Taking to the streets for new-look festival
Sharon Canavar is in between meetings and has just arrived at a hotel in London.
"I've literally just checked in," she says.
She has umpteen meetings over two days in the capital.
Having taken over from William Culver-Dodds last year, Canavar is the woman now leading the Harrogate International Festival.
In recent years, the festival has grown to incorporate the Crime Writing Festival, the Carnegie Sporting Words Festival and a host of
other events which keep the festival alive throughout the year.
Culver-Dodds was the chief executive of the festival for 15 years and when he stood down last year Canavar stepped into his shoes.
Canavar has been involved with the festival since 2003 when she was appointed operations director.
She says: "It has always been quite a small team that runs the festival, so it doesn't actually matter too much what your title is – you find yourself doing everything from raising sponsorship to making sure the artists are happy, to pouring champagne for guests.
"It means that you get to have a real feel for all the small parts that go into running the festival."
When she was appointed in November last year, the programme for this year was yet to be set.
"The first job was to programme the Sunday Series, which starts early in the year, so we had to get that done, then start looking at the festival and lining up all the events that were going to make up the festival.
"It's fair to say it's been a bit of a rollercoaster."
The festival opens next Friday with Lesley Garrett performing at the town's Royal Hall. A quick scan through this year's line-up reveals names like Clare Teal, Jacqui Dankworth, Joanna MacGregor and the Black Dyke Band. These are essentially guaranteed favourites of the festival and the sort of acts that will bring in an audience.
The truth is that this year is a rebuilding year.
Canavar says: "When you're involved with the festival, you do sometimes wonder what you might do if you were in charge, what you might do differently and what aspects of the festival you might change.
"For me this is Year Zero. I want to take a look at the festival and look at what parts of it we can build on for the future."
One of the things Canavar is very keen on is making the festival more inclusive. To that end, this year there is a beefed-up Fringe Events programme, with performances all over the town. "This year we have 40 events going on all over the town," she says.
"The idea is to take the performances out and take them to people,
rather than just having them based around a few particular places, which will help to make people feel more involved with the festival.
"We've got young musicians and groups playing in places like a hairdresser's and an art gallery."
Canavar also has a note of encouragement for those who regularly attend the festival and are happy with the way things are run.
"We're not going to be making sweeping changes. There are aspects of the festival that really work. By making it more accessible that certainly doesn't mean there will be any less quality to the programme.
"Really the festival just needs a little bit of TLC to take it forward into the future in the right way."
Canavar is willing to reveal that there is already one guaranteed crowd pleaser booked to do something next year – she is in talks with Alan Bennett to do something "possibly with musicians".
"The really important thing is that people in Yorkshire understand that
we have a really fantastic set of festivals here and we want them to come along, get involved and enjoy what we have here," says Canavar.
She then adds, with a hint of just how ambitious the coming few years might be, a reference to Edinburgh.
It will be an interesting few years for the festival.
Festival Highlights
Fri July 10, 8pm: Lesley Garrett, Royal Hall, Harrogate
Sat July 11, 8pm: Come Dancing! With Camilla Dallerup and Ian Waite, Royal Hall, Harrogate
Tuesday July 14, 8pm: Fascinating Aida, Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate
Thursday July 16, 11am: Finzi String Quartet, St Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate
Saturday July 18, 11am: Sophie Cashell, Crown Hotel, Harrogate
Saturday July 18, 8pm: Jacqui Dankworth, Crown Hotel, Harrogate
Tuesday July 21, 7.30pm: Oddsocks Productions: Richard III, RHS Garden Harlow Carr
Friday July 24, 8pm: Berlin Symphoniker Orchestra, Harrogate International Centre
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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