Looking for an event to feature? Here’s our pick of the best events coming-up this month. As ever, please check individual websites for the latest details.
HULL
Queen Victoria and Hull
Ferens Art Gallery
Until 19 February 2023
Free entry
Queen Victoria and her relationship with Hull are being showcased at this exhibition in the city, featuring one of her most treasured gifts: an exquisite Jewel-Cabinet lent by His Majesty The King from the Royal Collection. Celebrating the monarch’s links with Hull, including her visit to the city in 1854, the exhibition reveals more about life in Victorian Hull.
Climate Feedback Loops, Oliver Ressler
Humber Street Gallery
Until 2 April 2023
Free entry
Austrian artist and filmmaker, Oliver Ressler – who produces installations and films on issues such as economics, democracy, migration and the climate crisis – has created a sound and moving image installation based on recordings the artist made in Svalbard in the arctic ocean on expedition in July 2022.
Maritime City Guided Tours
From 11 February 2023
Free, check website for booking details
Explore Hull’s rich maritime history with a guided tour of the city centre and discover 800 years of seafaring heritage through the buildings, stories and people. Led by dedicated volunteers, who are accredited White Badge tours guides, the tours offer visitors a chance to learn more about Hull and how the city has been shaped by its past, present and future. Two tours are available, a two-and-a-half hour trail, and a 90 minute version.
Tasting night – Hotham’s Gin
The Bar at 55 Whitefriargate
17 February 2023
£15 per person
If gin is your favourite spirit and you want to know much more about the distilling process and the history behind it, then you shouldn’t miss this event. Hull-based Hotham’s Gin School and Distillery talk about the process of creating the gin, the story behind it and its specifications. Includes a gin tasting and one cocktail of your choice from a selection.
Humber Street Live
Social, Humber Street
11, 18 and 25 February 2023
Tickets: From £5 per person in advance
Social’s new weekly Saturday night of live music, from the Sesh Events team, the people behind The Sesh, Trinity Live and Humber Street Sesh. Featuring the very best original bands and acts from across the region and beyond, plus guest DJs taking things through ’til late for the afterparty.
EAST YORKSHIRE
A Day at the Seaside
Burton Constable Hall
7 February – 19 March 2023
Free Entry
The first solo exhibition by photographer Steve Morantz showing how nearby resort Hornsea has a special relationship with the sea. Morantz’s images are of visible waveforms in the sea and shore, and the patterns made by light on the water and the sand.
Have Fun in February
Burton Constable Hall
13-17 February 2023
Free entry for children with a fee paying adult (£13 for house, grounds and stables)
Take part in a nature themed activity week hosted at Burton Constable Hall & Grounds with activities featuring outdoor and indoor fun. Among the half term treats are Scavenger hunting, arts & crafts, storytelling, making a bird feeder, and building a bug hotel.
The Odyssey Lantern Parade
Bridlington
10-11 February 2023
Free admission
Join a magical lantern parade inspired by the epic journey of Odysseus, following the construction of the mighty Trojan horse in Bridlington earlier in the autumn. Expect to see a whole host of illuminated creatures on show, many inspired by the wildlife of the Yorkshire Coast. The parade starts at 6pm on the Friday on the promenade, but if you miss that, the lanterns will be on display in Sessions at Bridlington Spa on the Saturday.
Stage4Beverley Winter Festival
Various venues
12-19 February 2023
Admission: check website for details
Now in its seventh year, this music festival takes place in a number of Beverley venues including East Riding Theatre, Café Velo, the Monks Walk Inn & Toll Gavel Church. It features styles ranging from Folk to Blues, Jazz to Classical, Americana to World Music, mixed with a touch of comedy, spoken word and drama.
LINCOLNSHIRE
Spring Bulb Pageant
Doddington Hall
5 February – 29 March 2023
Admission: £8.50 adults, £4.50 children (4-16yrs)
A spectacular pageant of spring bulbs on display at Doddington Hall’s Gardens celebrates the start of spring. Beginning in early February with displays of snowdrops and winter aconites, the Spring Pageant continues through March and early April with drifts of Lent lilies and heritage daffodils (including rare Edwardian varieties).
In Orbit Skegness
The Embassy Theatre
10 February – 24 March 2023
Free, but booking essential
Popular seaside destination Skegness will be offering visitors an out of this world experience – with the Earth, Moon and Mars creating a UK first for the Lincolnshire resort. The region’s premier live entertainment venue will host back-to-back displays of some of acclaimed artist Luke Jerram’s most striking creations – Gaia, Museum of the Moon and Mars – the first time that all three have visited one venue consecutively. Each comes to life with a sound composition by BAFTA and Ivor Novello award-winning composer Dan Jones, Gaia (Earth) launches the season 10-23 February.
Life By Luxmuralis
Lincoln Cathedral
15 – 18 February 2023
Admission: £8 adults, £6 children (5 – 16 years), booking essential
https://bit.ly/3k6C1SE
Lincoln Cathedral hosts a light and sound installation which will transform the interior of the building into a giant canvas. Life by Luxmuralis will see the Cathedral floor bathed in images and designs, complemented by an evocative soundtrack, taking visitors on an immersive journey from dawn to dusk through the natural world.
Snowdrop Season
Easton Walled Gardens
From 15 February 2023
Admission: £9 adults, £4.50 children
Easton Walled Gardens – Lincolnshire’s very own ‘lost’ gardens – is well-known as a top spot for snowdrops and it opens especially for visitors to enjoy its snowdrop season. From late January to March, Easton Walled Gardens are covered in drifts of this delicate flower. Open Wednesdays to Sundays, 11am-4pm.
Gathering Light: A Bronze Age Golden Sun
The Collection, Lincoln
Until 20 February 2023
Free entry
https://bit.ly/3PR8DeP
Lincoln’s Collection Museum’s archaeology gallery is currently the venue for a British Museum Spotlight Loan, Gathering Light: A Bronze Age Golden Sun. It features the Shropshire sun pendant, a gold bulla that is over 3,000 years old – and one of the most significant pieces of Bronze Age metalwork ever discovered in the UK. The Spotlight Loan reveals the importance of the sun to the lives of Bronze Age ancestors.
STAFFORDSHIRE
Half Term Special – kids travel for £1
The Churnet Valley Railway
20 – 23 February 2023
Admission: £12 adults, £1 children (4 – 15 years)
Heritage steam railway, The Churnet Valley Railway, offers a nostalgic steam train ride through Staffordshire’s hidden valley, and into the Staffordshire Moorlands on the outskirts of the Peak District. For half term, kids travel for just £1, offering a chance for them to climb on board the steam trains to take a step back in time to the 1950s and 60s in the traditional carriages.
February Half Term Activities
The National Memorial Arboretum
Various dates, 4-26 February 2023
Free admission, but booking recommended
Explore the wide range of trees across the 150 acres of the National Memorial Arboretum for the Woodland Outdoor Trail and find the Arboretum Friends (£2.50 per person). Try interactive storytelling workshops (free admission), while youngsters can also join in free arts and crafts sessions making items to take away – including owl puppets and pipe cleaner caterpillars.
New Life on the Farm!
National Forest Adventure Farm
18 – 26 February 2023
Admission: £14.99 per person, booking recommended
http://bit.ly/3IBwoTf
Join us for ‘New Life on the Farm’ this February Half Term at the National Forest Adventure Farm! Visit the baby animals and help bottle feed the lambs. If you’re lucky, you could even witness a lamb being born in the sheep maternity ward. Alongside the new arrivals, there are also a variety of fun farm-themed activities, from making a miniature scarecrow to driving a remote-control tractor.
Wandering Welly Trail
RSPB Middleton Lakes, Tamworth
20-26 February 2023
Trail sheets cost £3 with a prize at the end
http://bit.ly/3jsKFe1
Grab your wellies and get out in nature with the family this February half term. There’s some muddy mayhem at RSPB Middleton Lakes following the trail around the play meadow. A walk-in event, discover the wellies which have been lost along the way.
STOKE-ON-TRENT
Depictions of Love & Romance
Middleport Pottery
6 – 14 February 2023
Included with normal Heritage Trail admission (£7 adults, £6 children 5-16 years), booking required.
http://bit.ly/3XLL61T
Love is in the air at Middleport Pottery, Stoke-on-Trent, with a week of Valentine themed events across the site, the UK’s last working Victorian potbank in continuous production. Depictions of Love & Romance will be the theme of a special Heritage Trail with additional items from its Collection.
Gandeys Circus
Trentham Shopping Village, The Trentham Estate
From 17 February 2023
Tickets: from £9.99 per person
Gandeys Circus returns once again with its brand-new spectacular Big Top show, “Glitterati”, suitable for all the family featuring thrill acts and big production numbers. Showtimes vary day to day.
Half term activities
Dudson Museum
22-28 February 2023
Various prices, check website for details
http://bit.ly/3RCojDP
From Getting Ready for Mother’s Day to Pancakes and Dinosaurs Storytime with Mrs Potts, the Museum has a host of activities, including themed ceramics workshops for children aged over seven years.
HAMPSHIRE
100 years of Norman Thelwell
Mottisfont National Trust
Until 7 May 2023
Free with normal House admission (£16 adults, £8 children)
http://bit.ly/3DvoJpx
Mottisfont celebrates the legacy of one of Britain’s most popular cartoonists with a new, major exhibition for his centenary year. Over 70 works include Thelwell’s trademark ponies and other humorous illustrations, local landscapes, and sharp satire. Drawing on Thelwell’s autobiography, Wrestling with a Pencil, the exhibition will provide an intimate look at his artistic life, with early drawings and extracts from diaries on display for the first time.
Zero Degrees
Winchester Science Centre
Until 20 February 2023
Included with normal admission (from £13.63 per person)
http://bit.ly/3Jx1wXY
Melt away the winter chills with some explosive action at Zero Degrees. As well as all the usual Science Centre fun, there’ll be even more on offer for all ages, including free live science show, Extreme Weather; huge demos in Science Live; and free entry to the Northern Lights experience in the Planetarium, which is only available during Zero Degrees.
Valentine’s Movie Nights
Bombay Sapphire Distillery
10, 11, 14, 18 February 2023
Tickets: £35 per person, booking required
http://bit.ly/3HKznLG
Surprise your loved one with a romantic date night at the Bombay Sapphire Distillery. Join a Valentine’s Movie Night and enjoy the season of romance whilst watching a movie from the comfort of the intimate Cinema Room. As well as snuggling down to watch the movie, the evening includes a complimentary Valentine’s Day cocktail on arrival plus light snacks and interval cocktail to enjoy throughout the film.
Love is in the air
Spinnaker Tower
10 February 2023
Tickets: £80 per couple
Delve into indulgent and warm savoury bites and mini desserts whilst looking out across romantic views of the night sky and sparkling harbour lights with the ‘Love is in the Air’ evening, including live acoustic music and a prosecco reception. The towers viewing decks, with their floor to ceiling glass walls, offer views stretching up 23 miles on a clear day.
February Half Term: Super Sleuths
Royal Armouries Fort Nelson
11- 19 February 2023
Free, but must be pre-booked
https://bit.ly/40mlgDF
Victorian-themed detective challenge for children. Junior detectives are needed to solve the ‘Mystery of the missing money’, which takes place at the time of Queen Victoria’s reign, in the late 1800s, when Fort Nelson was a busy garrison, home to hundreds of soldiers and officers.
Evening Owls
Hawk Conservancy Trust
18 and 25 February 2023
Tickets: £19.95
http://bit.ly/3jjVSxD
As night falls, you’ll experience the mystical owls’ graceful, silent flights in and out of the darkness over their Savannah Arena and amongst mysterious woodland. Before the flying displays, there will be chance to have dinner in Feathers Restaurant and explore parts of the grounds to meet some of the other owls in their care.
Half Term Fun: Secrets of the Stars
Butser Ancient Farm
11- 19 February 2023
Free with normal admission (£11.50 adults and £7.50 children, 3-16 years, booked online in advance)
http://bit.ly/3Hp0lHd
Step back in time this half term. From Stonehenge to the ancient pyramids, prehistoric people found meaning in the night sky. Enjoy a time-travelling family day out and discover ancient astronomy, including a children’s trail and hands-on ancient skills activities.
