THE Black Rose Ball, now a regular part of the Northern Gothic scene on the first weekend in September, will be held in the De Grey Rooms in York.

The annual event began in 2013 when two friends, DJ Mad Alex and Estelle York, wanted to attend a high Goth, elegant masquerade ball but could not find one and duly decided to host their own.

The Black Rose Events committee has since grown to a seven-strong band of hard-working volunteers, who put on more events throughout the year, with the August 31 concert at the Fulford Arms and Gothic Masquerade Charity Ball on September 1 as the fulcrum of fund-raising for the Sophie Lancaster Foundation this year.

"All Black Rose events aim to be great fun but also provide safe and comfortable spaces for alternative people," says publicist and committee member Roz. "Now in our sixth year, the theme for this year’s ball weekend is Wasteland and the Saturday night will feature great DJs from across the UK, such as DJ Mad Alex, playing the best of Goth, Dark Wave, Dark Electro, Mittelalter, Neofold and New Romantic music from 7.30pm to 1am."

The Friday gig will kick off the Goth celebrations with live sets by the darkly post-punk They Called Him Zone, the haunting violin-infused Red Sun Revival and the female-fronted Goth rockers Bad Pollyanna at the Fulford Arms from 7.30pm to 11pm. The Black Rose Bazaar will take place from 11am to 4pm on the Saturday with a selection of Goth/alternative traders in the De Grey Rooms, including the Black Rose secondhand stall, and the De Grey Rooms bar will be open, specially transformed into a Goth café.

After the masquerade ball, when the dress code will be formal masquerade/gothic/alternative, the weekend will round off with a tour of York Cemetery on the Sunday, exclusive to weekend ticket holders.

"The Black Rose Ball weekend is part of a wider Yorkshire Goth scene that's in good health," says Roz. "There's the twice-yearly Whitby Goth weekend, of course, but great things are going on in Leeds too, with Carpe Noctum and Goth City, and the Infest festival in Bradford, to name just a few.

"Our team is especially excited to have brought over bands from Europe, who have then gone on to play in Whitby, for example Saigon Blue Rain. The same goes for Yorkshire bands, such as Sometime the Wolf, who played at an all-day event at the Fulford Arms and have now been booked to play in Whitby in October on the same line-up as Fields Of Nephilim."

Ticket details and further information can be found at blackroseball.co.uk. You can follow Black Rose Events on Facebook at BlackRoseEventsYork,Twitter at blackroseyork and Instagram at blackroseeventsyork.