Events in 2024

Significant events in 2024 were:

A fact-finding visit to Montecatini Terme with representatives from HIP and a representative from the Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) team. The visit included meeting members of the council but also, and significantly, visiting the renowned State Professional Institute – Istituto F. Martini. This is a top level and highly prestigious college of hotel hospitality, food and wine, and a student work experience exchange was being pursued.

For the third successive year, ANZAC day was commemorated at Harrogate’s Stonefall Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery. Military representatives from Australia and New Zealand were in attendance together with local and civic dignitaries. It was organised by HIP representative Kate Spencer, who has dual NZ/UK nationality, with the support of the NZ High Commission in London as well as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It was a poignant and moving event, attended by a growing number of local people and interested individuals from further afield.

We assembled an eye-catching display in the Harrogate Library, providing information about our twin towns and the activities of HIP. It included background context and explanations, together with many photographs, highlighting the 2023 anniversaries and forthcoming events in 2024.

Sir Robert Barrie day on 7 June was marked with a flag raising event at the Council offices in Harrogate, while a representative of HIP was in Barrie for their ceremony which included the raising of the Harrogate flag and the reading of a proclamation. This is marked each year in Barrie and is set to become an annual event in Harrogate too. It is wonderful that the twinning with Barrie is recognised at a civic level each year at both ends.

We were delighted that Luchon’s Fête des Fleurs returned to its former three-day programme, after a number of years of reduced activity following the covid pandemic. Once again, we helped to facilitate and support the visit by a group of Harrogate language students who went for a four-day visit to experience and learn about our twin town and its culture and history, assist with the preparation of the Luchon Mayor’s float, and use and improve their language skills. Each and every one of them found it to be a wonderfully exciting and worthwhile experience and we are indebted to the numerous people in Luchon who helped with this. A team from HIP also helped with attaching flowers onto the various floats, reacquainting themselves with old friends in the town and meeting new ones.