Family arts festival, WayWord, produced by multi award-winning Storyhouse, has revealed its programme of events to explore this February half-term (February 17–24).

Now in its fifth year, WayWord is a week long festival dedicated to families and children.

For seven days Storyhouse in Chester will have a programme featuring performances, workshops, children’s illustrators, writers and discos.

Alex Clifton, artistic director at Storyhouse, said: “We are so excited to be bringing our family festival to Storyhouse for the first time. WayWord is a celebration of ideas, of playing, being creative, learning and having fun together.”

Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler comes to Chester on Thursday, February 22 to talk about his latest book with Smartie winner Julia Donaldson – The Ugly Five.

The Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler is to appear at the 2018 WayWord Festival at Storyhouse

Waterstones Children’s Book winner Jonny Duddle returns to the festival to discuss his latest adventure in the pirate world Scurvy Sands.

There will be performances for families to enjoy in Storyhouse’s theatre – Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, based on the bestselling picture books, will be on stage on Tuesday, February 20 and beatboxer Lee Gibling will perform and give a workshop on Saturday, February 17.

Musicians Kabantu return to Chester to perform a concert followed by a music-making workshops for ages four up. There will also be lectures on the science of Doctor Who and Star Wars.

New for 2018 is WayWord Flicks, a selection of family favourite short films screened on Storyhouse’s big screen located in the art deco foyer. Price includes a ticket, headsets for audio and a snack.

Workshops feature throughout the week: Storyhouse’s in-house dance theatre company Fallen Angels are doing a dance workshop for all the family on Monday, February 19; creators of Wallace and Gromit, Aardman Studios, will lead a session on clay modelling; acapella singer James Sills will do a workshop on performing songs from musicals, followed by a performance in the Garret.

There will be a hip-hop dance workshop, plus code a drone, Lego stop motion and computer game design.

The return of ‘play in a day’ on Saturday, February 24, will see participants work with theatre makers to write, rehearse and perform a play in a day.

Storyhouse, which also runs the Wayword children's literature festival, will be staging a new family film festival this October half term
Storyhouse will run the WayWord children's literature festival again this half term

Storyhouse’s Atrium will welcome families to dance together at the silent disco and Artful Playground will perform with their swing band.

Festival favourite Den Building returns for its fifth year when families will come together to create incredible hiding spaces.

Storytelling is at the heart of the programme with sessions daily in Storyhouse’s children’s library – The Den. There will also be caveman parties, a puzzle/board game library, puzzle room – like a children’s Crystal Maze - and free themed arts and crafts including kite, dreamcatcher and puppet making.

Storyhouse’s independent cinema will be screening children’s movies: Aardman’s latest film Early Man, plus documentary Jane and classic reissue Doctor Dolittle.

Tickets start at £4. Find out more and book at storyhouse.com.