When I visited the annual Waterway Festival in Skipton a couple of years ago, the canal basin was bursting with gaily-painted boats and visitors.

This year’s festival over the May bank holiday weekend is set to be even bigger and better, with additional entertainments extending out from the canal basin on to Victoria Square and the High Street.

Over the three days there will be live bands, dancing, magic shows, an illuminated boat cruise and the legendary raft race.

The Leeds-Liverpool canal was constructed to bring cheaper coal to the town and take away goods like limestone and wool. It was a major boost to the town’s economy, and more than 200 years later, the canal is still playing its role in Skipton’s economy, though surely not in a way in which those early canal entrepreneurs could have envisaged.

Now in its ninth year, you can sail back to the 1940s at this year’s festival, and Zoe Clarke, from organisers of the event, Pennine Cruisers, says: “We are expecting around 100 boats to attend the festival, and there have been whispers of boats being dressed in a wartime-era theme.

“Most of our entrants are local, or moor on the canal, although we do attract a considerable number of boats from the Burnley and Liverpool area, which means they can have travelled for up to three weeks to get to the festival.”

“The Waterway Festival is a busy and popular event for the town,” says Tony Barrett, chairman of Skipton’s Business Improvement District, who have giving the festival a helping hand this year.

“Additional funding from ourselves and other sponsors means it can be even better, and the top-quality entertainment on offer will make it a great day out for visitors.”

The bank holiday extravaganza, organised by a steering group of local people and Pennine Cruisers, attracts hundreds of boaters to Yorkshire. Last year, it was estimated that around 10,000 visitors came to enjoy the stalls and the varied family entertainment which took place on the canalside during the day.

A Farmers Market will also be in Coach Street car park, and an illuminated cruise will sail from the outskirts of town to the canal basin, arriving at dusk on Sunday.

There’s so much on offer that you can happily spend the day enjoying the festival, and if you are a frequent visitor, you may think you know all there is to see in Skipton – the market, the canal, the castle. But just off the beaten track there are many surprises and delights to be found.

If you want to get away from the crowds for a while, try the Millennium Walk, which after focusing on the centre, will lead you off into some delightful parts which capture the charm of Skipton. It will take you about two hours, but you’ll see aspects of the town you never knew existed.

For instance, Aireville Park is one of the jewels in the town’s crown. It can be found opposite the railway station or on Gargrave Road. It’s a wide open space surrounded by trees which many Skiptonians use as a place to exercise. It was once the grounds of Aireville Hall, owned by JB Dewhirst, of the famous sewing family.

Just off Newmarket Street lies the Ginnel, a secluded corner which leads down to the ancient Quaker meeting house. Cascading down the hillside, Walter Beck sweeps through this part of town.

Above the beck you’ll find Middletown, built to house railway workers when Skipton was an important link in North-West rail communications in the mid-19th century. These terraced homes are on a hill overlooking the town from where Parliamentarian soldiers fired cannon at Skipton Castle during the siege of the town in the Civil War.

The Springs Canal, leading from the canal basin, forms a pleasant walk into Skipton woods. With the gushing Eller Beck flowing on one side of the footpath and the tranquil canal under the steep crag of Skipton Castle on the other, the scene is more reminiscent of Switzerland than what was once an industrial town, albeit one which prides itself on being the Gateway to the Dales.