KidsSpace at Writer's Square on Culture Night Belfast 2013

People of all ages took part and enjoyed the event.

The annual KidsSpace event, where a city centre location is turned into an outdoor children’s playground is now a fixed date in the Belfast calendar. This year KidsSpace coincided with Culture Night on Friday 20 September, with Writers Square the area given over to structured and supervised space, between 4-9pm.

KidsSpace was hosted by Belfast Healthy Cities (BHC), the World Health Organization body in Belfast in partnership with Active Belfast. Last year KidsSpace attracted more than 1,000 children and their families.

Chief Executive of Belfast Healthy Cities Joan Devlin explains the rationale for the event.

“It is very common in many European cities for child friendly spaces to be integrated into the city landscape. It is an approach which helps promote a sense of belonging to the whole population, and the numbers taking part in our past Kidscape events shows that there is also a demand for such space locally. City centres need to be about more than commerce and offices and integrating space for children also boosts the economy as families can spend more time in the city centre. KidsSpace helps illustrate how our city could, and should look.”

The event was open to families and children of all ages and abilities, although a key requirement is that children must be accompanied by an adult.

KidsSpace was organised by Belfast Healthy Cities in partnership with the Department for Social Development, Active Belfast, Northern Ireland Housing Executive, PlayBoard, Public Health Agency, Belfast City Centre Management, Play Resource and Ashton Community Trust.