Big Ideas By the Sea returns in May 2026. Between Friday 15th May and Saturday 30th May the festival will bring a host of events to entertain and inform audiences from Scarborough and beyond.

 

Events will take place across Scarborough in St Mary’s Church, St Martin-On-The-Hill,

Scarborough Castle, Scarborough Library, the Old Parcels Office Artspace, The Grand Hotel,

Woodend Studios and Gallery, South Bay Chalets, and the Shakespeare Gallery.

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The Scarborough Big Dig, nominated for Community Archaeology Project of the Year in 2025, will once again bring school children and adults to Paradise where they will have a unique hands-on experience of working on an archaeological dig.  Come along and ask us what we have found!

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Highlights include an Archaeology Day, "Peopling the Past", with Professor Joann Fletcher, Professor Charlotte Roberts, and Dr Stephen Buckley; BBC's David Sillito in conversation with former BBC correspondent Peter Taylor; and a performance of 12 Silk Handkerchiefs a narrated and musical commemoration

of the Triple Trawler Tragedy that rocked Hull in 1968.

The Big Day Out at Scarborough Castle on Sunday 24th May will have music, mini-digs, storytelling, and the Legio VI VICTRIX Roman Legion, and there is free entry to the Castle on the day for YO11, 12 and 13 residents.

 

​There will be magical musical evenings with Raven, the Jake Legg Jug Band, Patrick Sweany, Poetry and Music with Charlotte Oliver, Rowena Somerville, Felix Hodcroft and Hinterland, and our sell-out Community Choir event

will fill St Mary’s Church with song and joy for our Festival finale.

​And there are walks, guided tours, performances, poetry events and exhibitions.
Join us and make Big Ideas By The Sea 2026 bigger and better than ever!