A little while ago, Little Hiccups was contacted by a lovely lady from Thought Bubble Festival asking if any Little Hiccups families would like to attend their event free of charge.

Thought Bubble is the Yorkshire Comic Art Festival. It is a a week long celebration of comics, illustration and more spread across the whole of Yorkshire, finishing in a huge two day comic convention in Harrogate. They use their festival week to promote the power of comics and they believe they can inspire, educate and bring people together like no other medium, so whether you’re a long-time fan of comic art or have never picked up a graphic novel before, you’ll find something for you.

I emailed back dubiously – it looks ever so good for it to be free. But no, it was. Totally free and for as many Little Hiccups families that wanted to attend. Which is just absolutely wonderful of course and incredibly thoughtful. And all we had to do was tick our names off on arrival, be given a wristband (for the weekend!) then off we went. Easy peasy.

It also looked very accessible. They were requiring Covid testing, masks and making sure that everything was more spread out that before. But best of all they had a Lounge space especially for chilling out. Bub’s Lounge was brought to us all by the wonderful Specialist Autism Services. Bub’s Lounge is a quiet space within the comic convention, for those who may feel overwhelmed by the bustling halls. There is space to sit and draw, or just take a breath and they had free earplugs and sunglasses for anyone experiencing some sensory overload.

The halls were packed with amazing comics and artwork. Literally everywhere you looked was another masterpiece. It just oozed talent. However, I think the highlight for me was the Cosplay Parade.

We stumbled on this during our exploration and sat down to enjoy it. And it was great! People having fun, enjoying life and cheering each other on. It was truly wonderful.

So thank Thought Bubble Festival for the invite. It was a pleasure and you made many of our families happy (including me and my two teenagers).