Hull’s flagship cultural festival, this year featuring werewolves, a giant wheel and breathtaking circus performance, is back in the city this August – and extending its reach into Lincolnshire and North Yorkshire.
Award-winning international arts event, the Freedom Festival, returns 28-31 August with free to attend outdoor street performances along with ticketed indoor shows celebrating the city’s cultural heritage and diversity through music, dance, theatre and visual arts.
Along with a new-look line-up for Hull itself – featuring three different zones – the Freedom On Tour programme also takes the show on the road to Goole Town Centre, Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire, Bridlington Spa in East Yorkshire and Tadcaster in North Yorkshire.
Back for the 18th year, the festival was initially created to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1807 Slave Trade Act, while also honouring the legacy of reformer William Wilberforce, who was born in the city and served as its MP.
Since 2017, the four-day event has grown to become one of the region’s biggest outdoor arts festivals – last year attracting 70,000 visitors – and 2025’s lineup features 76 experiences by 29 artists featuring hundreds of performers.
Making it easier to navigate the city, this year will see three entertainment zones with large-scale performances and immersive theatre in Queen Victoria Square, music and movement on Humber Street, and headline shows at Hull Truck Theatre.
From the 28 – 29 August, visitors can enjoy a range of ticketed performances., while on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31, the streets will be alive with dance, circus, theatre, art and heritage activity, all free to access.
Among treats in store is The Night of the Werewolves Live, an interactive comedy horror show – based on the cult-classic game Werewolves and the TV show The Traitors – where audiences will have to work out, accuse, and brutally ‘murder’ fellow audience members to determine who among them is a werewolf. Adult only performances will be staged 28-30 August at Princess Quay, with family friendly shows on the Saturday and Sunday (tickets from £10).
Hull Truck Theatre will host The Genesis, from Denmark-based Copenhagen Collective, a breath-taking circus performance featuring 17 world-class acrobats in a gravity-defying show along with an original soundscape and atmospheric lighting design. Staged 28-30 August, tickets cost from £21.50.
Elsewhere on the streets of Hull, there is a chance to meet The Animals, four larger-than-life, nonverbal characters who perform a walkabout street theatre act blending movement, music and visual spectacle. Plus, the Pirate Taxi, a playful outdoor circus show from award-winning Pirates of the Carabina, set around a real London cab.
And The Parade – the Giant Wheel is a spectacular moving performance featuring a 12-foot Giant Wheel powered by five dance artists, in an experience blending contemporary storytelling and live music as well as local community groups.
The Freedom On Tour begins in Goole town centre on Tuesday 26 August, followed by Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire on Wednesday, Bridlington Spa on Thursday and ends in Tadcaster on Friday 29.
For the full programme, and ticket details, visit www.freedomfestival.co.uk
For places to stay and visitor information, see www.visithull.org
Photo: Pirate Taxi, Paul Blakemore