Lots of great content planned for this year’s Plymouth History Festival

Plymouth’s popular annual History Festival is going online this year. It will run from Friday 8 to Sunday 31 May with new content published daily on its website and social media channels to highlight the city’s brilliant heritage sector and history. 

The festival will provide 24 consecutive days of information and insights.

Highlights will include online exhibitions and tours, research articles, profiles of local history societies and organisations, links to podcasts and other online content, fun weekly quizzes, hints and tips to help with family history research and newly commissioned videos featuring archive film footage from the city’s collections.

Throughout the festival each full or half day will have a dedicated theme.

The first day has been timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day. The first week will then explore pirates, Charles Darwin and the 200th anniversary of the launch of HMS Beagle, a selection of city landmarks and historic river crossings. Content published during this week will also highlight LGBT history, some of Plymouth’s historic medical professionals and its connections with the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.

The second week of the festival will focus on lighthouses, the Hoe and the sea. Other daily themes will include entertainment and famous artists such as Sir Joshua Reynolds, Benjamin Haydon, Beryl Cook and Jack Pickup.

The third and final week will explore themes such as holidays, travel and tourism, war and conflict, country houses and churches, the breakwater, Dartmoor and sport.

The festival will conclude with two days dedicated to Mayflower 400.

Councillor Peter Smith, Deputy Leader said: “Although we’re hugely disappointed that we can’t run the festival in the usual way, 2020 is shaping up to be a brilliant event. The team at The Box, who coordinate the festival, have pulled out all the stops to create a digital offer and are getting lots of support from a wide variety of organisations and individuals across the city. I’m really looking forward to it and hope asmany people as possible will engage with and enjoy this year’s online offer.”

You can visit the festival website at www.plymouthhistoryfestival.comevery day from 8 to 31 May to see new content as it goes live. You can also keep up-to-date with via Facebook and Twitter using @plymhistoryfest.