This year’s Dark Skies Fringe Festival will include a host of events throughout October’s half term holiday.
Between 27 October and 5 November, festival-goers of all ages can marvel at the North York Moors National Park skies, one of only 21 International Dark Sky Reserves in the world.
The programme includes stargazing, walking or cycling, painting a watercolour, sitting on a steam train, spotting nocturnal wildlife, or enjoying a relaxing stay and gaze break.
This year, the festival’s programme includes a guided night ride with Sutton Bank Bikes to introduce cyclists with some experience of going off-road to the pleasure and thrill of riding after-dark along tracks that make the most of the panoramic skies above the escarpment.
Guided dark sky walks and night navigation sessions run by Large Outdoors and a stargazing evening with York Astro during the Fringe also mark the beginning of a series of autumn and winter events from Sutton Bank National Park Centre’s Star Hub.
Similarly the festival will see Astro Dog resume its stargazing safari and pop-up planetarium evenings below the inky blue skies of Dalby Forest.
During the Fringe, Astro Dog will enable people to train telescopes on the partial lunar eclipse of Hunter’s Moon which is due on 28 October and the planet Jupiter being its closest to earth on 2 November.
For families there’s also the daytime Dark Skies Trail through the grounds of Danby Lodge National Park Centre; the Planetarium Show with Cosmic Wonders at Guisborough; or an evening spent on the headland above Whitby at the YHA for a guided tour of the night sky in the spooky surroundings of the Abbey.
The festival provides the opportunity to show how low light pollution is essential for protecting nature, with forest ranger nocturnal adventures in Cropton or the National Centre for Birds of Prey’s winter owl evening.
For a completely different experience, festival-goers can join one of the North Yorkshire Moors Railway’s Light Spectacular evenings to admire the heritage carriages adorned with thousands of lights as they travel between Pickering and Levisham.
Alternatively head to Oswaldkirk for a dark skies-themed watercolour workshop where everybody, even beginners, can learn the techniques to create a mini-masterpiece.
There are also a number of accommodation providers running special stay and gaze packages such as the Fox and Hounds Inn at Ainthorpe, Carr House B&B at Ampleforth, and Monket Cottage in Farndale.
Phoebe Smith, marketing assistant for the North York Moors National Park, said: “October’s shorter days and lengthening nights provide a perfect backdrop for the Dark Skies Fringe Festival to remind people of the awe-inspiring enjoyment that comes with venturing outdoors to observe some of the darkest skies in the world.
“We have some fantastic astronomy experts on-hand during the Festival as well as businesses who are passionate about helping the National Park showcase and protect our International Dark Sky Reserve status.”
For more programme information including individual event pricing and booking details go to Dark Skies Festival: North York Moors events (darkskiesnationalparks.org.uk)
The main Dark Skies Festival across both the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales National Parks will run from 9-25 February 2024.
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