York Festival of Ideas 2024 promises to spark children’s imaginations with lots of FREE and fun hands-on activities. The Festival continues to inspire and nurture young people’s creativity and curiosity with events ranging from nature activities to an interactive family fun afternoon. Download the full programme here.

Highlights include:

– Discovery Zone at New Earswick Folk Hall (free!) – Activities include: exploring the cosmos in the Cosmodome, taking a spacewalk and flying past other worlds in VR, driving your own space rover, getting hands-on with a meteorite from space and discovering the night sky! Thursday 30 May 2024, 1pm to 4pm. Visit the website.

– Festival Fringe Family Fun Afternoon (free!) – An afternoon of energetic, crafty, puzzling, scientific and historical fun with University of York postgraduate students and staff at this year’s Festival Fringe Family Fun Afternoon. Saturday 8 June 2024, 1pm to 4pm, University of York

– Letterpress printing workshops (free!) – Enjoy printing a one-of-a-kind poster at a hands-on workshop at Thin Ice Press: the York Centre for Print.  Learn about York’s fascinating history of print, experiment with colours and hand-inking, and operate the beautiful proofing presses. Leave us with a passion for print and your own poster inspired by letterpress printing and its histories in York. 9th June, 11.30am to 12.30pm, York Centre for Print

– War Horse: The Concert (free!) – Enjoy a powerful performance of War Horse, one of the most beloved books by renowned children’s author Michael Morpurgo. First published in 1982, the bestselling novel was adapted for the stage in an award-winning production by the National Theatre and for the screen in a Steven Spielberg film. 10th June 2024, University of York

York Festival of Ideas 2024 – 1st to 14th June 2024 – Visit the York Festival of Ideas website