Some think the town's infrastructure won't be able to cope with the huge extra influx of visitors.

At a town council meeting on Tuesday deputy mayor Terry Jennison said he couldn't see why Whitby Regatta couldn't move its date.

The date of the clash is 22-24 August.

But vice chairman of Whitby Regatta, Ivor Greer, said they had already sat down with the organisers and they were "not interested" in moving the date.

Jill Winspear, who has worked in the hotel trade for 30 years, said the clash is unfortunate.

She said: "We have no park and ride and the folk festival accommodation is already booked. There's no accommodation.

"It's absolutely horrendous when it clashes."

The last time they clashed was five years ago.

Regatta collecter and former Whitby Mayor Ada Myers said: "As a native of Whitby I've been to every Whitby Regatta apart from the ones during the war that were cancelled. That amounts to 75 years.

"As far as I'm concerned I don't think anybody should interfere with the Regatta."

Graham Pirt, a director of Whitby Folk Week, said it is worth around £3.5m to the town's economy and they have met with the Regatta committee to offer the use of Whitby Pavilion for part of regatta, which they had already booked.

"If we move it we have to move the festival and not the date," he said. "If people in Whitby are saying they don't want the festival we don't want to be unwelcome in the town.

"The festival is not for profit. No one gets paid other than the artists.

"We have already booked the venues and £50,000 of accommodation for artists in 106 of the flats, B&Bs and hotels. We have half of our list of artists booked including Kate Rusby. There was no way we could move." He said they are trying to involve the town more in their event.

Mr Greer said after the meeting the decision to move the date to later in the year was not taken lightly and many factors were involved, including the

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ides, the sky needing to be dark for the fireworks, the availabilty of the RAF and the fact holding the extravaganza earlier in the month clashes with Pickering Traction Engine Rally.

He said: "We don't just pick the dates out of the air. It's not just having water in the harbour, it's about having the right type of tides.

"The Folk Week were informed of this 12 months ago. If all parties work together there will be some issues to deal with but I can see no reason why both events can't be successful."

Whitby Town Council agreed to set up a task group to see what it can do to help the situation.