NOVUM Newcastle Summer Festival

For one weekend the whole city centre turns into a stage: a giant outdoor colouring installation, a percussion-and-dance spectacle from Sound de Secà, and the headline act — thousands of breezeblocks cascading through the streets in a single city-wide domino run by Station House Opera. Everything is free and unticketed, so you can wander between Northumberland Street and Old Eldon Square catching whatever's on.

It's genuinely sociable too — the council recruited 300 local volunteers to help run it, and the crowd is a proper cross-section of the city rather than a festival-goer bubble. Good for a solo wander, a family afternoon, or a first date that doesn't require making conversation the whole time.