Great Yorkshire Show
Promoting Harrogate Town Centre at the Great Yorkshire Show
In July 2022, the Harrogate BID team attended the Great Yorkshire Show to help promote the town as a must-visit destination to those attending the show. Harrogate BID shared a stand with Destination Harrogate to not only promote its own summer trails, campaigns and activities, but to showcase the wonderful retail, hospitality and leisure offering that Harrogate is famed for.
Harrogate BID gave town centre businesses the opportunity to promote any deals or campaigns that they may have over the week of the Great Yorkshire Show, or in the coming weeks to encourage Great Yorkshire Show attendees to visit the town centre, the deals were showcased on a dedicated deals webpage that Harrogate BID had created. This initiative was part of Harrogate BIDs objective ‘Marketing, Promotions and Events’ and aimed to promote Harrogate town centre to a vast audience who may not normally visit the town.
Has to be Harrogate
Promoting Harrogate Far and Wide
Harrogate BID partnered with a local videographer to produce a handful of short promotional videos promoting Harrogate town centre – which were shared and sponsored on all of Harrogate BIDs social media platforms with an aim to reach an audience further a field to show them why it ‘Has to be Harrogate’ for their next day out or staycation.
The Has to be Harrogate videos were funded by Harrogate Borough Council through the Governments Covid19 Active Recovery Grant (ARG) Scheme.
Ping Pong Parlour
Harrogate BID Opens First Town Centre Pop-up Ping Pong Parlour
A pop-up ping pong parlour opened in September 2021, taking over a vacant unit in the Victoria Shopping Centre, seven days a week during retail hours, boasts four tables for public use. As bats and balls are provided, all players need to do is bring an opponent. located in the Victoria Shopping Centre. The ping pong parlour is an initiative by Harrogate BID and a brainchild of BID Board member and hotelier & restauranteur Bokmun Chan to bring people into Harrogate town centre, and one that also has a health benefit.
Harrogate BID is delighted to confirm that the ping pong parlour will be returning April 2023 after its huge success and popular demand.
Street Entertainment
From The BeeGee’s to Vikings, street entertainers certainly brightened up the town centre with their comedy, performances and wit across 2022.
During 2022, Harrogate BID brought an array of street entertainers into the town centre at key times of the year; Jubilee, Easter, every Saturday in the Summer holidays, Halloween and Christmas, adding to the vibrancy of the town.
We had ‘Team BGee’, ‘Val n Halla’, ‘HMS Punafore’, ‘PE Teachers’, ‘Zombie Disco’ to name a few, with ‘Team BGee’ being a firm favourite with visitors and businesses.
Valentines
We Love Harrogate
In February 2022, children from six local primary schools spoke from the heart about why they love their hometown. Their responses were recorded and featured in a film named ‘I Love Harrogate, which was then projected onto the window of a vacant unit on Cambridge Street. The aim of this initiative was to capture the innocence and imagination of our young Harrogate community, which gave everyone a positive and uplifting experience, and in turn gave the town centre a greater community feel. It also gave families and schools in Harrogate ownership within the town centre.
Following from the success of the ‘I Love Harrogate’ project in 2021, ‘We Love Harrogate’ came to life to encourage Harrogate residents and visitors alike to ‘share the love’ for Harrogate. From early February, neon-lights, a pop-up love heart covered in florals, and other enchanting props were installed on Montpellier Mews where the public were invited to share just why they love Harrogate by posting photographs and sharing on social media with the hashtag #ShareTheLoveHG1. Those that used the hashtag were automatically entered into a competition to win a Harrogate Gift Card or a Bettys gift voucher.
