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12
Dec
How Knaresborough rallied to save this weekend's Christmas Market
“Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to do that 24 hours again,” says Hazel Haas, the organiser of Knaresborough Christmas Market.
Knaresborough has the biggest — and many would say the best — Christmas market in the area. A full quota of 66 traders were booked for last weekend, coachloads were expected and shops had stocked up for a deluge of shoppers.
But then Storm Darragh put the town’s busiest weekend of the year bar the bed race in jeopardy.
The forecast was about as welcome as King Herod at a nativity. Hazel says:
We were watching the forecast every day. It was getting worse and worse and we were getting to the point where we had to make a decision.
On Thursday morning she and other key committee members James Pickard, who oversees traffic management and logistics and Bill Taylor, who oversees marshalling, chose the only viable option given the risk of stalls being uprooted and announced the market was not going ahead.
Nearby Christmas markets in Leeds, Grassington, Skipton, Malton and Beverley made the same call. But while those ones were cancelled, Knaresborough’s was merely postponed as the organisers attempted to do in 24 hours what normally takes a year by rearranging the market for this weekend (December 14 and 15).
Last year's Christmas market
Spirit of Knaresborough
We met Hazel at Frazer House in Market Place, where the charity Knaresborough Friendship and Leisure Centre runs a drop-in meeting room for older people that serves refreshments mainly for older people. A tea, coffee and a couple of biscuits cost £1.30.
“It’s the spirit of Knaresborough,” she says. Hazel mentions this spirit throughout our interview, not least when explaining how the town managed to pull off the rapid rearrangement when other places didn’t even try.
Knaresborough just has this spirit. It still retains that small town feeling. Of course it has the noisy ones and the negative ones — every town has those. But there is so much positivity and community spirit. It’s nearly all independent shops and look, we even have the Frazer Theatre, which is remarkable for a town this size.
As she speaks, a passer-by with perfect timing drops a flyer on the table for a free Christmas buffet lunch with crackers at Frazer Theatre this Sunday at 12.30pm. More evidence of the Knaresborough spirit.
But spirit only goes so far. A market had to be organised, pronto. Road closures, which require seven days’ notice, were the biggest challenge. The Christmas market road closures in Knaresborough begin on the Friday night before the event gets underway so there was one day to act.
North Yorkshire Council, not known for responding quickly, played a blinder by agreeing to this and other bureaucratic but necessary issues such as alcohol licensing, bins and toilets.
It also agreed to rent the stalls out but couldn’t provide the staff to erect them at such short notice. No problem — James Pickard arranged for a local removal company to put them up tomorrow (Friday) night.
The professional traffic management company the market uses agreed to rearrange, as did security — but what about the traders?
Not everyone could reschedule but most did and others stepped in and remarkably, the Christmas market is going ahead with an expected full complement of 66 stalls. That’s about double the size of Harrogate Christmas Fayre.
What can visitors expect? Hazel says:
We call ourselves a Yorkshire Christmas market. We don’t pretend it’s an international market or a German Christmas market. Ninety percent of traders are from Yorkshire, although we have one coming from as far as Edinburgh.
Hazel Haas in Frazer House
Held in the historic Market Place, it culminates with a free fireworks finale provided by local firm Ferrensby Fireworks set against the backdrop of Nidd Gorge at 4.30pm on Sunday. There’s also the Great Knaresborough Christmas Tree Festival at St John’s (see our gallery here) and the Chrismouse trail this weekend, to ensure a jolly weekend.
Mercifully, the forecast is good, particularly for Saturday. Hazel says:
What we want is cold, dry and sunny. If we get that holy trinity we get 10,000 people a day. What we don’t want is horizontal rain, but even then we get 3,000.
Last Christmas?
The market has been run jointly by Rotary in Knaresborough, Knaresborough Lions and Knaresborough & District Chamber, who split the profits for local good causes, since 2007. It’s grown bigger and frequently operates at capacity.
Yet incredibly it might not happen next year. North Yorkshire Council wants to move to a system it employs elsewhere where market traders put up their own stalls to save £30,000.
It's called 'harmonisation' — but is spreading disharmony that threatens the future of Knaresborough’s weekly Wednesday market as well as the town's Christmas market and Ripon’s weekly Thursday market.
Hazel, who was received Honorary Freedom of the Town in 2022 for her extraordinary contribution to Knaresborough, says:
My personal opinion is if the market goes self-erect it will go into a downward spiral and in two years cease to exist. It needs to be locally run with traditional market stalls.
Knaresborough Town Council is in talks with North Yorkshire Council about doing precisely that. The battle is likely to be resolved next year.
Knaresborough may need another injection of its magical spirit to save its Christmas market next year and beyond.
Knaresborough Christmas Market takes place from 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday. Motorists are advised to use the free GSPK park and ride car park on Manse Lane, postcode HG5 8LF.
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