Invoking the spirit of Wuthering Heights, 500 dancers will protest a potential massive windfarm with a musical event at moorland reputedly the inspiration for Emily Bronte’s famous novel.
Their event, on July 27, also invokes music legend Kate Bush, coinciding with the annual “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” in celebration of the artist’s number one hit “Wuthering Heights”.
Last year, Calder Wind Farm Ltd submitted a scoping document to Calderdale Council outlining proposals which, in the company’s revised form, would see 41 giant turbines sites at Walshaw Moor above Hebden Bridge.
Campaigners opposing proposals are concerned about the impact the windfarm might have on protective peatland and the moorland habitat, including nesting birds, and impacting visually on “Bronte country”.
The dancers – in flowing red dresses – will evoke the spirit of both Emily Bronte, famous author of Wuthering Heights, and Kate Bush, whose “Wuthering Heights” topped the UK charts in 1978.
They will be dancing on the moorland surrounding Top Withens, the reputed inspiration for Emily Bronte’s novel.
Since 2014, “The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” has drawn crowds of costumed dancers to recreate Kate Bush’s choreography in locations across the globe, say the organisers.
From Melbourne to Berlin, Paris to Oslo, dancers have celebrated the shared birthday of Emily Brontë and Kate Bush in a “mass wuther” which expresses the culture-defining impact of the novel, the song, and its uniquely memorable dance.
However, 2025 marks the first “mass wuther” in Haworth, the venue being chosen in opposition to the turbine proposals, whose opponents include major ecological and heritage organisations including the Bronte Society, the RSPB and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England.
“Actually the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever” and its role in protecting the moors was raised in Parliament by Shadow Minister for the Environment, Keighley and Ilkley Conservative MP Robbie Moore.
The event will also raise funds and awareness for Bradford Women’s Aid, who every year support thousands of women affected by the domestic violence associated with the novel’s character Heathcliff, say the organisers.
Instead, the event celebrates the strength and creativity of groundbreaking women like Kate and Emily and supported by Calderdale Happy Valley Pride, the event also showcases diversity and diversity, they add.
“Everyone is welcome, regardless of gender,” says co-organiser Sophie Bramley, “provided they’ve learnt the dance, and they’re wearing a flowing red dress!”
Provided too, that they hold one of the 500 tickets which were snatched up within hours of their release, she said.
Opponents say each turbine would be as tall as Blackpool Tower, with a lot of related infrastructure visible for miles.
But the company argues that the Calderdale Energy Park would be capable of generating enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 250,000 homes.
By: John Greenwood, LDRS
