Chester's Grosvenor Museum will kick off a month-long sustainability festival from July 9, with events taking place across all of West Cheshire Museums' sites.

The aim of ‘Festival for the Future – The Big Sustainability Festival’ is to entertain families at the same time as encouraging sustainable everyday habits.

The festival will begin at Chester's Grosvenor Museum and also at St Mary's Centre on 9 July. Stretton Mill, near Chester, will have its own action-packed day on 16 July. During July there will be other events at the Lion Salt Works Museum and Weaver Hall Museum, both located in Northwich.

The Grosvenor Street site will see a programme of free activities from 10.30am to 9pm featuring 30-minute TED-style environmental talks, a clothes swap workshop and 'Earth Giants' an exhibition created by Cheshire College students in conjunction with artist Russell Kirk.

There will also be a prize-giving for West Cheshire Libraries' and West Cheshire Museums School Competition and 'Eco' an exhibition designed by West Cheshire Museums featuring historic items from its collections which tell the story of sustainable lives from the past, and what the future might look like if humanity continues its 'one-use' lifestyle.

A free Open Mic night will take place from 7-9pm where members of the public are encouraged to give short creative responses to climate change. This event requires a booking, which can be done through visiting: grosvenor.museum@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk or calling 01244 972197.

The St Mary's Centre will host an artisan fair from 10.30am to 4pm, featuring a range of small businesses providing among other things, alternatives to 'single use' items and beautiful items created from materials that would otherwise go into landfill.

Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council said: "This fun, exciting sustainability festival is full of imaginative and different events and will be a great way of entertaining children, at low cost, during the summer holiday.

"But it has a serious purpose. We hope it will inspire and empower everyone to put the environment at the forefront of their mind and make the changes that collectively will make a huge difference to the climate worldwide.

"We would like to make this an annual celebration of climate awareness, which can grow and develop over time. I would encourage everyone to make a note of the dates of these free events, so that they don’t miss out."

For more information about 'Festival for the Future' activities at each of West Cheshire Museums' site visit: https://westcheshiremuseums.co.uk/festival-for-the-future/

As part of #PlastifreeJuly, funding and sponsorship has been provided by multiple organisations including: Arts Council England, Stagecoach and Encirc.