HullBID has announced details of its biggest ever Hull Trinity Festival – an event which will crown the city’s fantastic summer of live music.

As with last year’s event, the 2014 Hull Trinity Festival will bring the best of the local bands plus two national headline acts to perform free of charge on a big stage outside Hull’s historic Holy Trinity Church.

But this year there will be added attractions to the programme which runs from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 September. Holy Trinity Church itself will be the venue for a ticketed fund-raising event – the only attraction which isn’t free of charge – on the Friday night. And between 4pm on the Friday and closing time on the Sunday night the Trinity Festival will embrace a record number of pubs, clubs and café bars stretching from the traditional heart of the event in the Old Town to other areas of the city centre.

New venues on the list of 28 this year include The Empress in Alfred Gelder Street and The Punch Hotel in Queen Victoria Square. Licensees of both pubs said business is on the increase as a result of Hull’s City of Culture success and the pulling power of the big events, three of which are directly organised by HullBID. Claire Bennett, joint licensee of The Punch, said last week’s Yum! Festival was the latest event to bring new faces into the popular city centre pub.

Claire said: “We have noticed a massive difference in the number of people coming into the city centre and the Yum! Festival was a good example. Friday was a bit quiet because of the weather but it was really good on Thursday and again on Saturday. Most of our customers are regulars so we always notice when see a few new faces.

“We’ve always been a bit on the edge of things when it’s come to Trinity Festival but this year we will be involved. We’ve got a function on the Saturday night but as part of the Festival we will have live music from about 4pm on the Sunday.”

Ann Donkin, who has been at The Empress for more than 25 years, recently completed a refurbishment of the pub and is hoping the exterior will be completely re-painted in time for Hull Trinity Festival.

Ann said: “We’ve upgraded everything inside the pub, decorating the place and putting in new air conditioning and new carpets and the next job is to paint the outside. The scaffolding will be going up soon but it will be business as usual while the work goes on.

“There has been a real upturn in business. Things are going really well and that’s a result of the effort we are putting in. The Empress is always clean and tidy and we already have music every Saturday and Sunday so we’ll be adding to that for Trinity Festival, with an Irish band on the Friday night.”

Kathryn Shillito, HullBID City Centre Manager, said: “A key part of HullBID’s strategy for supporting local businesses is to organise high quality events which are free to attend and which attract people into the city centre. “The evidence from Ann at The Empress and Claire at The Punch demonstrates clearly that such events as Hull Fashion Week and the Yum! Festival are making a difference.

“We are delighted that both pubs are seeing an increase in business and are responding by joining Hull Trinity Festival and making it an even bigger event. The fact that 28 pubs, clubs and café bars will be involved this year adds up to a real success story.

Website: www.trinityfestival.co.uk

Pictured: The Talks performing at Hull Trinity Festival 2013