Redruth International Mining and Pasty Festival 2015

The old Cornish mining town of Redruth in Cornwall once again celebrates its ever popular Mining and Pasty Festival with celebrations taking place from Friday 11th September until Sunday 13th September, 2015.

The Mining and Pasty Festival is a three day event celebrating the UNESCO World Heritage Site in Redruth through pasties, mining and music.  The event is focussed around the town centre and is completely free to attend.

Friday 11th, which is Miners’ Day, sees Murdoch House opened, the home of the Scottish engineer and inventor William Murdoch (21 August 1754 – 15 November 1839) with themed displays touching on Redruth’s close links with Real del Monte in Mexico where many Cornish miners made their home in search of mining work and with research material made available by the Cornish Global Migration Project.

Kresen Kernow - The Cornish Studies Centre is hosting events staged by the Trevithick Society highlighting the industrial trailblazers of Redruth and including a tour of the new multi million pound Cornish National Library and Archive Centre development currently under construction whilst the town centre will be alive with music and tales from the past including one of a miner who auctioned off his wife and emigrated!

The evening sees ‘Shout Kernow!’ at Kresen Kernow, a musical celebration of Cornwall’s pub song traditions and a Gala Concert at Redruth’s huge Methodist Chapel with performers including ‘The Celtic Male Ensemble’ ‘Lowena Voices’ and musicians from Real del Monte.

All day, a vintage coach will convey passengers free of charge around the town with a guide pointing out places of interest in connection with the area’s mining heritage.

Saturday 12th is Pasty Day and the town area is closed to traffic as many pasty making companies gather, all now part of what has become a multimillion pound industry in Cornwall, and showcase their wares to the public. As has become the popular norm, members of the public will be invited to make their own pasties. Many other Cornish food and drink displays will fill the town with examples of the distinctive food, wine and whisky of the district available. Traditional and modern Cornish music and dancing will be taking place throughout the day, fun fair events at St. Rumon’s Gardens and St. Rumon’s Club, book sales and exhibitions in the town’s St. Andrew’s Church, a display by ‘Taves an Tir’ highlighting the Cornish language and its use in local place names as well as the vintage coach motorised heritage tours around the town and much, much more.

Sunday 13th sees Mining Memorial Day when people gather to remember the brave miners and their wives by walking along one of the local mine trails and ending up at the town’s mining church, St. Euny’s for a service of local songs, tales and dance. The afternoon celebrations centre on Victoria Park for a civic fun day whilst the evening concludes the festival weekend with a massive troyl (ceilidh) celebration at the town’s Community Centre featuring music and dance by the ‘Whippletree Ceilidh Band’ ‘Tredanek’ ‘The Other Band’ and others.

Thousands and thousands of locals and visitors attend this weekend, young and old, many Cornish folks from the enormous Cornish overseas diaspora come back to join in as well as people from the town’s twins in Brittany, the USA and Mexico.

All are assured of a warm Cornish welcome from this very traditional town, known all over as the ‘World Capital of Cornish Mining.’

Much more information can be obtained from the town’s website here.