Call for contributions

York Festival of Ideas Fringe Family Fun Afternoon 2026

Every year, the Humanities Research Centre organises a family focused afternoon as part of the York Festival of Ideas.

This is an energetic and exciting day of community engagement in the University year and is always a highlight of the HRC calendar. We issue an annual call for exciting and educational activities that young people from the local community can take part in and enjoy.

The theme for the York Festival of Ideas 2026 is 'place and space'!

Event details

What	When	Where
York Festival of Ideas: Fringe Family Fun Afternoon	Saturday 6 June 2026, 1pm to 4pm.	The Ron Cooke Hub

Who can take part?

Staff and Postgraduates (both on taught courses and on research degrees) from across the University are invited to think up fun and creative activities based loosely on their areas of research. The activities should be aimed at children in the 5-11 age range. The Humanities Research Centre will sponsor those activities proposed that will work best as part of this year's Festival Fringe afternoon. If successful, you will be required to attend the event on the day to facilitate your activity.

If you are a distance learner and are unable to attend events in person, we would encourage you to apply with activities that could be delivered remotely or that could be pre-recorded and sent in advance of the event.

Want to see what kind of fun we had before? You can check out a list of activities from last year’s event on the Festival of Ideas 2025 web pages.

Why take part?

The Family Fun Afternoon is a great opportunity to have fun, engage with the local community, and gain public engagement experience. The benefits to you are a great learning experience, in a well-organised, safe environment. It provides good practice of communicating your research in a different way, with lots of support from the HRC and events team, and it looks great on your CV!

How to apply

If you would like to propose an activity, please complete this Google form before 12 noon on Monday 16 March 2026. If you have any questions, please contact hrc-admin@york.ac.uk.

Hosted by

The Humanities Research Centre
Heslington Hall, University of York, University Rd, Heslington, York YO10 5DD
Email: hrc-admin@york.ac.uk