How we help to make the positive difference

Our Story

The Yorkshire Event Centre is based on the Great Yorkshire Showground, just outside of the spa town of Harrogate. The Showground has been the venue for the Great Yorkshire Show since 1951. This annual three day event attracts more that 135,000 visitors each year.

Investments into the facilities has been consistent and created some great event spaces. We welcome many thousands of visitors to hundreds of events, ranging from conferences, exhibitions, dinners, team building and private trade events.

There have been many highlights throughout the years, including president Bill Clinton speaking at a prestigious conference through to Elton John performing here.

Our ethos is to offer the best facilities and service with a true Yorkshire welcome.

All our profits go to fund the charitable work of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society

The Yorkshire Agricultural Society aims to unite rural life in Yorkshire with leadership, commitment, passion and creativity. This is done by organising educational events for children and families, supporting the environment, sponsoring events and conferences, grants, promoting careers in agriculture, developing skills, and knowledge transfer.

Many clients choose Yorkshire Event Centre because it’s an amazing venue and it also helps them achieve their CSR goals.

Meet our family

The Great Yorkshire Showground is home to a family of businesses.

Pavilions of Harrogate has 14 function rooms accommodating from 12 – 460 people, for conferences, dinners, training and other events.

Fodder is a fantastic farm shop with a impressive butchery, delicious deli, busy café and a popular takeaway ‘Fodder on the Hoof’. Fodder supports over 430 farmers and local producers.

Harrogate Caravan Park boasts a great location, friendly staff and 67 generously sized pitches for caravans, motorhomes and tents.

Accessibility

We are proud to be able to offer a completely accessible venue.

Yorkshire Event Centre has been designed to be a level access venue, great for wheelchairs and pushchairs. We offer entrance ramps and double doors to both halls and automatic doors in the main entrance. All entrance steps and ramps have handrails.

Both of our cafes are located on the ground floor.

Our Facilities

We have 6 disabled toilets and additional accessible toilets. We have installed a spacious Changing Places facility. Fitted with a range of equipment to assist visitors. More information can be found by following this link.

We use pictorial symbol signage across the venue to direct visitors.

Assistance and guide dogs

We welcome assistance dogs on-site and can ensure drinking water is made available. If required, we also have space for assistance dogs to be exercised.

Wheelchair and scooter hire

We work with a locally based company to provide visitors with wheelchair and scooter hire. Please contact Able to Enable to discuss your requirements on 01423 880 882.

Priority parking at the YEC

We offer 1,000’s of parking spaces on-site, furthermore all our parking is free. Disabled parking spaces are available for blue badge holders at every event. Parking stewards will be on hand to help park and direct you to the most convenient spaces. At large events or for visitors that are not blue badge holders, golf buggies can be available to take you to or from your car.

We have an all-weather surface on the route from the priority car park to Halls.

Environmentally friendly

Here at the YEC we strongly believe in environmentally friendly events and doing our bit to help the planet. Sustainability has always been important to us and was an integral part of the design process when we built Hall 1.

The events and festival industry can have a reputation for being highly disposable but our ethos is to minimise and reuse any waste produced. Zero waste events simply mean using resources more efficiently, therefore creating a more environmentally friendly events. Sometimes it’s all the small things that add up. Much of our energy saving ethos goes on behind the scenes and happens after the shows have closed their doors.

Heating System – our sophisticated temperature management system controls the heating and cooling system throughout the event centre. Isolated heating options and individual controls means we can efficiently tailor heating needs to specific areas without effecting the whole hall.

Waste Management – all our site and post event waste is managed on a zero % landfill program. All event and exhibition carpet is recycled through our suppliers in house recycling plant, they process the carpet ready for manufacturing back into the plastics industry, thus saving valuable crude oil and energy. To date this socially responsible strategy has earned them three prestigious environmental awards.

Venue Lighting – we installed 953 LED lights throughout the venue, helping to reduce energy consumption.

Pump House – all water used at the YEC is sourced from an onsite spring, processed and run through our own pump house. During the Great Yorkshire Show alone 1 million Litres of water is processed.

Insulation – the whole building is fully insulated. Not only does this make our heating more efficient but ensures that we don’t adversely affect our neighbours with any noise pollution.

Toilets – our toilet doors and vanity units are made from recycled plastic bottles. They not only look great but are also award winning!

Location – YEC is situated in 250 stunning acres. We use this outdoor space for a range of outdoor activities, not only for events but to educate local schools and groups on the importance of the environment, creating sustainable landscape and supporting natural wildlife.