Heritage Open Days is England’s largest festival of history and culture and runs for ten days every year.  This year the dates are Friday 12th Sunday 21st September and offers free access to heritage events and activities across England. In Ramsgate you can expect to find local events offering the opportunity to explore our town’s rich history and culture.

Last year’s theme was ‘Routes, Networks & Connections’ and we were able to offer many events and experiences towards TDC Visitors Service’s target of ‘30 for 30’ – to mark the 30th anniversary of the Heritage Open Days Festival.  It was also the year that Ramsgate became designated a ‘Heritage Harbour’ – one of only fourteen in the country – which added to the exceptional number of activities available for people to enjoy during the 2024 festival.

This year the theme is ‘Architecture’ and could have been chosen especially for our town.  There is already a list of more than fifteen events in the process of being planned, including previous favourites, plus a few new additions – such as 154 High Street and Vale Square & Christ Church.

The annual ‘Festival of Sound’ is running at the same time and planning a special event for HODs during the first weekend with the ‘Heritage Harbours Festival’ taking place over the second weekend – with a follow up of the amazing recent Little Ships 85th Anniversary called ‘After Dunkirk’.

The Ramsgate Society are part funding the production of a printed leaflet with details of the many events across Thanet known about at the time it goes to print – but there will be more to be included – and these will be publicised nearer the time with full listings available on the ‘Visit Thanet’ & ‘Visit Ramsgate’ websites as well as in the monthly printed ‘Events Calendar’ produced by RTC specifically for Ramsgate.

We are fortunate to have so many Heritage Open Days Events in the area that we live – and hope you are able to get along to as many as possible.

Susanne Ford

Lead on Events and Community Engagement