Bleep…bleep…bleep…ever wondered about the miraculous if pesky barcodes when you’re stood at the check-out watching the frozen peas? The identities of millions of products are captured in those optical machine-readable representations of data.
Nearly every aspect of our lives has been completely transformed by the barcode. Shopping, going to the cinema, using a library card, aviation, [...]

Author Tom Palmer, the ultimate football fan, scores a winning goal at the Children’s Festival this weekend.
“I got into writing through football really, I think you should write about what you’re passionate about,” Tom said explaining his Foul Play, Dead Ball and the Football Academy Series of books.
His books have the ability to capture [...]

Banana sandwiches, Kit Kats, barcodes and sex – it can only be Harrogate’s ultimate science fest!
Blame it on the Cox effect but science is officially sexy. The particle physicist Dr Brian Cox has gaggles of teenage girls asking for his autograph at his science talks. And this year, the Harrogate International Festival is definitely [...]

46th Harrogate International Festival: 30 June – 3 July 2011
Nestled amongst the four weeks of live music that is the 2011 Harrogate International Festival, you’ll find some of the finest international and UK names raising the roof on the Royal Hall and other spots round town! There’s more than ever to celebrate this year:
Launching [...]

At the 2011 Summer Festival, nobody is left out. And with a special new festival dedicated to children, it’s the perfect way to entertain (and even educate) the children over the long summer.
In the best setting for little ones – a giant papakata tepee-style tent  situated on Crescent Gardens – the weekend of Saturday 9 [...]

Guaranteed to put a smile on the most jaded face, the BBC Big Band promises to put the swing into the Summer Festival. Widely regarded as the UK’s leading and most versatile jazz orchestra, the band has played with jazz stars such as Van Morrison, Michael Bublé, Tony Bennett, Cleo Laine and John Dankworth. The [...]

Opening the 2011 Harrogate Summer Festival is the magnificent City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra won over audiences at the BBC Proms, and in this Gala Festival opener, Wilson will be joined by the mesmerising Broadway vocalist Kim Criswell. Also sharing the limelight is Grimsby born-and-bred singer Gary Williams, who started out as a regular [...]

As many of you will know, Harrogate International Festivals was established in 1966 as the Harrogate Festival of Arts & Sciences, with our Founder; Clive Wilson believing the ‘Festival should be seen as a developing thing, widening its scope and perhaps shifting its emphasis as the years go by’.
Our Festival has seen many incarnations over [...]