Big Malarkey Festival
Rest Lab Picture: Jerome Whittingham.

Search on for young presenters for online Freedom Festival

The Big Malarkey Festival is on the hunt for young people to be the faces of an exciting online programme as part of this year’s Freedom Festival.

The Reset Lab will be broadcast live from the Makerspace at Hull Central Library and will include workshops with award-winning illustrators and authors, as well as discussions and debate.

This year’s online Freedom Festival  will take place from Friday 4 September to Saturday 6 September and will be broadcast online on the BBC.

Ellen Bianchini, the Big Malarkey festival director, said: “The lockdown has demonstrated that creativity, self-expression and sharing ideas are a vital part of our wellbeing. Artists – writers, visual artists, makers, storytellers – are sources of hope, inspiration and creativity. We can all inspire each other to find a better future.

The Big Malarkey

This year’s Big Malarkey Festival was postponed due to coronavirus. Picture: Jerome Whittingham.

“Going online is all very new to us and although it won’t be the same experience as The Big Malarkey Festival, we hope it will still give a flavour of what the festival is like each June in Malarkey Park.”

The Reset Lab will explore what changes young people want to see in our post-pandemic world.

Mikey Martins, artistic director and joint CEO of Freedom Festival Arts Trust, said: “We’re big fans of The Big Malarkey and excited to be working with our good friends at Hull Libraries to present The Reset Lab.

“With notions of freedom having to be re-examined at this time and in the pioneering spirit of William Wilberforce, who inspired our festival, we’re excited to be creating an alternative programme that takes on those challenges.”

The Big Malarkey is looking for young presenters aged 11 to 16 to be part of The Reset Lab. Anyone interested should send their  name, age, school and one thing they would keep from lockdown to [email protected].

Seymour Street