Harry Styles fans head in one direction: to star singer’s home village

Fans flock to Holmes Chapel year-round to pay homage at several sites linked to the British singer. Read more at straitstimes.com.

HOLMES CHAPEL, Britain – Boasting a centuries-old church, quaint pubs and rolling green countryside, Holmes Chapel looks like many other English villages.

But having played a formative part in British singer Harry Styles’ rise to global superstardom, nothing can be as it was for the village near Manchester, in north-west England.

Fans from around the world – dubbed Harries – flock there year-round to pay homage at several sites linked to the Watermelon Sugar singer.

With the former One Direction member releasing a new album and staging a Manchester concert on March 6, recent weeks have been extra busy.

“I’ve been looking forward to this day for too long!” Spanish student Elena Garcia, 21, told AFP as she visited this week with two friends.

Like other Styles pilgrims before them, they stopped by the village train station where the ticket office has become a shrine of sorts, as well as the bakery where he once worked.