Upper Street Events will debut a new edition of its Country Living Christmas Fair in Harrogate this year.
 
The latest addition represents the fourth event under the Country Living brand and will be held from 29 November to 2 December. Upper Street Events also runs Country Living Christmas Fairs in Scotland and London annually as well as a Spring fair at the Business Design Centre in March.
 
“Country Living is a good magazine brand and has a lot of subscribers in that area,” Upper Street Events MD Paul Byrom told EN. “It’s fair to say we would have done Harrogate before we did Scotland, but at the time we were looking at it, there were other shows within the Harrogate portfolio, so it couldn’t happen.
 
“We launched in Scotland then someone launched a Christmas-type show in Harrogate, which doesn’t exist anymore and I don’t think performed as well as it could have done. This can impact acceptance of an event in an area for a while. We felt now was the appropriate time to get in.
 
“A slot was available and it was long enough after the previous event to hopefully unlock the Country Living subscriber database that exists in that part of the world.”
 
Upper Street Events’ acquisition of five events in the knitting and craft shows from Creative Exhibitions in June also included a Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show, which offered crossover databases and opened up further sales and visitor opportunities in the area, Byrom continued.
 
“The Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate helped us gain an understanding of the drive times around the venue, and showed there’s a good catchment area including Newcastle and Leeds,” he said. “Harrogate is quite quintessentially British and fits nicely therefore with both the magazine values and the shows that have already run.”
 
The organiser hopes to get about 100 exhibitors and 12,000 visitors, on par with its launch show in Scotland, Byrom said. Plans include a selection of interactive content including food workshops, demonstrations and a theatre element.
 
Single Market Events will also launch a Christmas food and drink consumer show in Harrogate from 14 to 16 December.
 
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