Knaresborough has been taken over by festival fever this weekend as feva gets underway.

The annual festival showcases artists, musicians and community groups across the town.

This year sees its return after last year’s covid cancellation. It is the 25th anniversary of the event which began yesterday and will continue until next weekend.

Local residents are invited to the town to attend numerous events including art exhibitions, outdoor music contests and multiple workshops.

One of our journalists headed to Knaresborough today to capture the atmosphere. Have you got any pictures of the town dressed up in pink for feva? Send them in to us via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk.

Yorkshire Life Aquatic gathered a crowd on the Market Place today

Their comical and musical act went down well in Knaresborough

The team behind the Knaresborough Museum were excited to hold a pop-up ahead of opening the centre next year. (Left to right: Sam Roberts, Clare Joia, Kathy Allday and Suzanne Coulson)

Members of the public were eager to read about the upcoming museum project

The Holy Trinity Church lit up pink for feva. Photograph: Richard Maude

Even Knaresborough’s bollards are getting into the feva spirit

Shirley Vine has been exhibiting her watercolours in the festival for 15 years. You can find her at 8 York Place

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The organisers of Knaresborough Christmas Market are now confident that the event will go ahead this year after a land ownership dispute was resolved.

Harrogate Borough Council had given the organisers’ event management plan the stamp of approval in previous years. But it had not done so this year.

Event management plans set out details of events and are key documents for emergency services and insurers.

Hazel Haas, one of the organisers, told the Stray Ferret previously that without third party approval, the insurance premiums would go up and that would in turn put the event at risk.

So when North Yorkshire County Council officers said this morning that they would step up and ratify the plan it came as a major relief to Mr Haas. She said:

“I have a meeting tonight with the Knaresborough Christmas Market committee where we will discuss this. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster.

“We have now resolved the issued over the ownership of the land.

“Obviously it is all subject to approval, but we can now kickstart the event and start to get some stalls booked in for later this year.

“This is also good news for all of the events Knaresborough has booked in for the festive calendar as well.”

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The Knaresborough market is due to be held on the first weekend of December in its usual location of Market Place.

Karl Battersby, corporate director for business and environmental services at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“Working jointly with colleagues at Harrogate Borough Council, both organisations have been able to offer guidance to the organiser on how to host an event successfully, and we are pleased that planning for the Knaresborough Christmas market is able to move forward.”

Two Knaresborough men are on day five of an epic 70-day John O’Groats to Lands End challenge.

This is no ordinary challenge because one of the men, Lucas Schofield, aims to complete the route in his wheelchair — which will add miles to the usual 874-mile distance.

Lucas has Friedreich’s Ataxia, a genetic, progressive, neurodegenerative movement disorder, but insists it won’t slow him down.

His best friend, Dan Stott, will carry most of the pair’s luggage on his back.

The pair, who aim to complete about 15 miles a day, are no strangers to insane challenges. The pair have been planning this for two years and have found a route suitable for them both.

Lucas will be pushing himself most of the way but when he does need a helping hand Daniel will be there to push him.

The usual challenges of uneven terrain and weather are compounded by the wheelchair, which has meant adjusting the route to avoid the A9 in Scotland and therefore extending the journey to over 900 miles.

Lucas Schofield on route on day three.

Lucas said:

“Our spirits are still high. People are honking their horns and giving us money.

“I was looking for some huge physical feat and this looked like just it. You’ve got to be a bit crazy to do something like this.”

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The pair have set themselves an ambitious fundraising target of £2 million. The money will go to Ataxia UK, Butterfly Thyroid Cancer Trust and CALM (Campaign against Living Miserably).

They are currently on £5,000 and with over 60 days to go are optimistic of achieving it. You can donate here.

The pair have been offered free hot drinks and asked for pictures on route. After being featured on BBC Look North they’ve even been asked for autographs.

The two men have no plans to slow down — they are already thinking of an even tougher challenge after this one.

Harrogate Borough Council is exploring ways to prevent travellers from using Hay-a-Park as a professional clean up operation gets underway.

Volunteers from Knaresborough Wombles had planned to help out. But police deemed it a health hazard due to human excrement and warned the group to stay away this morning.

So Harrogate Borough Council has stepped in and sent in staff to survey the site and clear it in a safe manner. It’s unclear at this stage how long the process will take.

The council had served the travellers with an eviction notice on August 3 but the group only left yesterday.

We sent a reporter down to Hay-a-Park today who found piles of rubbish across the area, a trashed outbuilding and a strong smell of faeces.

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Once the council workers restore the park, officers will look into ways to prevent illegal encampments in the future.

Cllr Andy Bell, who serves the Scriven ward on Knaresborough Town Council and set up Knaresborough Wombles, told the Stray Ferret:

“In terms of what happens in the next few days we will need professionals with proper equipment to come and sanitise the site.

“Then we will have to look at ways to secure that site and maybe try to find a specific area for the travellers to stay.

“Next year we are looking at how we can handle the situation in a different way.”

A Harrogate Borough Council spokesman said:

“Now that the travellers have moved on we are in the process of clearing the site. We are also exploring other options to prevent further illegal encampments in the future.”

A police spokesman said:

“This is a council matter. We attended to tape off the area to protect the public prior to the council attending to deal with it.”

More pictures:

A field in Knaresborough has been sealed off by police and deemed to be a health hazard due to the amount of human excrement left by travellers.

Knaresborough Wombles, a voluntary group that keeps Knaresborough tidy, planned to lead a mass tidy up of Hay-a-Park rugby field today.

But some volunteers were met by police this morning and asked to stay away because of the threat to human health.

Harrogate Borough Council, which owns the land, had served an eviction notice on the travellers for what it described as an illegal encampment.

Travellers left yesterday and many locals, shocked by the state of the field, had offered to help with the clean-up.

Some of the rubbish left in the field.

Andy Bell, who lives near the site and set up Knaresborough Wombles, told the Stray Ferret he and others had planned to return today to sort out the mess.

But he added:

“The police have advised us to refrain from cleaning the area because it is a health hazard.”

A police spokesman said:

“This is a council matter. We attended to tape off the area to protect the public prior to the council attending to deal with it.”

The Stray Ferret has asked Harrogate Borough Council for an update on the situation.

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• Views wanted on future of Starbeck and Knaresborough outdoor gyms

Harrogate Borough Council has launched a consultation on the future of free outdoor gyms in Knaresborough and Starbeck.

The authority recently removed equipment at Knaresborough House and Belmont Park, which it installed in 2011 at a cost of £9,000.

It said the equipment, which included a cross country skier, push up/dip station, seated chest press and leg press, had reached the end of its life and was “in danger of causing injury”.

Council officials want to replace the kit with similar equipment.

A public consultation has been launched online and will close on Sunday, September 26.

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A post on the council’s Parks and Environmental Service Facebook page said:

“This consultation will gather opinions from local residents to help us create the most suitable design for the fitness area.

“The public consultation report will be used to create a wish list for the design brief, which will influence the final decision.”

You can give your views on the future of the outdoor gym areas in Starbeck and Knaresborough here.

Walk-in covid vaccines are being offered at the former Lidl site in Knaresborough all week from 8am to 5pm.

First and second doses of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs will be available at the site on York Road from today until Saturday without a booking. Moderna is not being offered.

Latest government figures show that in the Harrogate district, 86% of adults have had their first jab and 76% have had both.

The district is below the UK average for first doses, which is 89%. Across the country, 75% of people have had both doses.

Elsewhere in the district, walk-in vaccinations for Pfizer and AstraZeneca will be offered on Saturday at Memorial Hall in Pateley Bridge.

Earlier this week, Homecare Pharmacy, which runs the site in Knaresborough, reassured patients it was still offering covid jabs after a technical glitch sent messages cancelling appointments.

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The organisers of the Knaresborough Christmas Market have expressed concern over whether this year’s event will be able to go ahead following a dispute with Harrogate Borough Council.

It comes just weeks after the council refused to grant a licence for Harrogate Christmas Market because it said the organisers’ event management plan did not take into account risks such as overcrowding and terrorism.

The Knaresborough market, which is organised separately to the Harrogate market by a committee of volunteers, is due to be held on the first weekend of December.

The council has given its event management plan the rubber stamp of approval for the past few years. But it has not yet done so this year.

Event management plans set out details of events and are key documents for emergency services and insurers.

Hazel Haas, who organises Knaresborough Christmas market, told the Stray Ferret an issue had arisen this year over ownership of the land where the event takes place and this had prevented its event management plan being ratified.

The market is due to take place in its usual location on Market Place but Ms Haas said she had been informed the council may not be able to approve the plan this year because it does not own the land.

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Ms Haas, who is preparing to meet with various community groups to find a way forward, told the Stray Ferret that if its event management plan was not signed off, its insurance premiums would go up and “the event is a risk of not going ahead”.

She added:

“At this stage in the year we would normally have the go ahead and have stalls booked in for the event. But we have had to hold off with the stall holders.

“If we could not hold Knaresborough Christmas Market it would be devastating for the town. We rely on tourism and the number of people the market attracts.”

A council spokesman told the Stray Ferret it did not approve plans for the event because it did not own the land.

When we asked why this appeared to be different from previous years, the spokesman said:

“We are at the very early stages in this process, but we can confirm we will work with Knaresborough Christmas Market organisers to assist them in delivering another safe and successful event.”

Harrogate Borough Council said today it is to begin court action to evict travellers from land in Knaresborough.

The council served a 24-hour eviction notice to the travellers five days ago after a large number of caravans arrived on Hay-A-Park Lane.

But the caravans remained on site today. In a statement, Harrogate Borough Council said:

“We will now take action through the courts to regain possession of the land owned by Harrogate Borough Council.”

It is not known how long the court action could take.

Some people have speculated on social media that the travellers will move on for Appleby Horse Fair, which takes place last week.

One local resident told the Stray Ferret some of the travellers appeared to have left and that the remaining caravans were now pitched in the middle of the field.

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Two event organisers in the Harrogate district have welcomed news of a government backed insurance scheme to protect them in case coronavirus restrictions return.

Both the chief executive at Harrogate Theatre and the organiser of Knaresborough Christmas Market saw the move as a step in the right direction.

Insurance has been a barrier for many planning to hold events as many insurers do not cover coronavirus related problems.

The organisers behind the annual bonfire and firework display on the Stray previously told the Stray Ferret that this year’s event would be a “huge gamble” without any coronavirus insurance.

Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the insurance scheme and said he hoped that it would help organisers plan events with confidence through to next year.

The £750 million scheme, which the government has partnered with Lloyds to set up, will cover events between September 2021 and September 2022.

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It will see taxpayers cover 95 per cent of costs incurred in the event of cancellation due to the event being legally unable to happen due to government covid restrictions.

David Bown, the chief executive at Harrogate Theatre, told the Stray Ferret:

“As we were moving forward we still had that threat of cancellation hanging above our heads.

“Insurance has been a concern for us at the theatre for a while. The insurance just don’t have a coronavirus clause in their policies. So this is very welcome.”

Hazel Haas, organiser of the Knaresborough Christmas Market, also told the Stray Ferret:

“This new government backed scheme sounds to be a very good idea for the events industry.

“I have not looked at the fine details of it just yet but this is certainly positive news.”