By Charlotte Gadd-Henderson
The Chester Heritage Festival which is taking place from the 23rd of May to the 7th of June 2026 sees a celebration of the city’s history. The 16-day festival is drawing to an end for the year and has offered a wide variety of talks, tours and activities for everyone wanting to get involved. The festival was founded in 2015 and has connected Chester locals and visitors with the history of the streets around them ever since.
The festival opened with a variety of activities in Exchange Square and Picturehouse. These were mostly aimed at young children. There was a heritage stall with an archaeology based activity with real finds. Alongside this there were several craft related activities, all with information about different time periods.
From there, multiple events ran all over the city. There were craft workshops at Picturehouse including making Viking brooches out of recycled materials and stained glass inspired paper crafts workshops. Chester Cathedral hosted activities on the 26th and 27th of May including designing badges and decorating wooden animals. Other activities occurred in the Amphitheatre, the city walls and Grosvenor Park, providing a wide range of educational, family friendly events.
In addition to the activities, there were guided tours and talks. The tours were held throughout the festival. Each tour covered a different topic, from information about street performing to Norman Earls and ghost stories. The knowledge to be learned was almost unlimited.
Other experiences on offer were a variety of talks including an opportunity to visit the King Charles Tower on the Chester Walls. Similar to the tours, there was a wide variety of topics covered in the talks available including the Rows, the red sandstone and Fever hospitals.
The Chester Heritage Festival provides a great opportunity to learn more about the city’s vast history in many different ways. The event is aimed at people of all ages, backgrounds and knowledge levels. The volunteers, partner organizations and the Heritage Chester Community Interest Company are committed to making the city’s heritage accessible to all. They aim to enrich the present and inspire the future by raising awareness of the past.
When the festival isn’t running, the website has plenty of information to satisfy curiosity of the past. Under the section labelled ‘Our Heritage,’ there is information about the plaques, the millennial trail, witch hunts, the civil war, Vikings and much more. Each article available belongs to The Chester Heritage Festival and the partner organisations such as The University of Chester, Chester Cathedral and many more.
Overall, the festival provides a large opportunity to expand our knowledge about the city’s past from the people to the buildings. It is a fantastic opportunity to get out and explore while learning exciting new facts.
