Award-winning Yorkshire festival Underneath the Stars reveals first acts

The event – which returns to Cinderhill Farm, Barnsley, on the new dates of Friday, August 4 to Sunday 6 – boasts another eclectic, high quality line-up. Returning for its ninth year, the arts and music festival boasts spectacular live performances in a host of musical styles ranging from pop to folk and all genres in between, along with celebrity interviews, fantastic family workshop activities, wonderful crafts, boutique caterers and great camping.

Headlining Friday is Scouting For Girls. During their immensely successful career they have sold over two million albums, two million singles, had four Brit Award nominations, an Ivor Novello nomination, had four top ten singles, sold-out Wembley Arena and The Royal Albert Hall and had a series of hit singles all of which were inescapable radio smashes.

On Saturday, The Shires, the UK’s biggest country music export, will be performing acoustically. Their achievements speak for themselves: three consecutive UK Top 3 albums, four #1 UK Country albums, 100 million+ streams, two Gold-certified records, and countless sold-out headline shows, including filling the prestigious Royal Albert Hall.

Also appearing on Saturday is acclaimed songwriter and guitarist, Newton Faulkner, whose fifteen-year career has ranged from the acoustic sorcery of his UK#1 debut, Hand Built By Robots, through to rock, pop, folk, soul and beyond. His most recent live forays have been stripped-back and minimal, just as he started, recognising the power in that.

Closing the weekend on Sunday will be Barnsley’s own nightingale and UTSf figurehead, Kate Rusby. Often hailed as the ‘first lady of folk’, Kate celebrated 30 years of touring last year. With a back catalogue stretching over three decades, Kate will perform a selection of highlights, including those from her most recent albums, the most recent of which is 30: Many Happy Returns.