Exploring holidays of the past

Wakes Weeks: Holidays of the past

By 1938, the government had introduced paid holidays for factory workers and Blackpool became their go to destination for their Wakes Weeks holidays..

Wakes Weeks were when factories across the north of England chose different weeks to close, it was like a holiday timetable! This meant that people from the same towns would all come to Blackpool at the same time.

Our Wakes Week tent is a pop-up exhibition of photographs and postcards of Blackpool Wakes Week from 1900-1939 collected by academic and historian Robert Leach alongside costumes and memorabilia from that period.

Explore more about holidays of the past during this family event - free to access with your admission ticket to Showtown.

The tent was designed and produced by creative studio Uncultured Creatives

Wakes Week is a co-commissioned by The British Textile Biennial and Showtown.