From comedy at Harrogate Cricket Club, to pig-themed scarecrows at Ripley or a family-friendly festival at Stockeld Park, here are the best activities on offer over this three-day weekend: 

Music and culture

Leeds Festival, Wetherby

Festivals are back with a bang, and Leeds Festival is once again set to take over Bramham Park, near Wetherby. Almost 90,000 people are expected at Bramham for the three-day event, which starts on Friday and is headlined this year by the likes of Liam Gallagher, Biffy Clyro and Stormzy. This year new format will see two main stages instead of the previous one. Friday to Monday, leedsfestival.com

Stockeld Rox, Wetherby

Family-friendly festivals have surged in popularity over the years, so Stockeld Park’s family tribute festival is sure to get parents and children singing along and dancing to the likes of Madonna, Jessie J, Rita Ora and Take That. Pizzas, snacks and drinks, including a full bar will be available. Each evening will end with a spectacular firework finale. All ticket holders will now also get free access to the adventure park from 3.30pm to 6pm to enjoy the attraction before the event. Sunday and Monday, tickets from £14, stockeldpark.co.uk

Stockeld Park is holding Stockeld Rox, a family-friendly tribute music festival.

Silly Point Comedy, Harrogate 

Balcony Bar at Harrogate Cricket Club has teamed up with Sitting Room Comedy to bring a night full of much-needed laughs. The outdoor show features award winning comedians: Chris Washington, Steve Day, Andrew Bird and MC Matt Stellingwerf. Sunday, tickets £12, sittingroomcomedy.com

Our Gate, Harrogate 

For those interested in a theatrical experience with a difference, Our Gate is an immersive community play with Harrogate and its citizens at its core. The show travels between indoor and outdoor locations through the town, rather than being fixed on stage like a traditional theatre show, with the audience at the centre of the action. Friday to Sunday, tickets from £18, harrogatetheatre.co.uk

Food and drink

Harrogate Food and Drink Festival, Harrogate

The Harrogate Food and Drink Festival is returning to Ripley Castle, with a huge selection of food, drink, independent traders and family entertainment. The dog-friendly event follows on from the previous sell-out festival held on The Stray in June and also features live bands, chef demos and art. Saturday to Monday, tickets £2.95 for under 16s and £6.98 for adults, under 5s free, harrogatefoodfestival.com 

Harrogate Food and Drink Festival is back – this time at Ripley Castle.

Malton Food Lovers Festival, Malton

Further afield, the quaint market town of Malton considers itself the food capital of the North, and this family-friendly festival is a huge hit with locals as well as tourists, who flock from all over the country to eat and drink local produce, listen to music and enjoy foodie talks. Saturday-Monday, free entry, visitmalton.com

Read more:

• What’s On across the district?
• Ripon to host another weekend of free family entertainment

Attractions

Fireworks Championships, Ripon

A dazzling night of fireworks at Newby Hall and Gardens, which sees three teams create stunning displays choreographed to music and the audience voting for a winner on the night via SMS. The event also includes a final display by the organisers to round off the night. Watch from a picnic rug or camping chair against the stunning backdrop of 17th century house and its impressive grounds. Saturday, fireworkchampions.co.uk

Mamma Mia! Harewood

This is the first time that the original Mamma Mia! stage show has been performed in the open-air and the Bank Holiday weekend is the last chance to catch this unique production, set in the grounds of Harewood House. Friday to Monday, tickets from £39.50, mamma-mia.com/harewood-house

Outdoor Cinema, Bedale

Outdoor Cinema at Thorp Perrow Arboretum.

Free events

Wath Street Fair, Ripon

Wath’s main street will be filled with stalls, a Pimms and prosecco stand and a children’s treasure hunt. Other attractions include a bouncy castle, a brass band and a dog show, while teas will also be available in the village’s Samwaies Hall. Saturday, Free entry, funds raised go to St Mary’s Church.

Ripley Scarecrow Pigfest, Harrogate

Organised by Karen Evans for the last 21 years – with one year off in 2020 due to Covid19 – the scarecrow trail was originally started in 2001 to encourage visitors back to the countryside after the foot and mouth crisis and has a fun take on the traditional scarecrow hunt. The Scarecrows are inspired by the story of Thomas de Ingilby, an ancestor of Sir Thomas Inglby of Ripley Castle, who saved King Edward III from a wild boar attack in 1355 and whose crest (the boar’s head) is the emblem of Ripley village. All the scarecrows have pigs heads and pig names such as Boarglar Bill, Pigmaylion, Porkupine, Thumboarlina and the Statue of Liboarty. Competition sheets cost £4 and list the names of the scarecrows. Each scarecrow has a number and the idea is to match the name to the number. Those who get them all correct are entered into a hat, with the winners drawn at random. A great family day out and a good excuse for a Ripley ice cream! Friday to Monday, ripleyscarecrowpigfest.co.uk

A free weekend of entertainment on the Market Square, Ripon

The August Bank Holiday weekend will see the return of fairground rides and a climbing wall. The event-staged by Ripon City Council follows the Yorkshire Day weekend, that brought hundreds of people to the city centre. There will be musical entertainment from 7pm on Saturday, featuring three tribute acts singing a selection of chart-topping hits from the best-known boy bands, Paloma Faith and ABBA. On Sunday Market Square will host another Little Bird Artisan Market. Open from 10am until 3pm, it will again include stalls selling goods ranging from food to home furnishings, produced by local and Yorkshire-based traders. Saturday and Sunday.

Families gather in Ripon Market Square.

Harrogate Car Enthusiasts Motor Show and Family Fun Day, Harrogate 

With everything from super cars to classic cars and “boy racer” cars, Harrogate Car Enthusiasts is hosting its fifth charity Motor Show and Family Fun Day in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance at a brand new venue – Harrogate Rugby Club. More than 250 vehicles, including tractors and motorbikes, are set to go on display and there will also be a variety of stalls and children’s entertainment, including a bouncy castle and rides. Monday.

Water Trail, Harrogate

Harrogate Mumbler has teamed up with the Harrogate BID to celebrate Harrogate’s most famous export… water. The Water Trail has two different challenges for families to enjoy – firstly finding the 20 water-themed pictures and secondly answering 20 Harrogate trivia questions. There are four different trails in total and participants have to simply spot the water-themed image in participating retailer’s windows. There is a prize for everyone who completes a trail. Until Sunday, September 5th, harrogate.mumbler.co.uk

The Harrogate Water Trail is a free activity for families.

Police have appealed for information about a missing woman from Wetherby who they believe may be in Harrogate.

Judith Holliday, 72, was reported missing this morning.

West Yorkshire Police described her as 5ft 2ins tall and slim. She is believed to be wearing floral trousers, a blue-t-shirt and black shoes.

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 and quote log 309.

Read more:

• Helipad plan for Grantley Hall set for second refusal
• Roadmap delay pushes back return of Harrogate district Parkruns

One of Europe’s biggest indoor children’s play centres, with the capacity to host 2,000 visitors a day, is set to open at Stockeld Park next year.

Called the Playhive, it will cost £3.5 million to build and is expected to create about 50 jobs.

The Playhive, which will be set in the grounds of the 2,000-acre Stockeld Park estate, near Wetherby, will comprise of themed adventure zones set in a doughnut-shaped building with a 33-foot tower in the centre.

The outer ring of the Playhive will be the equivalent of travelling the length of a football pitch.

Children will be able to enjoy the wooden play pieces themed around four zones: space, aeronautical, subaquatic and jungle.

Peter and Susie Grant, who own and run Stockeld Park, took out a loan to build and design the Playhive.

Mr Grant said:

“The Playhive is a passion project. We didn’t want the usual soft play scene, but one that truly inspires imaginations.

“There will be some really spectacular features and we’ll be announcing these on the run up to the opening of the Play Hive.

“It has capacity for 2,000 visitors per day and is expected to bring significant additional revenues to the area, as well as supporting local suppliers.

Read more:

• Stockeld Park opens Christmas tree site in heart of Harrogate
• Ripon’s Quarry Moor play area to be upgraded for summer

‘We need to come back fighting’

Mr Grant said covid had hugely reduced Stockeld’s capacity and the natural reaction would have been to reduce spending but lockdown reconfirmed their commitment to the project. He said:

“Now more than ever, our tourism sector needs to come back fighting, and after the isolation and anxieties of the last year, families desperately need to get away and have some fun. We need this good news story.”

The Grants started the tourism business at Stockeld Park in 2006 to attract visitors at Christmas.

The initiative grew into the Christmas Adventure and since then the Easter Adventure, Spring Adventure, Summer Adventure, Halloween Adventure and February Fun have been added to its offering.

In 2019, over 200,000 guests visited Stockeld Park.

A Harrogate man is set to dominate TV screens over the festive period after finishing ninth at the World’s Strongest Man.

Luke Richardson’s result in Florida completed a remarkable year that has seen him go from novice to one of the most talked about strength athletes on the planet at the age of just 23.

Luke, a former powerlifter, only took part in his first strongman competition last year. Since then he has finished fourth at Britain’s Strongest Man, won Europe’s Strongest Man and is now ranked ninth in the world.

Channel 5 is due to broadcast coverage of all three events over Christmas and New Year.

Luke does the log lift. Pic courtesy of SBD. 

It’s still sinking in for Luke, who was working as a lifeguard at Starbeck Baths recently and is now a professional strongman with his own gym, multiple sponsors and almost 60,000 Instagram followers. He says:

“It’s been quite a year. But I was actually a bit disappointed with my performance in the World’s Strongest Man final.

“I held my own on some events but some silly mistakes on others let me down. Next year I’d like to get in the top five, then finish on the podium and then maybe win a few.”

Read more:

• New gym in Knaresborough despite closures elsewhere
• Harrogate district sports clubs and gyms celebrate return

Luke would become the youngest ever winner of the World’s Strongest Man if he takes the title in 2021. Beyond that, he has his sights set on breaking the all-time record of five World’s Strongest Man titles held by Poland’s Mariusz Pudzianowski. He says:

“It’s a tall order but i’ve got age on my side and I love what I do. It’s my passion.”

Starbeck school

Luke has lived in Harrogate all of his life. He attended Starbeck Community Primary School and Harrogate High School and discovered he was “quite strong” when he joined Phoenix Fitness in Starbeck at 18.

North Yorkshire is a strongman hotspot. Darren Sadler, a former World’s Strongest Man competitor who now organises many of the leading events, owns Absolute Fitness in Boroughbridge which attracts many top competitors.

Luke trains there on a Monday night but has opened a gym in Wetherby with his training partner Richard Parish called the LR Strength Shed.

He entered his first powerlifting competition when he was 19 and won three British, two European and one world title before switching to strongman 18 months ago.

He only lost one powerlifting competition and at 21 became the youngest person ever to achieve a total of 1,000 kg in the three powerlifting lifts when he managed a 403 kg squat, 222.5 kg bench press and 385 kg deadlift.

Weighs 150 kg

Strongman is far more multi-faceted than many people realise, which makes Luke’s rapid ascent to the top even more remarkable. Luke, who is 6 ft 3 tall and weighs 150 kg, explains:

“My training has changed massively. You have to be the most versatile athlete: you’ve got to have the strength of a powerlifter and the movement of a Cross-Fitter. You have to be a jack of all trades.

“The guy who can pull 500kg on a deadlift probably won’t be as good carrying five sacks down a course because he won’t be as quick. You have to be fit, fast and big.”

Luke Richardson winning Europe’s Strongest Man. Pic courtesy of SBD. 

6,000 calories a day

Luke trains five days a week for four hours a time. He eats 6,000 calories daily in five meals.

By strongman standards, he’s quite small. Hafþór Björnsson, the Icelandic former World’s Strongest Man and Game of Thrones star, is 6 ft 11 and 205 kg. Luke says:

“We are emerging out of the era of mass giants.  You don’t have to be 200kg to win these days.”

It isn’t easy for strongmen to blend in but Luke still walks around Harrogate largely unnoticed. Does he ever get recognised?

“Sometimes when I’m in shops. I don’t mind. It’s nice to be recognised when you try hard to achieve something.”

After this month’s strongman TV coverage, it may happen more often.

Burglars made off in a BMW with a first aid kit, a box of face masks and two sets of handmade doctor’s scrubs from a home in south Harrogate.

The Westbourne Avenue home was targeted between midnight and 6.45am on Saturday, June 20, when thieves broke in and took the keys for the grey BMW 220 D, which was on the driveway.

The car was recovered later that day after crashing and being abandoned on the way to Wetherby. However, items from inside the car were stolen.

As well as the face masks, scrubs and first aid kit, they included a child’s car seat, Ray-Ban sunglasses and a make-up bag. A personalised thermometer was also stolen from a doctor’s bag, but the bag was left outside the house.

Read more:

• ‘Outrageous’ series of bike thefts investigated at Harrogate Hospital
• Three arrested after cars stolen in Harrogate

North Yorkshire Police is appealing for witnesses and information from the public aboutt he “two-in-one” burglary. A spokesman said:

“In particular, [we] are appealing for information about any suspicious people or vehicles seen in the area, and any CCTV or dash-cam or doorbell footage taken in the area at the time of the offence.

“[We] would also like to hear from anyone who has seen or been offered any of the stolen items for sale under suspicious circumstances.