Harrogate’s Valley Gardens to host spectacular fire and light show

Harrogate’s Valley Gardens will host a spectacular series of displays next month that celebrate fire, light and water.

Harrogate International Festivals has teamed up with outdoor events company Culture Creative for the event, which is being billed as ‘The Fire and Light Experience – a trail of blaze and brilliance through the Valley Gardens’.

Taking place from dusk until 10pm on the nights of Thursday, March 24 to Saturday, March 26, it will be HIF’s first event of 2022 and is being part-funded by Harrogate Borough Council and Harrogate Business Improvement District.

Culture Creative specialises in creating shows in heritage and landscape settings. Its clients include Kew Gardens, Blenheim Palace, The National Trust and English Heritage.

Sharon Canavar, Harrogate International Festivals’ chief executive, said:

“The town is famed for its waters, and this arts installation will bring all the elements of nature alive – earth, air, water and fire – in a spectacle of brilliance and blaze.

“With covid having cast a dark shadow for almost two years, we wanted to create a magical experience for the whole family to marvel at. And those who venture into the Valley Gardens will find themselves immersed in a trail of discovery, and one where they will be able to reimagine the natural world around them.

“They will lose themselves in the magic of nature, as each twist and turn reveals a new picture of tranquillity and wonder.”

Tickets for the event, priced at £12 for adults, £6 for 5-16-year-olds, and under-fives go free. You can buy tickets from the Harrogate International Festival website.

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Harrogate Youth Festival heads online this evening

The Harrogate International Youth Festival will have a new look this year as it heads online tonight.

The festival’s ‘Big Night In’ will take place at 7.30pm.

It is the longest running International Youth Music and Performing Arts Festival in the UK holding an event each Easter weekend since 1973.

The official festival has been postponed until next year, when international travel resumes. The organisers couldn’t let the weekend go ahead without some form of celebration – so instead they arranged the virtual concert.

The festival organisers will bring regular participants together on Zoom to watch key moments of previous festivals.

Micheal Newby, former Harrogate Mayor, will be hosting the online show and introducing a variety of video footage of recent concerts involving local and international artists.

Mr Newby said:

“This really will be a jammed packed evening! We simply could not put everything in that we wanted to – but I think we’ve got a really good selection that we know our audiences will love to see.

“We can’t wait to be together again and perform at these amazing venues in our community – but until then, we wanted to celebrate these amazing schools, groups and colleges that have performed with us over the years and really look forward to a fantastic Festival year next year.”

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In previous years, the six night festival would start with marching bands parading through the Harrogate town centre. Shows would run in big venues such as the Royal Hall and Ripon Cathedral.

The festival aims to bring, primarily youth, choirs, orchestras and bands together from across the world to perform in Harrogate.

Harewood House awarded funding boost

Harewood House Trust has been awarded £695,556 by the Cultural Recovery Fund. 

It is the latest grant in the fight to support the stately home through the coronavirus pandemic. 

Last week, Harewood was given £296,128 by Historic England and DCMS to fund the restoration of its Terrace balustrade. It was also awarded an emergency National Heritage Lottery Fund grant to support re-opening earlier in the year.

The charity has now received more than £1 million to help survive and recover from its coronavirus-enforced closure. 

Lockdown forced Harewood to close its doors for 14 weeks this year – more than a third of its open season. This resulted in losses of £1.2 million, as an estimated 80,000 people were unable to visit. 

Trust director Jane Marriott said:

“Like many of our colleagues, Harewood’s total closure earlier in the year placed us in such a difficult financial situation, facing over £1 million in losses. However, the combination of our visitors’ support and a significant grant from the Culture Recovery Fund has secured Harewood’s future recovery, so that we can continue to do ambitious programming, and to make certain that this wonderful place can continue to be enjoyed by as many as possible. 

“The national funding bodies’ confidence in Harewood’s work is very much needed and appreciated. We are now in a position to improve the site, develop our learning programme, continue to work with artists and maintain our ambitious visitor experience, looking once again to our future.”

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The grant from the Cultural Recovery Fund will support a series of family friendly activities, invest in Harewood’s technology infrastructure, and provide canopies for outdoor spaces. This will provide cover for weddings and private hire events, in turn generating vital income for the charity. 

Terminal cancer diagnosis inspires Harrogate art teacher

An art teacher from Harrogate who has a terminal cancer diagnosis will use her last exhibition to raise money for the staff who tried to save her life.

Sharon Tinayre Carrick is well-known as a teacher at Rosset Adult Learning centre, where she gets students to use art to improve their wellbeing.

The bowel cancer diagnosis doctors gave her last year meant that she had no work to do so needed something to occupy her time. Sharon found that she needed to practice what she had taught.

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Months of treatment did not work for Sharon and resulted in her body rejecting anything the doctors at the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillian Centre would try to treat her with.

Mrs Carrick, who signs her work by her middle name Tinayre, used her experience with cancer and her bucket list and 50th birthday trip to Venice as inspiration.

Gallopers by Tinayre

The “Was I really there!” is a mixture of different mediums from the start of her cancer diagnosis leading up to Sharon’s trip to Venice.

Art in the Mill in Knaresborough will host the exhibition from August 28 to September 11. All profits will go towards the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillian Centre.

Sharon Carrick told the Stray Ferret while on treatment at St Michael’s Hospice:

“We had planned to hold the exhibition earlier in the year but had to postpone because of coronavirus, so that was really tough. My terminal diagnosis came on the same day that I got the date for my new exhibition. I hope that I can make it to the show.”