School holidays needn't be financial hell. Britain is bursting with free activities ? from arts and crafts, festivals, music, cinema and much more
Festivals
1. The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is one of Britain's biggest free events, typically attracting half a million visitors over its four days. This year it takes place on 11-14 August and the schedule includes several "mass ascents", when more than 100 hot-air balloons will take to the skies (weather permitting), "nightglows", where 30 or more balloons "glow in time to music", plus a variety of arena and air displays. It is held at Ashton Court on the edge of Bristol.
2. Four days in August will see Stockton-on-Tees in the north-east of England transformed into a vast performance space when the 24th edition of the Stockton International Riverside Festival rolls into town, bringing with it aerial performers, dancers, comedians and street theatre acts. "Expect the unexpected" is the mantra of the organisers, who promise "a stellar lineup of co-commissions, UK premieres and international artists". The event attracts around 250,000 visitors; your diary dates are 4-7 August. Most events are free.
3. If you want to see flying squirrels, skateboarding cows and Incredible Hulks throwing themselves off Worthing Pier to see who can "fly" the furthest, aided only by non-motorised "wings," make a beeline for the Worthing International Birdman event, taking place in the West Sussex seaside town on 13-14 August. This annual competition for "human-powered flying machines" is always a big draw. Many flyers take part to raise money for charity, while others have their eye on nabbing one of the cash prizes on offer for flying the furthest.
4. It's billed as Europe's largest free city-centre music festival (organisers claim 320,000 people came along last year), is one of Liverpool's flagship cultural events, and it's free. This year's Mathew Street Music Festival takes place on 28-29 August, and will see bands from all over the world perform on six outdoor stages, from 11am until 6pm. Tribute acts are a speciality; if you don't like the Beatles, you might want to give this one a wide berth.
5. A football match played in the middle of a river ? what's not to like? If you're in the Cotswolds area on Bank Holiday Monday, 29 August, pack your cagoules, head for the Gloucestershire village of Bourton-on-the-Water and bag yourself a good waterside spot for the annual Bourton-in-the-Water Football in the River match. For 30 very wet minutes, two six-a-side teams of players from Bourton Rovers Football Club will do battle in the middle of the River Windrush. The match is free to watch, and is due to kick off at 4pm.
6. Organisers of the Bristol International Kite Festival, taking place over the weekend of 3-4 September, are planning an aerial extravaganza to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Kite flyers from New Zealand, Kuwait and Thailand are expected to join flyers and enthusiasts from across Europe at the event, which will feature flying displays, kite-fighting battles and synchronised routines. Admission is free, though there is a �7 charge for car parking. It takes place at Ashton Court Estate, Bristol.
7. The Carrivick Sisters, Uiscedwr and Bag of Rats are among the acts lined up to play at this year's Burnham-on-Sea Folkfest in Somerset on 1-4 September. This is the sixth Folkfest, and it's free.
8. The Faversham Hop Festival is an annual, two-day, free family event held on the first weekend in September (3-4 this year) which commemorates "the golden days of hop-picking, when families would come to Kent and pass the evenings with music and stories". It takes place in Faversham and there will be live music, street theatre, morris dancing ? and, presumably, large quantities of beer.
9. If you're hankering for a bit of pop-festival action but money is tight, how about Little London Fields in Hackney, north London, on Saturday 20 August? It's billed as "2011's biggest, little, free, completely independent arts and culture festival", and the organisers say there will be plenty of bands, art displays, food stalls and other attractions. The event will run from noon until 9pm. Register for free tickets at the website.
10. The world's biggest (and free) seafront airshow takes place in Eastbourne, Sussex, from 11-14 August. There'll be displays by the Red Arrows, the Breitling WingWalkers, Royal Navy Black Cats helicopters and a flypast by the Belgian Air Force's F16s.
11. The Sunderland International Airshow, 29-31 July, launches in spectacular style with a free celebration event for all the family, from 7-10pm. Organisers promise live music, night-flying and dramatic fireworks display over the sea.
12. Celebrate south Asian culture at Manchester's Mela from 23-24 July. The event will feature music, poetry, street arts, kabbadi sports, and a huge array of food stalls. It takes place in Platt Fields Park, Fallowfield, Manchester.
Sports and activities
13. There's a great deal on offer at Schwim Free, which lets adults and children swim free at 400 pools across the UK, many in fancy private clubs. It is sponsored by Schweppes, and you have to buy a 500ml or 750ml bottle of its Abbey Well water; they sell for just 50p in Tesco. There are some drawbacks ? you can only go at specific times, usually off-peak (mid-afternoon in city centres, lunchtimes in residential areas) and can get a maximum of five entries only, but it's worth a try. The website lets you put in your postcode to find pools participating in the deal near you.
14. All youngsters in Wales can swim for free at local pools throughout the school holidays. Publicly-operated leisure centres have to offer at least 14 hours of free swimming per week, including a minimum of seven hours of "structured aquatic activities" such as snorkelling, life saving and water discos to under-16s.
15. There's a patchwork of free provision across the rest of the UK. Glasgow's 12 public pools give free access to schoolchildren during the summer holidays ? but you have to live or go to school in Glasgow city and first obtain the (free) Young Scot/Kidz card. Other councils, such as Edinburgh, have axed free swimming because of spending cuts. Much depends on whether they are in receipt of government grants. Newcastle has free swimming sessions at all council-managed pools for under-18s. Norwich offers free swimming to under-16s at its Riverside Leisure Centre for holders of its Go 4Less card.
16. During the school holidays The FA Tesco Skills coaches run taster sessions for boys and girls of all abilities. These sessions are free, as Tesco hires the venues. Free holiday sessions take place during the Easter and summer holidays, as well as every school half term. It runs at 36 venues across England during the school holidays. You don't need to buy anything, just book online at least two days in advance. Each session lasts two hours, from 10am-12pm or 1pm-3pm, over one or two days.
17. Asda has thousands of free school holiday sessions available in a variety of sports across all parts of the UK. Advance bookings can be made from today (11 June) for Scotland and Northern Ireland, and from 16 July for England and Wales. "To date, more than 120,000 children have tried a new sport for free through the scheme, out of this number, 45% have continued to participate in sport," says Asda. Pick up free vouchers at Asda stores and then find out what sessions are available. Book early to secure your place. Centre phone numbers will be provided on the search results page.
18. Find thousands of free tennis courts and get free coaching sessions at 14 locations across the UK organised by charity, TennisForFree. If you don't have your own racquet, they'll even loan you one. Sessions tend to run at weekends, are suitable for all ages and last around two hours. For example, Birkenhead Park in the Wirrall offers free coaching between 10-12 on Sundays. No booking is required. All that you need to do is turn up on the day.
19. There are a large number of free family-oriented cycling days organised by Sky Ride. For example, Sky Ride Leicester, which takes place this year on 28 August, attracted thousands of riders last year. The route is entirely open and optional, so you can come and go as you please and ride for as long as you choose. Sky Ride is a national campaign from Sky and British Cycling created to inspire and help everyone, whatever their age or ability, to get on their bikes and have fun. "From big traffic-free events, to local rides, from routes and trails to courses and training, there's something for everyone," it says.
20. Go-ride, also sponsored by Sky, offers coaching for six-to-16-year-olds in mountain bike skills at centres around the country during the holiday period for around �10 a day.
21. Youth clubs offer a huge range of free after-school and holiday time activities. Local clubs can be found at Clubs for young people and UK Youth or by contacting your local council. Scouts run summer camps, such as that at Tolmers in Hertfordshire, for a bargain �80 a week, while most of the 8,000 scout groups across the UK organise summer day trips and activities. Membership typically costs �40 a term. Go to scouts.org.uk/join or call 0845 3001818. You can also download a "Parents Summer Holiday Survival Guide" on the site.
Free play/activity days
22. National Play Day is on 3 August. The idea is for children and their families get out to play at hundreds of community events across the UK. Over 850 events took place in 2010, making it the biggest on record.
23. Breeze Leeds is an annual summer festival of music and arts for young people in the city. The centrepiece is "Breeze on Tour". Every week, one of the city's parks is taken over offering a range of free activities, including events such as Breeze has Talent. Only open to Breeze cardholders, free to Leeds residents aged 18 and under.
24. Lark in the Park is a community event, provided by churches in Thanet, Kent, which takes place each summer (this year 12-21 August) in Sidcup and Ramsgate, providing kids clubs, youth activities, fun days, community action projects and evening events where everything is free.
25. Sheffield's Super Summer Weekend is in Graves Park and offers free entrance to see characters from favourite children's TV shows, trampolines, vintage fire engines, inflatables and food stalls. Also on site is a funfair with the all rides, bar one, at 99p a go on the Friday. It runs from 5-7 August. Also in Sheffield but more for teens is Tramlines, a free, "for all" music festival in the city centre featuring dozens of acts from 2 -25 August.
26. Brighton & Hove city council's Play Service is running five community play days through the summer, as well as a National Play Day event at Hove Park on 3 August. There will be activities aimed at getting kids and families involved in active play. All are free and will run from 11am-3pm. The community play days are: 27 July, Farm Green, Bevendean; 10 August, Queens Park; 17 August, East Hill Park, Portslade; 24 August, East Brighton Park; 31 August, Preston Park.
27. There's a free summer festival at the Museum of Childhood, in Bethnal Green, featuring rickshaw rides, children's performers, stalls, food samples, live music, clay model making, face painting and a day out in the museum's gardens: Sunday 7 August, 11.30am-4.30pm. Among other free events at the museum is the Feline Festival on 19 August, 12pm-4pm. Come dressed as your favourite feline for an afternoon of music and games. Admission is free and there is no need to book in advance.
28. The South Bank beach, London, is outside the Southbank Centre on the Thames, an area that is transformed with tonnes of sand, beach huts, and a pop-up cafe into 70 metres of urban seaside. It's part of the Festival of Britain anniversary celebrations and you can experience the beach until 4 September, plus a host of other free events around the area.
Free cinema
29. Manchester's Spinningfields hosts a season of free, family open-air film screenings through the summer holidays. Films are shown every Saturday morning at 11am from 23 July to 27 August, with the current schedule including Toy Story 3 and the Jungle Book. Sporting events are also screened free, while there's an evening programme at �2 a ticket every Thursday for adults and older teenagers, which includes Touching the Void, Sex and The City and Saturday Night Fever. The season finale is a double-bill of The Devil Wears Prada and The September Issue. Bring your own picnic and blankets, or hire them for �2. Soft drinks can be brought in but only alcohol bought on site can be consumed during the film.
30. FreeFilmFestivals.org runs events, mostly in London, but sadly there's none on the schedule during the school holidays, unless your holidays stretch to 9 September, when there's a free screening amid the ruined chapels and derelict tombstones of Nunhead Cemetery. There are lots of other take-your-own-picnic open-air events across the country, but they tend to charge entry prices. Try The Nomad for listings ? for example, Lulworth Castle in Dorset screens an open-air Pirates of the Caribbean on 11 August, but it costs �9 adults and �6.50 children. Or the Whitley Bay Film Festival is this year playing The Fog in the town's Lighthouse building on 22 August. Ticket prices yet to be announced.
31. Glasgow Young Scot and Kidz Card holders and an accompanying adult get in free to special Saturday morning screenings at 11.30am at the GFT, Rose St, and Cineworld Parkhead.
32. Vue Cinemas have a summer screening programme, which isn't free ? but at �1.25 is a bargain ? and runs every day through the school holidays. Vue also has a Teenscreen programme aimed at 13-18-year-olds, at �2 a ticket. Times are usually around 5-6pm.
33. Free previews can be found on sites such as Show Film First, See Film First, Momentum Screenings and Disney Screenings. Sign up and get screening codes for selected new films. But the tickets aren't plentiful and go soon. The films may also be unsuitable for under-18s. A useful starting place is the Free Cinema Tickets Forum on the moneysavingexpert.com website.
Free theatre and live shows
34. Free tickets to the X Factor Shows ? and many other popular TV programmes ? can be found at the Applause Store. The drawback is that most are age restricted (16+ and 18+ is common) so it's not great for families with younger children. The website is currently taking free reservations for the X Factor auditions in Cardiff, Liverpool, London and Manchester during June and July. Applausestore is currently operating a reserve list for Sing if You Can, a new ITV primetime singing show, that only has a 12+ restriction.
35. The More London Free Festival runs during the summer featuring free theatre, music, film screenings, fringe events and live music performances for all ages at The Scoop, the outdoor venue at More London near Tower Bridge. Wednesday 1 June - Friday 30 September.
36. Not free, but terrific value at just �5, are the groundling tickets at Shakespeare's Globe theatre on the South Bank, London. After all, it was Shakespeare who coined the phrase "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." You have to stand in the yard but it's right in front of the actors and is an experience not to be missed. This summer's programme includes Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It and Anne Boleyn.
37. Shakespeare's Globe on Tour returns this summer with Hamlet and As You Like It, playing at venues across the country. Again, it's not free but tickets start at �5 for children in spectacular locations such as the open-air Minack Theatre on the coast near Penzance.
38. The Watch This Space London Festival takes place outside the National Theatre with outdoor theatre, circus, music and dance events over the summer, including highlights such as science fiction inspired light projections, aerial circus performers, paintball jugglers and wire walkers, from Friday 1 July to Sunday 11 September ,with most events free to attend.
39. Free theatre workshops are thin on the ground, so it's a matter of checking local drama clubs. For example, Flash Musicals Youth Theatre in Edgware, Middlesex, runs a week-long summer holiday workshop free of charge to children aged eight and up living in Harrow or Brent. At the workshop, participants learn a musical and perform it in the theatre at the end of the week to family and friends. There are lots of fee-charging theatre groups offering week-long summer workshops for young people, such as TheatreWorks in Leeds and Creation Theatre in Oxford, but prices start at �100.
Free arts and crafts workshops
40. Free family arts and crafts workshops take place at Somerset House in central London every Saturday afternoon throughout the rest of the year. All of the workshops give families the chance to explore Somerset House, the Courtauld Gallery and Embankment Galleries: Saturdays 2pm-3.30pm. Suitable for children aged six-12. Free tickets available from the information desk in the Seaman's Hall at 1pm on the day on a first-come first-served basis.
41. Free workshops at the British Library are based on its world famous collection and are suitable for ages six to adult. They take place from 11am-12.30pm and 3pm-4.30pm every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 2-25 August. No booking required.
Free museums
42. Despite cutbacks, national museums remain free. Check the DCMS website for a list of the museums and galleries which are free to all. Many are in London, but you'll find ones outside the capital too, such as the National Railway Museum in York, and the National Media Museum in Bradford.
43. Impact at Royal Observatory is a free exhibition exploring the history of meteors, comets and asteroids and their potential effects on our planet with photographs, awe-inspiring films and interactive exhibits. Saturday 12 March to Monday 29 August.
44. Tate Modern in London is to open a new under-five's zone: a free play space for toddlers and their families which invites "children on a creative, physical and sensory exploration of themes inspired by Cubist art works". Tate Modern and its sister gallery Tate Britain offer Children's Multimedia Guides, available daily from the respective information desks, and priced at �4 (�3.50 concessions) for five-year-olds and over.
45. "BP Saturdays at Tate Britain" will kick off as soon as schools break up on 23 July. These free events for families will include drop-in artist-led activities and gallery workshops, taking place on Saturdays from 10am-3pm. Watch out, too, for the first big open-air screening of the Tate Movie Project in Trafalgar Square, due to be unveiled in the summer. It will show contributions towards an animated film made by and for children across the UK, as part of an ambitious national project involving five-13-year-olds.
The National Trust
46. Entry prices into some of the National Trust's properties can seem steep, but in tune with austerity, it has created a programme of activities you can enjoy without spending a penny.
47. Free National Trust activities in Yorkshire and the north-east include "spot the dancing bear and turtle" at Brimham Rocks and "Go rock pooling in Robin Hood's Bay". In the north-west, you can get poetic with Wordsworth in the Lake District; stand among 38 stones at Castlerigg Stone Circle, or walk in the footsteps of Beatrix Potter in Hawkshead.
48. In central England, the National Trust is tempting families with crabbing at Brancaster, and bird watching in Dunwich. Or take in the views at Wenlock Edge and see Shrewsbury's last remaining watch tower.
49. In the south of England, children go free at Waddesdon Manor, a French-style chateau in the Buckinghamshire countryside. Learn about the space race at the Needles' New Battery on the Isle of Wight or learn about the Magna Carta at Runnymede.
50. In Northern Ireland, scale the highest peak at Slieve Donard, or go wildlife spotting in the Murlough Nature Reserve. In Wales, become a Roman centurion at Segontium or uncover the secrets of smugglers at Port Eynon.
And what you have to pay for
Summer camps They may not be cheap, but activity day camps can offer a vital childcare solution for many working parents worried about how they are going to manage the long school holiday.
They tend to be run by private companies or charities, typically cater for children aged between four to 16, and are usually based at schools and colleges. Some offer a wide range of things to do; others concentrate on a sport or activity such as football or tennis.
One of the biggest operators is Super Camps, which has 67 venues around the country, from Manchester to Cornwall. You can expect to pay around �154-�164 for a week (five days) at a multi-activity day camp.
Another of the biggies, King's Camps, has around 40 venues, from Bath to Aberdeen, with a concentration in the north of England and the Midlands. For a "standard hours" five-day week this summer, you might typically be looking at around �132-�135 (a few venues are cheaper ? for example, at the Leys School in Cambridge, a week currently costs �102.60). King's Camps is part of the King's Foundation, a UK charity dedicated to developing children and young people through sport.
Barracudas has 24 locations offering summer camps, predominantly in the Greater London area, the south-east and East Anglia ? they include Barnet, Brighton, Chelmsford, Sevenoaks, Twickenham and Welwyn Garden City. The typical weekly price is �134.
Camp Beaumont is another leading day camp operator in the south-east, with 11 summer locations in London and the home counties. A week typically costs �227-�235.
In all the above cases, these are usually the full brochure prices. Ask about special offers and deals such as introductory/early booking/online booking/buy one get one free and corporate discounts.
Cheap getaways The Youth Hostel Association is offering family rooms during the summer holidays in a number of its locations for just �29 per night.
The rooms, which sleep up to six people in bunk beds, have to be booked before 30 June, and you have to arrive in your chosen hostel between 22 July and 25 August 2011 ? which is bang in time for the school summer holidays.
Unlike lots of cheap-stay offers from hotel chains, the special offer hostels are in locations in which you would actually want to spend a few days. Seaside destinations include Salcombe (pictured), Tintagel, and Scarborough. Walkers and scenery lovers could head to the Lake District staying at hostels including Helvellyn or Derwentwater. Theatre fiends could stay at Stratford upon Avon ? there are over 40 to choose from, all over England and Wales.
The accommodation is basic but the advantage it has is you can choose to self-cater in the kitchens provided ? saving a fortune on eating costs. Children love it, as they tend to meet others the same age. Often there is great walking or a beach within walking distance.
Plenty of hostels are linked by public transport, and at �29 a night it's the same price as camping.
You will need to join the YHA or pay a nightly premium; family membership costs �23 a year.
You can book this summer scorcher online using promotional code SIZZLER-001. Alternatively, call the YHA on 01629 592700. Don't delay, because the rooms are expected to sell out fast.
? This article was amended on 13 June 2011. The original included the National Football Museum in Preston as an example of a museum which is outside the capital and free to enter. This museum is currently closed to the public, and is expected to open in Manchester's Urbis building in early 2012. This article also said that Trafalgar Square will see the first-ever screening of the Tate Movie Project. This has been corrected.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/jun/11/50-family-freebies-summer-holidays
Nicolas Anelka Peter Beardsley Middle East Gareth Barry Children Liberal-Conservative coalition
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