3 children taking part in a group activity on a grassed area
Hull City Council’s Healthy Holidays provides free activities for young people and families.

Launch of Hull’s family summer activity plan

Hull Culture and Leisure Ltd has today revealed its summer activity programmes. The plans will begin today and be available until Friday 4 September for families to enjoy.

With events limited due to the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions, 2020’s programme includes a range of activities that can be done in at leisure and are accessible via HCAL’s website.

Councillor Marjorie Brabazon, Chair of Hull Culture and Leisure said: “In these challenging times, it has been really important that we provide support for families who have spent months unable to use our facilities.

“Although the summer programme looks a little different this year, the teams have worked hard to offer a wide range of activities to our residents and I’d like to think we have something for everyone.”

Big Malarkey Festival

The Big Malarkey’s Reset Lab will form part of this year’s Freedom Festival programme. Picture: Jerome Whittingham.

Plans for leisure services include Hull City Council’s Healthy Holidays fund to provide free fishing and tennis equipment and access to facilities for young people and families. The equipment will be distributed through local youth networks and locations to participate in these activities are Costello playing field’s tennis courts, East Park, Pickering Park and Noddle Hill nature reserve.

Access to free downloadable zoo activities will be available on the HCAL website. These have been generated from the team at the Animal Education Centre and visitors can participate either, as part of their visit, or remotely from home. Other activities include socially distanced walks at West Park and junior cycling sessions at the Ennerdale Cycle Circuit.

Hull Libraries is encouraging children to enjoy reading and have lots of fun with poetry workshops, interactive live author sessions and online storytelling with Phil Earle, Paul Cookson and John Kirk. Or get out and about with a children’s photo competition and a city centre hidden letter search.

There will also be the return of the much-loved Summer Reading Challenge with this year’s theme Silly Squad.

The Big Malarkey Festival’s ‘Reset Lab’ will be also be live this September alongside this year’s Freedom Festival’s online celebrations from 4 to 6 September. We’re looking for young people who would like to be the next Kofi Smiles to join us in presenting the ‘Reset Lab’.

Hull Libraries summer programme is funded by the James Reckitt Library Trust and Hull City Council’s Healthy Holidays fund.

Over in museums, the Festival of Archaeology has gone digital. Focusing on the medieval period, the week-long event includes, videos, talks and demonstrations enabling families to get up close and select objects from the collection that they would like to find out more about.

Ferens Art Gallery will host ‘Ferens Favourites’, an exhibition of Hull’s favourite paintings, chosen by the people of Hull and the Junior Open will this year support young people to reflect their experiences of lockdown.

Hull History Centre, in partnership with Heritage Learning, is continuing their campaign to collect family’s experiences of lockdown over the summer period. People that submit content such as photographs, writing and artwork will go down in history by having their experiences officially archived, for future generations to learn what like was like during this strange time.

An artist's impression showing how the A63 upgrade will look.
Hull playwright, writer and producer Dave Windass