Skipton will be the centre of attention onThursday as more than 200 civic dignitaries from across the county join together to celebrate Yorkshire Day.

The annual event moves each year, and for 2013, Skipton takes over the reins from last year’s hosts, Scarborough.

The civic event will launch four days of celebrations in the town culminating in a Yorkshire-themed fun day on the High Street on Sunday.

The concept for Yorkshire Day dates back to the 1970s and, since 1985, a civic procession involving representatives of councils from all parts of the county has been a core feature of the event.

More than 50 Lord Mayors, mayors and council chairmen will be taking part in the Skipton parade.

Representatives of Skipton’s French twin-town, Erquinghem-Lys will also be in attendance including the mayor, Alain Bezirard.

The day will start at the Rendezvous Hotel where the guests will join a flotilla of 16 canal boats to bring them into the town centre, accompanied on the lead boat by the New York Brass Band.

The formal parade will be led by the Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai Band, part of the Army Music Corps based at Catterick Garrison. It will form up at 10.30am next to to Skipton Bus Station before moving along Keighley Road and up the High Street for a civic service at Holy Trinity Church.

Chief officer of Skipton Town Council, Dave Parker, said: “There is a tremendous amount of prestige for Skipton in being chosen to host this event. It keeps Skipton firmly on the map and is another opportunity for us to showcase the town.

“The event always attracts significant media attention – and, aside from all of the benefits that brings, it is just entirely appropriate for an historic Yorkshire market town to be celebrating the part it plays in the region.”

Following the Yorkshire-themed church service – hosted by the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Rev Nick Baines, and rector Canon Adrian Botwright - the dignitaries will visit Skipton Castle for an official Yorkshire Day photograph. This will be followed by a return to the Rendezvous Hotel for the traditional civic reception.

The Yorkshire Day Festival itself gets under way on Friday, August 2, when Skipton’s Urban Beach opens to the public at the Canal Basin off Coach Street. The basin will be transformed into an East Coast holiday resort with everything from Punch and Judy, deckchairs and beach huts, to donkeys, doughnuts and candy floss. There will be plenty of sand, too, with buckets and spades to go with it.

Town centre manager Brett Butler said: “We’re really hoping that the weather holds out through to the start of August as, with a bit of dry weather and sunshine, we think our urban beach will be something pretty spectacular.

The beach will be in place for three full days – on Friday, Saturday and Sunday – and will be open from 10am each day.

On the Friday evening, Skipton Building Society Camerata has organised a Night at the Opera event at Skipton Town Hall.

Sunday will be the culmination of the celebrations with the Festival of Yorkshire on the High Street from 10am until late.

The giant TV screen will be making a return for a special showing of Calendar Girls in the afternoon and the latest film version of the spectacular Les Miserables in the evening.

There will be thousands of free bags of Seabrook’s crisps on offer, accompanied by free cups of Yorkshire Tea.

Anyone feeling a little more energetic will be able to try their hand at the Yorkshire Olympics – a range of unusual sporting challenges including flat-cap throwing, sheep lassoing and a Yorkshire Pudding shy.

The Settle-based Circus of Food will be on hand with cookery demonstrations and there’ll be a wide range of Yorkshire-grown and Yorkshire-made produce at the monthly Farmers’ Market which will, once again, be held on the High Street.

All events are free.

The celebrations are being co-ordinated by Skipton Town Council, with financial support from the Skipton Business Improvement District (BID) and main event sponsor, Skipton Building Society, which is supporting it as part of its 160th birthday celebrations.

A special Yorkshire Day flag – commissioned jointly by Skipton Town Council and Scarborough Borough Council – will be handed over by Skipton mayor Coun John Kerwin-Davey to representatives of South Kirkby, near Pontefract, who will host the 2014 event.