City stage for festival of business and arts

The renamed Yorkshire Business and Arts Festival will bring together four world-class events which will be spread over five days next June, while relocating from Harrogate to Leeds.

The proposals, which are still in the early stages of development, include a new-look Yorkshire International Business Convention, an evening with the Northern Ballet and an event with Northern Broadsides as well as a performance by a world-renowned brass band and an Edinburgh Tattoo-style event with the Yorkshire Regiment.

Traditional and innovative “new-technology” activities will be arranged at the site for younger people and families, and a Leeds United Legends football tournament is also being planned for the event.

Previous keynote speakers at the convention – which has been going for the past 16 years – include Mikhail Gorbachev, Bill Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Bob Geldof, Neil Armstrong and the inspirational blind speaker Miles Hilton-Barber.

England cricket captain Andrew Strauss and web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee headlined this year’s event in June.

The YIBC’s founder, Mike Firth, said the plans, which have the backing of Leeds City Council chief executive Tom Riordan, provided a great opportunity to bring people from throughout Europe to a festival that would celebrate business and the arts in “our wonderful county’s capital city”.

He added: “We are determined to deliver a range of events that will appeal to businesses and the wider population including younger people – all designed to engage, educate and entertain the thousands we hope will want to attend.”

YIBC has traditionally been held in Harrogate, but it will relocate to the MEPC, at Wellington Place in Leeds, and will be held between June 15 and June 19, next year.