Prime Minister Boris Johnson has welcomed news that the Harrogate Convention Centre has held its first events after being used as a Nightingale Hospital.
The Home and Gift Buyers’ Festival and the Manchester Furniture Show finished yesterday. Organisers said the four-day events attracted more than 10,000 visitors and had a projected economic impact of £750,000.
They were part of a government pilot scheme to gather evidence on the covid risks of holding large scale events safely.
All of those who attended had to provide proof of either having had two vaccinations at least a fortnight prior to the event or a negative lateral flow test within 48 hours.
They did not need to wear masks or observe social distancing rules, which were still in place across the UK for the first day of the event.
In a letter of support to Harrogate Convention Centre, Mr Johnson, said:
“The Harrogate Convention Centre is a great asset to the local economy, and I am so glad to hear that it is now back and ready to take part in the Events Research Programme pilot.
“The past year has been an immense challenge for the whole country and now, with the aid of events like this, we will all be one step closer to normality.”
Paula Lorimer, director at Harrogate Convention Centre, said:
“We’ve been waiting a long time to open venue doors and give people the opportunity to meet, network and do business.
“We were particularly delighted that it was the Home and Gift Show as our first major event, as it celebrates 60 years in Harrogate — it’s a real Harrogate success story.”
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Ms Lorimer added the convention centre has more than £15m of economic impact on its books between now and March.
Gemma Rio, head of destination management at Harrogate Borough Council, said:
Boris backs Harrogate Christmas Eve doorstep jingle“It was fantastic to see the buzz at Harrogate Convention Centre and across the town over the past few days.
“These two events, along with other recent events such as the Great Yorkshire Show are significant first steps in the event industries recovery.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson today called a Harrogate mum backing her campaign to get the world to ring a bell on Christmas Eve.
Mary Beggs-Reid came up with the idea last month and nearly 500,000 people have already signed up to take part.
Today she received a phone call from Mr Johnson, who told her that he will be taking part at 10 Downing Street with his fiancé Carrie Symonds and their young son Wilfred.
Mary planned to travel to London to meet the Prime Minister but the new tier four restrictions in the capital meant a phone call was more suitable.
Read more:
The Christmas Eve doorstep jingle asks people to ring a bell or bang a pan at 6pm for two minutes to “spread festive spirit and help Santa’s sleigh fly”.
With her now famous bell in hand, which will soon become a family heirloom, Mary told the Stray Ferret:
“It’s wonderful, I can’t believe we’ve got the Prime Minister involved. Lots of people from Lapland joined last week, it’s going to reach everywhere.
“There will be a wave of bells on Christmas Eve. We will see it coming from New Zealand and that will build up the excitement even more.
“We will just have two minutes for the children when something amazing and magical will happen, I can’t wait.”
Mary’s inspiration for the event came from the film Elf, where residents of New York sing together to power Santa’s sleigh with their Christmas spirit.
With news that the Christmas relaxation of rules has been reduced to just one day, she thinks that there will be a lot of interest on Thursday.