York Residents’ Festival has delivered its most successful year to date, with record demand for offers and experiences across the city and strong growth in online engagement and partner interaction.
Organised by Make It York, the festival returned on Saturday 31 January and Sunday 1 February, giving residents exclusive access to special offers, free entry to attractions, and unique experiences celebrating York and the surrounding area.
This year saw 86 offers available to residents, up from 70 in 2025, representing a 23% increase and demonstrating growing confidence from businesses and attractions taking part. The expanded programme also provided residents with a wider choice of ways to explore and enjoy the city.
Pre-booking tickets online returned for a second year and saw strong take-up, with significant increases in traffic to York Residents’ Festival content. Click-throughs from Visit York to partner websites rose by 8.6% year-on-year, showing more residents actively planning visits and engaging directly with local businesses.
On-the-day offers were also extremely well received. Feedback from participating partners highlighted strong resident interest, high awareness driven by festival publicity, and meaningful engagement across the weekend.
Sarah Loftus, Managing Director of Make It York, said:
“York Residents’ Festival continues to go from strength to strength, and this year’s response shows just how much local people value the opportunity to explore and enjoy the city they live in.
It is fantastic to see residents supporting our attractions, venues and businesses in such numbers. The feedback we’ve received from partners, alongside the growth in online engagement and planning activity, clearly demonstrates the importance and impact of this event for the city.”
What businesses said:
Participating businesses and attractions shared feedback following the festival, highlighting strong engagement from local residents.
“A great day with some lovely visitors and visitor feedback.”
“Always grateful for the Festival in terms of a boost to our visitor numbers in January”
“Great event considering we’re out of town. Think might have been the best one yet.”
“Higher than usual local residents came, saying they had come because it was Residents Weekend so they had seen the publicity.”
“We noticed a shift this year in visitor demographics – more families were visiting.”
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Press Release: 3 February 2026
Notes to Editors
