Major arts festival FEVA kicks off this weekend in Knaresborough

The delay in lifting Covid restrictions may have left FEVA organisers in Knaresborough with very little time to publicise what will be the 25th anniversary of this amazing arts festival but the show must go on from today, Friday.
By Graham Chalmers
Published 13th Aug 2021, 17:06 BST
Updated 13th Aug 2021, 17:17 BST
Flashback to a previous FEVA picnic in the park with Knaresborough Lions Beer Festival volunteers Maggie Somerville, Rachael Hall and Rosita Moore. (1808185AM14)Flashback to a previous FEVA picnic in the park with Knaresborough Lions Beer Festival volunteers Maggie Somerville, Rachael Hall and Rosita Moore. (1808185AM14)
Flashback to a previous FEVA picnic in the park with Knaresborough Lions Beer Festival volunteers Maggie Somerville, Rachael Hall and Rosita Moore. (1808185AM14)

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The first silver jubilee celebration for FEVA will take place this Saturday at Henshaw’s Arts & Crafts Centre with an all-day gig called FEVA’s 25th Anniversary Festival featuring talented local music acts.

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Running from 2pm to 10pm, the line-up includes Hot Sauce, The Nirvana band, and Rory Hoy and will be complemented by a range of food and drink and arts and crafts workshops.

The day will also serve as the first big public event to take place at the charity’s arts hub since it closed during Covid last year.

The quality of the25th FEVA festival line-up is testimony to the hard work of the FEVA volunteers - and to the high reputation of the festival in blending community talent with acts from further afield.

FEVA chairperson, Gwen Lloyd said: “The FEVA committee have worked extremely hard to put together the programme of events for this year’s festival.

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“As lockdowns extended and theatre capacities were reduced, we wondered if we were going to have a festival at all. The fact that this year marked the 25th Anniversary of the founding of the Knaresborough Festival increased our determination to turn Knaresborough pink once again.

“In 1996 when Robin van Zelst suggested to his father, Derrick, that Knaresborough needed something like a festival to cheer it up, he could not have imagined that 25 years later the festival would still be going strong and yet again would be setting out to cheer Knaresborough up.”

From the sublime to the unusual, the serious to the fun, this year’s programme ranges from concerts starring the likes of:

Snake Davis and Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies to An Evening with Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate, Stockwell Road Allotments Open Day, Acoustic Sessions at Turning Point Brew Co, Art in the Mill’s annual feva exhibition, Bea’s Witch Book Launch with author Daniel Ingram-Brown, Town Criers Competition - Commemorating the granting of the town’s Market Charter, and Yorkshire Life Aquatic - Dry Land Synchronised Swimming.

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FEVA regulars will be delighted to hear that the popular Knaresborough Lions Beer festival is back, as is Picnic in the Park.

There will be a FEVA Celebration Service - Choral Matins sung by St John’s Choir and Friends to celebrate the 25th anniversary of FEVA.

FEVA is also introducing a number of drama workshops suitable for the 5-18 age group including two by The Paper Birds who are set A-Level practitioners.

FEVA runs at various locations in Knaresborough from Friday, August 13 to Sunday, August 22. Full dates and details are available at www.feva.info

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Related topics:KnaresboroughHarrogate Theatre