Hull's Guildhall is about to get a bit more colourful than usual. The Lord Mayor's Rainbow Ball is back on Friday 27 November, with doors opening at 7pm for an 8pm start and things wrapping up around midnight. It's a night built around music, fundraising and charity, and this year it's being pulled forward in the civic calendar to kick off the Christmas season rather than sitting later in the year.
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The evening is shaped around a few familiar elements. There's a hot and cold buffet, a charity auction and entertainment from local drag artists Chelsea Dagger and Miss Fanny. On the money side, early-bird tickets are £25 a head until Saturday 31 October, after which they go up to £30. To get yours, the civic office is taking bookings by email at civic.office@hullcc.gov.uk or on 01482 615 486. The whole thing sits within the 2026/27 Civic Year, under the Community Plan ambition 'Our Culture, Our Heritage, Our City'.
The person behind it is Councillor Maria Coward, who has held the role of Lord Mayor since Friday 5 June 2026 and represents the Boothferry ward. She's described the event as 'flamboyant, fantastic, and – this year – is going to be festive!', and she's moved it earlier to open the Christmas celebrations while raising money for her Charity Appeal Fund and Pride in Hull. She'll be serving in the role until May 2027, with Jon Laugley as her Consort and Councillor Daren Hale as Deputy Lord Mayor.
Where the money goes is the real point of the night. All proceeds go to the Lord Mayor's charities, which this year are One Punch (Hull and East Yorkshire) and STAND (Hull City Council). One Punch is a charity set up in memory of Scott Akester, who died after a single punch on a night out in Hull in November 2022; it works to raise awareness of the harm one-punch attacks do, delivers educational talks in schools, workplaces and colleges, and supports people who have lost a loved one to violent assault or serious brain injury. Its motto is 'Stop-Think-Walk Away'.
The setting does some of the work itself. The Guildhall is the main administrative office of Hull City Council, a Baroque Revival building designed by Sir Edwin Cooper and built between 1906 and 1914, Grade II* listed since 1973. Its clock tower stands 41 metres high and carries a time ball, a maritime instrument that lets sailors check their chronometers by dropping a ball at 1pm. It's thought to be the last or only one of its kind in a municipal building in the UK, and one of only about sixty still existing anywhere in the world. The ball fell out of use after the Hull Blitz in 1941, but a restored, gold-plated version was re-erected in September 2021, 60 metres up, alongside a weather vane modelled on an 18th-century merchant. A carillon of 23 bells was added to the tower in 2004, and the clock's automatic winding mechanism went in in 2013.
It's not the first time the Guildhall has hosted the ball. A Rainbow Valentine's edition returned there in February 2024 after the Covid-19 break, raising money for Pride in Hull and the Lord Mayor's Charity Appeal Fund, and there was another charity ball at the Guildhall in April 2025. This year's version, with its festive tilt and its two chosen charities, keeps that tradition going.
Published Date
23 October 2026
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