FOR the first time, all the ghoul gurus of York are setting aside their business rivalries - and meeting in a spirit of friendship.

The private ghostly get-together of guides and operators of ghost walks in the city will take place on Tuesday, October 26, at a time when they are already hyped up for Hallowe'en.

The late-night rendezvous is designed to cement the sudden breakout of co-operation between the usually highly-competitive groups earlier that evening, when the first-ever York Ghost Festival will get under way.

Announcement of the festival has brought a cheer from the York Tourism Bureau which is backing the event with full-scale marketing.

The organiser of the private meeting will be York ghost walker Ian Addyman, and the venue will be Past Images, his photographic shop in Shambles, York, which specialises in period costume photography as well as pictures of transparent people against a background of spook-infested areas of York.

He is offering all of his ghost walk visitors free images for use on their websites and in literature.

He said: "There are more than enough ghosts in this city to go around.

"Co-operation means spending less money on wasteful plague-on-your-house promotions and improving efficiency."

Meanwhile, the separate York Festival, as previously reported in the Evening Press, is being organised by Psychic & Spectral Investigations, haunting specialists.

Its chairman, Rachel Lacy, said: "It is about time we had a celebration of what is said to be the most haunted city in the world.

She said: "As we were planning events, we discovered that Ian was thinking along exactly the same lines, so we've combined forces. His idea of getting all the ghost walkers and operators together under one roof is fantastic."

The three-day Ghost Festival will start with a ghost walk led by "the Reverend" Lacy, followed by a Psychic Night of tarot-reading at the Roman Bath pub.

Several talks by different ghost hunt operators will also include Harry Martindale, internationally known for seeing the Roman "lost legion" marching through the cellar of the Treasurer's House in York in 1953.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of the York Tourism Bureau, said: "This is just what we want - a festival that is authentic to York, the home of ghosts.

"It is good news for the marketers of the city. We shall include it in our publications, on our website and promote it to the travel trade. The event will give tourism a huge fillip in the city."

For more information about the festival, phone Rachel Lacy on 01904 733907/07903 509 216, or Diana Jarvis on 01904 400191 / 07944 855 628.

Updated: 08:54 Tuesday, September 14, 2004