The 2026 theme for Knaresborough’s magnificent Bed Race is to be ‘the Swinging Sixties’, the Knaresborough Lions Club has announced. Next year’s race will be held, as always, on the second Saturday in June; the 13th in 2026.
Lions’ Bed Race chairman, Jatinder Singh Kalsi, said:
The Swinging Sixties theme will provide a wide canvas on which teams can express their famous creative talents to come up with imaginative displays.
At the same time, it is especially apt as this will be the 60th anniversary of the running of the Great Knaresborough Bed Race, first staged in 1966.
The theme will commemorate a spectacular community event, the brightest star in Knaresborough’s calendar, and one that places the Town firmly on the international map.
Entry forms for the next Bed Race will appear on the event’s website at the start of January 2026 and need to be completed and returned to the Lions by the end of February. A lottery to decide on final places will be held in March.
Jatinder said:
We are delighted to report that the financial challenges of recent years have been overcome for 2026.
Our thanks go to those local official bodies, commercial sponsors and participants who have stepped forward to ensure that the anniversary of the event’s sixth decade will be suitably recognised with a bumper Bed Race in 2026.
We welcome the involvement of others, and any organisation and individual keen to support Bed Race are invited to contact us, either on www.knaresboroughlions.org or www.bedrace.co.uk
