THOUSANDS of people attended the largest public art and craft show in Yorkshire when it was held in York this weekend.

The Art Market ran for three days at York Racecourse, with works by 120 artists on display and many for sale and artists available to discuss their work.

Emily Stubbs organised the first festival with Victoria Robinson and Brendan Hesmondhalgh, nine years ago in Holmfirth, and said that this year’s event - which featured paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, glass and crafts - had been more successful than previous events.

She said: “We were aiming for between 1,000 and 2,000 people per day and we were pretty much meeting that. Last year we had about 1,000 people a day through the door, and we were hoping to at least double that number this year. By Saturday, we were doing better than that.

"It’s been going really well and we’ve had a lot of customers through the door and there’s been a really nice buzz about it. We’ve had a lot of really nice comments from people, and many have been leaving with big pieces of work under their arms so people are buying things too, which is great.”

Artists travelled from around the country to take part in the market, with Yorkshire artists also taking part, and Emily said next year’s event was already being planned.

She said: “We’re hoping to keep improving, year on year.

“The quality of the artwork has gone up this year with great artists, and we want to bring artists from around the country to York and Yorkshire. We’ve attracted a lot of artists from outside Yorkshire, which is really good.”