[6] Dame Fanny Waterman, DBE was honorary president from 2009[2] until her death in 2020, the position having previously been held by Clive Leach CBE.
[9] The Harrogate International Festival was set up in response to local demand to re-establish the quality of event that people had been used to between the wars in the town's spa heyday.
In 1984 following a national Arts Council strategy review entitled "The Glory of the Garden", funding was withdrawn from all festivals north of Cheltenham.
The loss of the grant demanded a more populist approach to programming in order to build ticket revenue and to enable the major scaling up of corporate sponsorship.
[2] In 1991 it was recognised that a broadening of the artistic programme was needed to extend the audience reach – geographically and the under 55s – as well as by genre and to increase sponsorship, trust funding and box office revenue, in order for the Festival to grow.
An incremental expansion of the performing arts programming commenced initially with jazz, contemporary dance and classical ballet, World Music and literature.
Selected by Harper's Bazaar as 'one of the UK's best literary festivals[18] the event celebrates great writing by bringing best-selling authors, politicians, comedians and stars of the stage to share their stories.
[23] The venue is transformed through the day to house a Children's Festival featuring arts, music, science and literature that traditionally takes place during May and June.