Knaresborough Feva set to start this weekend

Chairman Gwen Lloyd said organising the programme, which runs from August 12-21, produced challenges for the volunteers.

“When planning this year’s festival the directors of music, spoken word, art and street entertainment all came up with wonderful acts and once we managed to fit them all into ten days we thought we were on top of everything, but it would not be Feva if we were not thrown a challenge.

“Having managed to book Christian Foley (musical artist) before he was featured in Extraordinary Portraits on the BBC, we were looking forward to his workshops and performance.

“Then the train strikes were announced and we discovered that could get him here from London but couldn’t get him home.

“The programme was set so we couldn’t move him to another night and we didn’t want to cancel.

“Thankfully we managed to get him booked on a bus back to London.

“The Feva committee put an amazing amount of work into organizing the festival and I am very grateful for all their hard work.”

Gwen added of the highlights: “This year I am looking forward to so many things, in particular Snake Davis and his Alligator Shoes. We have wanted to bring this big band to feva for a long time.”

She said that the youth arts day is something new for this year, and there will be a History Wardrobe event when the sixties will be explored.

“Somehow, I have to plan to follow the art trail and take in the street entertainers particularly the Jack Tars who take us down onto the waterside for the first time in many years.

“I don’t know how I’m going to find the time.”