Details revealed for entries in 2026's landmark edition of Knaresborough Bed Race

Next year's race through the streets of Knaresborough will be the 60th anniversary of this hugely popular event.

Although entry forms should be on the website https://www.bedrace.co.uk/ from the start of January, the final line-up of 90 teams will be decided by a lottery in March.

The theme for the landmark 2026 edition of Knaresborough Bed Race, which will take place in the second Saturday of June, will be the Swinging Sixties, organisers Knaresborough Lions Club have announced.

Knaresborough Lions’ Bed Race chairman, Jatinder Singh Kalsi, said: “The Swinging Sixties theme is especially apt as this will be the 60th anniversary of the event.

"It will also provide a canvas for the teams to express their creative talents.”

The entry period will run until the end of February 2026, when the forms and fees will have to be submitted to Knaresborough Lions Club.

In many ways, Knaresborough Bed Race has scarcely changed since it began in 1966 when Beatlemania was going strong and James Bond was fairly new.

It still attracts tens of thousands of people and teams still have to swim across the Nidd with their beds.

The only significant change in all those years has been an alteration in route from Waterbag Bank to the High Street and Bond End.

As always, Knaresborough Bed Race 2026 will be in two parts.

The first part is the spectacular display of decorated beds and runners, based on the theme of the year.

The second part is the race itself, a time trial over a 2.4 mile course, which takes teams alongside the River Nidd; up the steep climb to the centre of town; around ancient cobbles and down fast roads and through parkland before the swim across the river.

The annual event is regarded as the brightest star in Knaresborough’s calendar and one that places the town on the international map.