Huntingdon’s Commemoration Hall will reopen on July 5 with a new converted Arts Café.

The old foyer of the building, in Huntingdon High Street, has been converted downstairs into an Arts Cafe and Reading Room and a whopping 400 hours of volunteer service has been spent on the upgrade.

The Arts Cafe and Reading Room will be open seven days a week, from 9am till 5.30pm and will predominantly be run by volunteers.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Paul Sweeny said: “We’re so pleased to finally be able to unveil our very own Arts Cafe in Huntingdon.

"Our volunteers and supporters have dedicated a huge amount of their time to make this happen, and it’s been something to come from the Covid lockdowns that we can stand and be proud of."

“Our aim is to inspire creativity in the town, through the many facets of the arts including Visual, Performance, Literature, Decorative arts.

"We hope that the building will now be a sustainable venue for future generations of our community to be proud of."

Paul described some of the events that are coming up in the next few months, he said: “Keep your eyes peeled for our new programme of events for the next six months, that includes, Chuckl.

“Comedy nights, RevPro Wrestling and the return of The Pantaloons for two shows! There will also be Marvels of Mystery Magic Show and our very own Arts Alive creative festival starting on August 12.”

“We have got poetry nights, acoustic singing nights planned, we also have an arts festival for 12 weeks, where we have huge amounts of free workshops for kids and adults to come in and try the hand at the arts.

“An artist is going to come in and do art classes and sketches of our towns, which will be in our main hall while our café is open as well.”

“We have comic artists days, so we have comic book artists coming in to teach kids to draw comic books and let them have a go.

“Mangra artists, we also have some readers coming in, so we have authors coming in to do Q & A book signings and lots more.”

A launch night is also happening on Wednesday, July 21 for invitees only, arrivals will start from 7pm, where there will be a meet and greet with Trustees and Volunteers and a ‘sparkling reception and canapes.’