THE temperamental weather might have ended up being a blessing to the hardworking team behind the Barnsley Live festival, as music lovers crowded into Barnsley’s bars and clubs over the weekend.

As the heavy rain poured and people tried their best to find cover, they had the opportunity to listen to some of Barnsley’s finest artists who made sure a buzz could be felt around the whole town centre.

Organiser Matt Smith said: “People might have been forced to watch bands they wouldn’t have ordinarily gone to see.

“But hopefully we’ll have some sun next year. It did go really well and I’d say we exceeded last year despite the weather.”

After 39 years, seminal heavy metal band Seventh Son returned to - almost - the same spot where the band was formed in 1980 as they took to the stage at Che Bar, next door to what was once the King George Hotel where they played in their early days.

Although their headline set was delayed by an hour due to technical issues during the day, it didn’t dampen the waiting crowd’s spirits, and the festival as a whole ran with few hiccups - with more than 180 bands playing every hour at 25 venues.

“We had a few little issues, just stupid things like the wi-fi in one venue going down,” said Matt.

“There were so many of us around everything got dealt with quite quickly and we got there in the end.”

Spearheaded by Matt, Chris Scarfe, Ryan Thompson, Kev Parkin and Stuart Robinson, this year’s festival raised money for Barnsley-based charity the LimbBo Foundation, which makes specially-adapted items for children with missing limbs.

And at the latest count the festival had raised more than £2,500, with Matt saying the team thought they would be able to hand the charity well over £3,000.

Matt said: “We’d like to thank Barnsley College as our main sponsors, all the bands and musicians, the venues, sound engineers and of course the people of Barnsley.”