Column: Sharon Canavar, Chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals - ​The joy of festivals

​This year’s Harrogate Music Festival, got underway with the brilliant Chineke! Orchestra last weekend who brought the house down.

The stomping on the floor as audiences clamoured for an encore was quite something.

And where else can you enjoy concerts featuring such luminaries as Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd-Webber and Fenella Humphreys, alongside performances by a master bandoneon player and the music of Queen reimagined for the violin, clarinet, piano and strings, all in one place?

That’s the beauty of a music festival like this.

It not only brings together musicians from all kinds of backgrounds and gives them a platform from which they can perform and collaborate with others, it attracts music fans who wouldn’t normally share the same space.

You’d be hard pressed to find many Radiohead and Berlioz fans at the same concert – but you will at Christian Elliott’s ‘Android Summer.’

It's this shared experience that makes arts festivals, and perhaps music festivals in particular, so special.

And it’s something we value more than ever before.

As the old saying goes, you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, something that was brought crashing home to all of us during the pandemic when we were deprived of the simple joy of going to a gig, or a stand-up show.

Now, in the post-pandemic world, the question of mental wellbeing has perhaps never been more urgent.

Numerous research studies have shown how listening to music can help boost our mood and increasingly it is the shared live experiences that we hanker after most – the kind of unique experiences that create cherished memories.

And it’s not just music festivals that have the power to do this.

In July, the much-loved Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival returns to celebrate its 20th anniversary.

The world-renowned festival has brought some of the greatest crime fiction writers to Harrogate and this year is no exception, with Val McDermid, Ann Cleeves, Jefferey Deaver and Lee and Andrew Child, among a stellar line-up.

Several big names have cited this Festival as their favourite literary event because of its intimate nature and the chance to chat to fans and hobnob with their peers over a late-night drink, while for audiences it’s an opportunity to meet their favourite authors in the flesh and perhaps pick up a few writing tips in the process.

Festivals are a great way for locals to reconnect with where they live and for visitors to discover new favourite places.

And herein lies their unique appeal – there’s something for all tastes.

In other words they bring people together, and that’s what music and culture is all about.