Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days
Heritage Open Days (HODs) is a national festival, coordinated locally by Heritage Lincolnshire, which celebrates England’s fantastic architecture and culture by offering free access to places that are usually closed to the public or would normally charge for admission.
The Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days festival is of national significance, as one of the few counties whose HODs events are centrally coordinated and promoted. Heritage Lincolnshire has organised the county’s programme of events since 1994 when they were first inspired by the European Heritage Days that still take place across the continent. Over the past 28 years, there have been over 2,700 events across the county. Heritage Lincolnshire can only deliver this programme thanks to the continued support of the county’s local authorities.
Planning and Delivery
The festival is developed in collaboration with the Lincolnshire Heritage Open Days Steering Group, and Events Development Team, both of which are made up of representatives of the county’s local authorities,community groups, and historic sites. Heritage Lincolnshire coordinates the festival, providing advice, support, administration, design and promotion. This includes producing digital and physical festival brochures,as well as uploading listings to the national website, which features full details of all the events.
Events are planned and delivered mostly by volunteers who bring with them a passion and knowledge of local heritage that contributes a great deal to the special character of the festival. Visitors benefit from rare opportunities to access buildings that are rarely open to the public and to explore some of the county’s top historic attractions free of charge.
The main audience for the festival are local people, and we aim to encourage everyone to explore and engage with the heritage and historic places on their doorstep, which can be all too easy to overlook. However,we know that visitors head to Lincolnshire from across the country for the festival, and it serves as an important tool to promote the county’s cultural offer to visitors.