Freedom Festival Hull

Freedom Festival turns Hull's streets into a stage for a long weekend, and it doesn't do things by half — this year's Peace-themed programme opens with a drumming puppet leading a dance party from Jameson Street into Queen Victoria Square, and a community-built twelve-metre tower of wood and rope going up and coming down again in front of an audience. It's the kind of large-scale, slightly strange outdoor performance that's genuinely rare outside Edinburgh or London.

Almost all of it is free and happens in the open air across the city centre, so it works well as a wander-and-stumble-upon-things day rather than a ticketed sit-down event, with a handful of paid indoor shows for anyone who wants to commit further.