Would you rather travel back to summers-gone-by during the age of Victorian Galas or the Swinging 60s?
You don’t have to choose, as this year York Castle Museum are celebrating iconic summers across two different centuries with games, crafts, and seasonal decorations bringing the eras to life.
From today, Monday 22 June, until September, visitors can immersive themselves with nostalgia and summer fun at York Castle Museum.
The museum’s popular Victorian street, Kirkgate, will be transformed into a Victorian summer festival inspired by the York Gala – a staple of the city’s summer season for 60 years.
The inaugural York Gala took place in June 1859 with concerts, circus entertainment, hot air balloons, fairground rides, and flower displays.
“Throughout the street, what we’ve done is we’ve dotted it with little elements of that,” explained Carla Starkey, immersive interpretation producer at York Castle Museum.
Kirkgate has been dressed with seasonal flowers and bunting, and features a simulated day-to-night-cycle. Exclusively for summer 2026, York Castle Museum has collaborated with Field Studios to produce new and improved soundscapes and projections, creating an atmosphere of dreamy summer days – including hot air balloons, marching bands, and fireworks.
The shops, which are modelled after real York businesses, will contain new summer-themed items for everyone to explore – such as posies for your buttonholes or hats that would have been worn in the Victorian period.
“We think of the Victorians as being quite dusty and old, but they were so vibrant, so full of colour and joy,” said Carla.
“You don’t perhaps expect it to be quite as bright and vibrant, but that’s exactly what I’m trying to do – change people’s minds and enlighten them, and learn about it without it being so strict and formal.”
A new installation, just off Kirkgate, will feature paper cut hot air balloons created by Yorkshire artist Pippa Dyrlaga that will be suspended in the space with the opportunity to make your own paper hot air balloons to add to the display from 25 July.
The 1960s were also a pivotal decade for York, and York Castle Museum is bringing back the nostalgia of 60s summers, with flower power decor, games and memories of childhood with toys, fashion and iconic household favourites, as well as songs that defined the decade playing over the speakers.
In the Exercise Yard will be a range of outdoor games and activities suitable for all ages, for families, or adults to release their inner child.
The main programme of activities, events and games will run through the summer holidays from mid-July.
“I want people to come and experience joy,” said Calra.
“The joy is really what we’re going for, and that celebration of coming together, enjoying things, enjoying the summer, and those hazy summer days – that’s what we really want people to get out of it.”
Summer at York Castle Museum is now open, allowing visitors to enjoy mid-week visits to the floral decorations and 1960s display before the school holidays begin.
More information about the summer events programme at York Castle Museum will be released soon. Find out more at their website here.
Take a look at what to expect in our gallery below.
Gallery
