Easter holidays 2022: Fun for all across Sunderland as families enjoy Easter bank holiday weekend without restrictions

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After spending the past two Easter breaks under Covid restrictions, families and friends made the most of the long bank holiday weekend to meet up and enjoy everything Wearside has to offer.

While Mother Nature didn’t exactly rise to the occasion with blazing sunshine on Easter Monday, the mild weather and bright spells meant plenty of people were out and about to enjoy, what was for many, the last of their break.

The weekend began in time-honoured fashion with queues forming outside chip shops for the traditional Good Friday fish lot.

Meanwhile, mostly fair weather and dozens of events across Wearside kept folk entertained either outdoors or indoors throughout the weekend.

This included church services and sessions for children, where congregations were thrilled to be back celebrating what is the most important time in the Christian calendar.

Easter wasn't entirely back to normal, however, with some events including the annual cross-raising on Tunstall Hill remaining off.

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Bank holiday fun at Roker Beach! Parents Lee and Jane Ali with grandparents Sue and Gary Martin, and children Grace Ali, five, Isobel Ali, eight, Eleanor Martin, nine, and Cora Martin, seven.

The event did not take place in 2020 or 2021 due to Government restrictions. Oorganisers said some remaining issues meant it could not return for 2022.

It is hoped the event will return to the city’s cultural calendar next Easter.

Elsewhere, it was a big weekend for Sunderland’s heritage with the reopening of the much-loved Ryhope Engines Museum to visitors.

It was the first time since October 2019 that the attraction, which is owned by Northumbrian Water and run by volunteers, could host one of its open days.

The queue for fish and chips at Seaburn on Good Friday (April 15, 2022).

And Sunderland’s newest heritage attraction, Seventeen Nineteen, was officially opened on the Saturday of Easter weekend.

The initiative has seen the East End’s historic Grade I-listed church born again as an arts hub and events space.

The official opening was marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, and the venue held a ‘Spring Fayre’ event to welcome in visitors.

For many families in the city, the Easter fun will continue with most children off school for another week of holidays. But Met Office forecasters are predicting a return to cooler temperatures in the days ahead.