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The Oldest Show On Earth? This Year’s Yorkshire Fossil Festival Has A Spectacular New Look And Host!

Steve Cousins, the Rock Showman - photo by Tony Bartholomew

This year’s Yorkshire Fossil Festival has a spectacular new look and host – Steve Cousins, also known as The Rock Showman.

Steve will be hosting the Festival at Scarborough’s Spa from Friday 16 to Sunday 18 September, with two Rock Showman Booths – stunningly illustrated mobile venues housing a range of educational and entertainment activities – in the open space of the Sun Court.

He will by joined by circus duo The Witty Look Show, who will perform in the Sun Court at 2pm on Saturday and Sunday, and present short performances outside the Spa beforehand. A multi-award-winning international circus duo from Japan, their show is full of acrobatics, juggling, trickery and genuine laugh-out-loud comedy. Their Scarborough performance will be their only Yorkshire Coast appearance this year.

Meanwhile, the Rock Showman’s performing circus team Let's Circus will be ‘Chalking with Dinosaurs’ along the seafront on Saturday and Sunday with a strongman-dinosaur pulling a vintage pony cart, accompanied by two palaeontologists who will help the public hunt for dinosaur footprints and work out what made them.

Steve Cousins says:
“I'm so excited about this year’s festival! Centred in the Sun Court at the historic Spa, it will combine Scarborough’s two fantastic heritages of live entertainment and geological discovery.

“It’s going to be a great programme – fossils, circus, science lectures, dinosaur footprint walks – there’s even going to be life-sized dinosaurs! What could be more awesome than that?!

“The team has worked really hard to showcase something for all ages and stages, so whether you’re a six-year-old dinosaur fan, a hobbyist collector or someone who wants to go deep into the geological past, there’s going to be lots of ‘wow'.”

The Yorkshire Fossil Festival, based around Scarborough’s Spa, will also feature displays and activities from local and national museums, universities and businesses, including the Oxford University Museum of Natural History; the Dinosaur Isle Museum, Isle of Wight; the Geologists’ Association; Whitby Museum; the Yorkshire Geological Society; Natural Wonders, Whitby; and Scarborough’s Hidden Horizons, based at Scarborough’s Fossil Shop.

Steve Cousins, the Rock Showman - photo by Tony Bartholomew

Fossil experts from across the UK will be on hand to show their amazing discoveries, and are inviting festival-goers to bring along their own fossils for identification.

The Festival has once more teamed up with the cinema at the Stephen Joseph Theatre to screen a day of dinosaur- and geology-themed films.

This year’s festival is funded by Scarborough Museums and Galleries, Scarborough Borough Council and the Yorkshire Coast BID, and the launch day on Friday 16 September will feature events especially for schools.

For more information, please visit: https://yorkshirefossilfestival.co.uk and www.scarboroughmuseumsandgalleries.org.uk