newy.com.au – A free roller disco, an aquatic centre family day and drop-in art activities will give Maitland families several no-cost options during the spring school holidays, alongside library workshops and the Riverlights cultural festival.
Maitland City Council’s roller disco will run at the Harold Gregson Park Reserve basketball court on Saturday 26 September, from 5pm to 9pm. Participants need to bring their own skates, but no booking is required. Music and food vans will accompany the skating.
The evening before, Street Eats will bring food, family activities and 1980s music to Golden Whistler in Aberglasslyn. The event runs from 5pm to 8pm on Friday 25 September, with visitors encouraged to bring a picnic rug.
Maitland Aquatic Centre’s free summer launch family day follows on Wednesday 30 September, from 10am to 3pm. The program includes aqua classes, swim lessons and a CPR demonstration, as well as laser tag, lawn games and a complimentary sausage sizzle lunch.
Families looking for indoor activities can drop into Maitland Regional Art Gallery for Free Art Sunday on 4 October, between 10am and noon. Each activity takes about 30 minutes and materials are provided. The gallery’s full program and bookings page also includes a family clay workshop teaching hand-building techniques, with participants making a piece to take home.
The Riverlights program runs from Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 October, with activities across several venues and a cultural celebration at The Levee. Cultural villages, live performances, interactive activities and food from around the world will form part of the festival, with visitors able to collect stamps in a cultural passport.
Children can try a Wizardry Workshop with Trace of Magic on Tuesday 6 October. The following day, a Slow Food Hunter Valley cooking class will teach children aged five and over to make fresh egg pasta and a seasonal green sauce using vegetables grown in Morpeth.
During Riverlights week, children can also make paper lanterns at the art gallery to be released as part of the festival finale.
Maitland libraries’ holiday activities range from a behind-the-scenes look at library work to an outdoor bird walk with the Hunter Bird Observers Club. The librarian-for-a-day activity will show children how books are borrowed, returned and shelved, while the tawny frogmouth walk will test their bird-spotting skills and finish with morning tea.
Illustrator Dan Marshall will also lead a session exploring how facts become illustrations, before children try creating their own. Details of these activities are available in the Maitland libraries school holiday program.
