Whitby Goth Weekend October 2022: The popular goth festival returns to the Yorkshire coast seaside town

Whitby Goth Weekend is a bi-annual alternative music festival dedicated to celebrating gothic culture. Every year it hosts two nights of live bands and three days across the weekend of alternative trade stalls at Whitby Leisure Centre and Whitby Brunswick Centre.

The event was first organised by Jo Hampshire, who gathered around 40 of her pen-pals in 1994. The first meeting was held in the Elsinore public house in Whitby.

She chose the seaside town of Whitby because of its Dracula connections as this had already encouraged a sense of acceptance of gothic culture. The festival was held every year until 1997, when it became bi-annual in April and October.

The October 2007 festival was dedicated to the memory of Sophie Lancaster, who died on August 27, 2007 at the age of 20 after she was attacked. She had attended three Whitby Goth Weekends and a collection of more than £3,000 was raised from many events to fund a memorial bench in her honour in Whitby.

The event has brought in around £10,000 bed-nights in Whitby and the weekend has contributed to £1.1 million every year to the local economy.

Whitby Goth Weekend in October 2022

The event will be based around Abbey Wharf, Market Place and will include the Bizarre Bazaar Alternative Market, which features 100 stalls across multiple venues.

It will start on Friday, October 28 and end on Sunday, October 30. The event includes music, food and drink and authors who normally perform for visitors.

The stalls hosted by Bizarre Bazaar celebrate the fashion and culture of the gothic world. The music line-up has not yet been confirmed for this weekend.