20/01/2012

Gillian Cruddas MBE, Chief Executive of Visit York, took a trip on the wheel today (Friday 20th January) to celebrate the countdown to this year's Residents Festival. With over fifty offers, tours and visitor attractions on offer, including the York Wheel, York's restaurants, visitor attractions and hotels are all working with Visit York to provide the best line up yet for this year's event.

30,000 York residents took part in the annual festival last year and the event is organised by Visit York as a thank you to the locals of York for the warm welcome they give to the city's York's seven million annual visitors. Supported by the City of York Council and sponsored by Coles Solicitors of Micklegate, the festival will run during 28th and 29th January. This year Visit York can proudly announce that all of the attractions and events taking part are offering free access, whilst food lovers will find a range of restaurant deals on offer.

Gillian Cruddas MBE, Chief Executive of Visit York said, ‘The warm welcome residents give to York's visitors is vitally important for the tourism economy. This is our way of saying a big thank you for the very important role residents play in ensuring York's reputation as one of the friendliest cities to visit in Britain.'

John Lowery, Operations Manager for Great City Attractions said, ‘We are pleased to be part of the York Residents Festival and offer an opportunity to York residents to try out the wheel for free. We are also looking forward to a summer of fantastic events in the city that can only help attractions such as ourselves.'

As well as marking the beginning of the York 800 celebrations, a raft of new offers have been added this year including behind the scenes tours at BBC Radio York, a Fishergate Postern tour with the Friends of York Walls and Mystery Plays activities for all the family.

To celebrate seventeen years of the Festival, this year residents are also being invited to take part in a brand new chocolate competition. The lucky winners will receive one of 20 pairs of tickets for York's delicious new attraction. For your chance to win, tell Visit York in no more than 100 words why you would like to be one of the very first people to step inside ‘Chocolate - York's Sweet Story'. Residents can email their entries to lmckenzie@yorkchocolatestory.com.

Attractions opening their doors free to residents over the festival include; the Yorkshire Museum, York Art Gallery, Barley Hall, the Quilt Museum and Gallery, the National Railway Museum, DIG, the Jorvik Centre, York Dungeon, York Army Museum and the Richard III Museum to name just a few. Outside the city with free admission over the weekend *Castle Howard is offering exhilarating walks in the grounds of this wonderful estate and Beningbrough Hall hopes to entice visitors to its National Portrait Galleries. (*Castle Howard Gardens only).

Pre-booking is required for some of the attractions and guided tours, details of which can be found on the Visit York website at www.visityork.org or by picking up a Residents Festival leaflet from the Visit York Information Centre at 1 Museum Street. Due to changes in the Yorkcard residents need to apply for a new card to gain admission at each participating venue, available from all of York's public libraries. The new YorkCards have a £2.00 admin charge for adults but are free for residents aged under 18. The YorkCard also entitles you to free entry to The Castle Museum and The Yorkshire Museum plus discounted entry to York Dungeon as well as Energise and Yearsley Swimming Pool. Make sure you update your Yorkcard in order to take part. ENDS