THIS summer’s Harrogate International Festival, or Summer Festival as the brochure proclaims it, pays homage to the ethos of its founder, the late Clive Wilson.

His vision was a festival of not only the arts but also science, and so chief executive Sharon Canavar has overseen the re-establishment of a science strand headed by Lord Robert Winston, exploring what it means to be human.

“As science explores our genetic make-up, the arts explore the DNA of our hearts,” says Sharon, whose festival programme also embraces sport, children’s arts, literature and a Fringe festival, along with classical, jazz and world music.

“Clive Wilson believed that the festival should widen its scope as years go by, and with our special guest programmers, Clare Teal and Soweto Kinch, we’re celebrating the best of the established and pushing the boundaries of the new and the unexpected,” says Sharon.

“Kildwick jazz legend Clare Teal will be introduced at the Royal Hall on July 30 by a man who is a British institution, Sir Michael Parkinson. On the other end of the jazz spectrum, Soweto Kinch, an award-winning jazz and hip-hop artist, boldly goes places no jazz musician has gone before.”

In this instance, that involves saxophonist Kinch going to St John Fisher RC High School for a July 14 workshop (a private event for the school) and giving a lecture the next night on Freedom Music – Improvising In Hop Hop And Jazz (open to everyone).

Later, he will close the festival, leading Soweto Kinch’s New Emancipation Nine at Harrogate Theatre on July 31.

This year, the festival introduces a new children’s festival spread over the weekend of July 9 and 10 in the Papakata Tent in the Crescent Gardens, while the literary strand is being bolstered under the guidance of curator Henry Sutton.

At Fountains Abbey on July 15, Kate Atkinson, the novelist with the York past and Edinburgh present, will focus on her latest novel, Started Early Took My Dog, part of her Jackson Brodie series, which pays homage to the beauty of North Yorkshire.

The festival opened last Thursday with the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s celebration of Fred Astaire and his leading ladies; South African composer and pianist Abdullah Ibrahim played his only British festival date this summer yesterday and the Festival Big Screen showed an array of films over the weekend on Montpellier Stray.

Such diversity will continue throughout July in a festival that will feature the BBC Big Band; the Aquarelle Guitar Quartet; the Black Dyke Band; cellist Steven Isserlis; comedian Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club; and cult singer Paloma Faith.

Making an appearance too will be extreme marathon runner Robin Harvie; pianist Andras Schiff; the Czech National Symphony Orchestra; Oddsocks Productions with their outdoor staging of Macbeth; former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell; Melvyn Bragg, lecturing on The Radical Impact Of The King James Bible; and the Brodsky Quartet chamber musicians.

“It’s a lot to pack in,” says Sharon.

“So this year, we’re pacing the festival over four long weekends throughout July.”

Box office: 01423 502116 or harrogate-festival.org.uk