Big Malarkey Festival returns for exciting second chapter

Literature loving youngsters will be able to sing, draw, write, listen to incredibly tall tales and even travel through time when The Big Malarkey Festival returns to Hull this summer.

The festival will welcome families to East Park on Saturday, June 23, and Sunday, June 24, when it will host an exciting array of reading-related fun and games.

The KCOM supported festival will be returning following a smash hit debut in 2017 when more than 8,000 people descended on East Park to take part.

Festival director Ellen Bianchini said: “Last year was fantastic. We had such a brilliant response and 100 per cent of people said they’d love to come back – so we’re delighted to be coming back and doing it all over again.

“We’ve got a great line-up planned and a real mixture of illustrators, storytellers, animation, live performance and a whole host of events to let youngsters unleash their creativity.

“The aim of the festival is to get children excited about stories and storytelling and, of course, the joys for reading for pleasure.

“We’ve got amazing performers coming from across Hull and Yorkshire so it’s shaping up to be a really exciting, celebratory festival, crammed full of things to do.”

Among the events planned for the festival, which will be split in a series of activity days for schools followed by a family weekend, are a kids workshop on how to write detective stories, singing sessions, theatre shows, poetry slams, storytelling events and a fancy dress mini-beast parade.

The MC for the festival weekend will be Channel 5 Milkshake presenter Amy Thompson, who is from Hull and will be presiding over events from the new festival big top.

One of the performers who’ll be adding a time-hopping slice of wonder to the festival is Rebecca Jenkins, of Rusticus theatre, who’ll be bringing her interactive Keep Off The Path show to the event.

She said: “Our show is a time travelling adventure for the whole family where we’ll go on a whirlwind tour around the park, meet some very interesting characters and find out about the past, the present and the future.

“It’s great to be involved in The Big Malarkey festival – it’s a wonderful opportunity to spark a child’s imagination and ignite that love of reading and writing.”

As part of the festival KCOM will be launching a literary adventure all of its own. To celebrate the return of The Big Malarkey, KCOM will be unveiling a bedtime story that youngsters will be able to listen to online.

The story features club mascots Airlie Bird and Rufus Robin who must join forces when a Viking invasion threatens Hull. More details will be revealed in the run up to the festival.

For more information and to book tickets for The Big Malarkey Festival visit www.thebigmalarkeyfestival.com