Fourteen Free Shows, Twelve Hours, One Town: hcmf// Shorts Returns to Huddersfield
If you think contemporary music means sitting in a dark room pretending to understand seven minutes of somebody scraping a radiator, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival would like a word.
On Monday 23 November, hcmf// shorts turns the town into a day-long trail of free performances: 14 shows from noon until 11.30pm, spread across Huddersfield Town Hall, St Paul’s Hall, the Richard Steinitz Building and Bates Mill.
The numbers alone make this one worth circling: 11 UK premieres, three world premieres and no admission charge. It is a chance to hear genuinely new music before most of the country does — without gambling the price of a gig ticket.
A full festival day without the ticket price
The day opens at noon with Andy Ingamells, whose past performance ideas have included recorder players using traffic lights as notation and the splendidly unlikely sport of violin cricket. That should tell you early enough that this is not going to be background music.
At 12.40pm in St Paul’s Hall, clarinettist Heather Roche gives the UK premiere of Kari Watson’s slanted light. Then at 1.30pm, Finnish saxophone quartet Saxtronauts move into Huddersfield Town Hall for the UK premiere of Lauri Supponen’s Ave Maris Stella, a three-part concert installation involving live electronics and experimental instrument building.
The afternoon carries on through piano, audiovisual work, clarinet, electronics and the Belfast-based HIVE Choir, before harpist Rhodri Davies and organist Áine O’Dwyer appear together in Huddersfield for the first time at 7pm.
From one-second violin pieces to saxophone yoga
The late shift may be even more gloriously difficult to describe. RaumZeitPiraten bring sound, light, sculpture and homemade optoacoustic instruments to the Town Hall at 8pm.
At 9pm, violinist Orest Smovzh performs CONDENSED MUSIC: somewhere between 60 and 80 tiny works by around 60 composers, each lasting from one to 45 seconds and played as a single, ever-changing set. Think contemporary composition meeting punk’s refusal to hang about.
Saxtronauts return at 10.50pm with Tytti Arola’s Exobiology — a piece whose official description promises tributes to women in space, strange creatures and saxophone yoga. SYKLIT then closes the programme at 11.30pm with techno influences, choir and percussion material, and live video.
Why this matters in Huddersfield
hcmf// is an international festival, but it belongs to Huddersfield in a very practical way. For ten days each November, artists and listeners arrive here from around the world; hcmf// shorts is the day when local people can dip into that atmosphere for free, try one performance or spend twelve hours following the whole trail.
You do not need to know the composers, the terminology or what an optoacoustic instrument is before you arrive. Curiosity will do. The worst that can happen is that something leaves you baffled. The best is that you hear a sound you would never have gone looking for.
Plan it properly
hcmf// shorts takes place on Monday 23 November 2026 from noon, across several Huddersfield venues. Every performance is free, but capacities are limited and admission is first come, first served. The organisers recommend arriving early for anything you are especially keen to catch. Read the complete official timetable and individual event details before setting off.
MONKEY SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT: DELIRIUM AT THE KING’S HEAD
If your Sunday needs guitars rather than experimental electronics, Delirium play the King’s Head in St George’s Square today, Sunday 18 October, with the first set at 4pm. The band’s current announcement confirms the show, and the King’s Head remains one of Huddersfield town centre’s dependable Sunday-afternoon live-music stops.
It is free local rock in a proper supporter venue — exactly the kind of gig that survives because people turn up. See Delirium’s latest event post and give the band and pub your support.
For more Huddersfield and West Yorkshire live music, keep an eye on the Monkey GigsList. Helping to Keep Local Music Alive since 2014.
Sources: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival — hcmf// shorts 2026; Delirium official Facebook announcement. Cover artwork: Natural Abstraction II, created by Anderinna Gooch and supplied on the official hcmf// event page.
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