth birthday.
Scouting for Girls and The Proclaimers are just two of the bands set to perform at The Homefields Festival on the Home Farm estate to kick off the anniversary coverage.
Filming was completed over three days in August and the result is due to air on the Leeds-based soap in October.
And to give the event that authentic feel, programme producers made sure there were some big names headlining.
Roy Stride, lead singer of Scouting for Girls, said: “Having played The Woolpack in 2010 we felt the next step as Emmerdale fans was to appear in the show – and finally now our dreams have come true.
“Our drummer Pete [Ellard] is the biggest Emmerdale fan I’ve ever met and we have had to work hard to keep him focused on the job in hand.”
The festival is dreamed up by Emmerdale character Declan Macey (actor Jason Merrells), with help from on-screen sister Megan (actress Gaynor Faye).
Together they have pulled in some decent names, including Leeds bands DeLorean Drivers, Eureka Machines and folk singer Brendan Croker.
The festival ground was built from scratch with a full stage and a real lighting rig.
VIP and backstage areas were also created with food and drink outlets, muddy fields, blocks of toilets, hundreds of ‘festival goers’ and of course real bands.
Emmerdale’s series producer Stuart Blackburn said: “It was an amazing feat to put together an entire festival in such a short space of time.
“Technically it is probably one of the biggest challenges we have ever had on the show but the end result looks great.”
Craig Reid, singer with The Proclaimers, said: “It was really different from anything we had done before and we had a really excellent day filming with Emmerdale.
“Everything went very smoothly.
“Thanks to everyone in the crew and cast who made it such an easy and enjoyable day.”
Emmerdale has already confirmed that its 40th birthday will be a week-long celebration of ‘must see’ TV.
Fans will enjoy a live episode, two weddings and the birth of two babies.
Adding a touch of sparkle to proceedings will be award-winning Tony Prescott, who will direct the live episode.
For more details, visit www.facebook.com/emmerdale.
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