Exmoor’s Dark Skies Festival Marks a Decade of Stargazing Success

Stargazers and astronomers are gathering on Exmoor this month for a festival built entirely around the night sky — and this year’s edition marks its tenth anniversary.

The Exmoor Dark Skies Festival runs from 16 October to 1 November across villages and towns bordering Exmoor National Park, offering walks, talks and shows centred on the region’s famously dark, clear skies.

The event celebrates the park’s designation as a Dark Sky Reserve, granted by the International Astronomical Union in 2011 to help protect everyone’s right to view the night sky by limiting light pollution.

Festival organiser Julie Colman said: “We bring together lots and lots of events across the two-week period, celebrating the skies, the wildlife, the wellbeing elements of it.” Around 80 events are scheduled across the park this year, ranging from moonlit swimming and astronomy sessions to bioluminescence walks and planetarium shows.

According to Colman, Exmoor has “very little light pollution,” which “enables the dark to be really dark with none of the pollution impacting.” She added: “In the core of the reserve, there’s an area where there is no light at all in a huge area – and that just makes the sky so much clearer and you’re able to see some incredible constellations. You can see the Milky Way – it really is fantastic.” Photos from past festivals show strikingly clear views of stars against an inky backdrop.

The national park introduced the festival in 2017 partly to support local businesses as the traditional tourist season winds down. In Dunster, on the edge of Exmoor, Yarn Market Hotel manager Antony Brunt has watched that strategy pay off. “It has become much more widely known – and now we literally have people ringing us up to book,” he said. The hotel now runs special trips during the festival led by a local astronomer, along with visits to sites and events across the park.

Brunt said the festival draws visitors from across the UK who value the quieter timing. “It’s getting to a quieter time of year and these people, they really enjoy coming down,” he said. “We have a group that come each year, in fact, twice a year. For people to come regularly twice a year to the same hotel, they must be enjoying the stargazing part of the weekend.”

The festival’s growing popularity meant many of this year’s events had already sold out before it even opened.

Source: BBC News