Knaresborough's month of music

Knaresborough’s month of music

by Rufus Beckett

Feva was founded in 1996 as Knaresborough Festival. It has steadily grown from a low key folk festival to a ten day festival with multiple events hosted by numerous venues each day. Grown from roots in music it has been nurtured year after year to give the Knaresborough (and Harrogate) scene a

real lift in August.

Feva attracts internationally acclaimed artists as well as providing a platform for local talent. Feva stands for Festival of Entertainment and Visual Arts so it’s no surprise that there’s an awful lot packed into the ten day schedule. As well as music, the festival showcases art, poetry, comedy, magic, history, walking tours and has its own beer festival.

This year’s highlights include Edwina Hayes and Snake Davis. Edwina Hayes has opened for Jools Holland and Van Morrison while the list of musicians Snake has played with reads like a who’s who of music. It includes bands such as Take That and Dire Straits and artists ranging from Paul McCartney to Amy

Winehouse. Highlights from recent years include Ben Ottewell of legendary nineties indie band Gomez and Hope and Social’s appearance at the Urban Beach closing party.

The Urban Beach was introduced as part of Feva in 2014 and was an instant hit. Set in the beautiful surroundings of Henshaws Arts

Snake Davis

and Crafts centre, sixty tonnes of sand make a unique installation for the area. The Beach provides a fun family day out and also works as a venue with a difference. This year’s highlights are likely to be Rory Hoy, and the return of DJ Trev’s much loved ‘Bottom of the Bottle’.

Feva provides an excellent platform for emerging local artists. One of the highlights of the festival last year was seeing an eleven year old Leo Hicks perform acoustic songs with a confidence way beyond his years. Past Feva festivals have seen local artists such as Yo Preston (who has hit 28 million plays on YouTube with one of his videos) playing in So! Bar and Becky Bowe (who achieved national fame with Leeds Contemporary Singers) has performed at the Urban Beach and at the Feva ‘Busk Stop’. Lesser known but scoring higher on indie cool are Leeds band Autobahn, who performed in their previous incarnation as The Spector Effect at Carriages Open Mic at Feva a number of years ago.

Many local bands that would often bypass

playing in Knaresborough and head straight for gigs in London are more likely to play in the local area. This is because the chance to be on the same festival bill as well known acts is an appealing thing. Feva has a real presence in Knaresborough and the surrounding area with its banners, window displays and programmes highly visible during August. Last year BBC Radio broadcast live from the festival on three separate occasions.

The volunteers that run Feva deserve a lot of credit for giving up their time and putting in so much effort to draw established artistic talent to the area. This in turn provides a bigger platform for our own up and coming artists to develop and go onto bigger things. So make sure you get along to festival this year or, who knows, you might just miss out on seeing the next Ed Sheeran.

The Feva Programme is available at www.feva.info