Exciting new HIF Player beams arts world into Harrogate living rooms

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, the arts charity - which has fired up hearts and minds since 1966 and helped launch the careers of a host of writers and musicians - has launched “HIF at Home”, a free resource dedicated to its world-wide fan base.

And despite most of its team being furloughed, the remaining staff members have developed new opportunities and partnerships to create a revised online programme, featuring an array of top musicians, authors and inspirational speakers.

One of the casualties has been the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which last year saw more than 14,000 tickets being sold for the four-day extravaganza staged at the Old Swan Hotel.

But for fans of this genre all is not lost, as more than a dozen interviews with leading writers, including Ian Rankin, Lee Child and Ann Cleeves, recorded at previous Festivals going back to 2003, have been uploaded to the HIF Player, including a recording of a festival event in 2013 with Oscar-nominated actress Brenda Blethyn talking about her starring role in flagship ITV crime drama Vera.

This week will also see The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award - last year won by Northern Irish author Steve Cavanagh - being launched in conjunction with WH Smith and The Express.

The HIF team is now working with key artists - who were scheduled to star at this summer’s famed summer season - to make online appearances, including rave-scene Hacienda DJ, Graeme Park.

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Already lined up as guest curator is jazz bass player, composer and arranger, Misha Mullov Abbado.

And the Festivals’ Young Musician of the Month will feature a series of interviews with international musicians.

Harrogate International Festivals Chief Executive Sharon Canavar said: “The months of March through to August are virtually non-stop for us, and this is where we derive most of our income from.

“Whilst the coronavirus has meant our funds will be significantly depleted, we are determined that the show will go online. With HIF At Home, we’re providing a host of fantastic content and your home, phone or laptop is the venue. We have used the ‘lockdown’ to unlock our extensive archives for everyone to enjoy for free, which is helping us achieve one of our core aims to make the arts accessible to as wide an audience as possible.”

It is also anticipated that Berwin’s Salon North - the “TED”- style thought-provoking sessions featuring three guest speakers - will be returning in a number of exclusive online HIF At Home events.

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