Peterborough is set to roar into life this spring and summer as Dinosaur City launches as a new city-wide tourism campaign celebrating the city’s extraordinary prehistoric story.
Led by the Peterborough Tourist Board through Discover Peterborough, and kindly and proudly supported by Peterborough City Council, the campaign has been created to help local residents explore the remarkable stories of their own city, while also welcoming visitors to discover Peterborough in a new way.
Dinosaur City is a celebration of deep time, discovery and imagination, bringing together national partners, local attractions, cultural venues and public spaces to create a joined-up visitor experience across Peterborough.
From Peterborough Cathedral to Cathedral Square, from Queensgate to Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery, and from Nene Park to live stage performances, the campaign connects venues and organisations through one shared story: Peterborough as a place of extraordinary prehistoric significance.
At the heart of the programme is the Natural History Museum’s Titanosaur exhibition at Peterborough Cathedral. Featuring a spectacular cast of a giant titanosaurus, stretching more than 30 metres in length, the exhibition presents one of the largest animals ever to walk the Earth. Set within the Cathedral’s historic surroundings, it creates a striking encounter between natural history and heritage, offering visitors a rare chance to experience prehistoric scale up close.
Across the city centre, connected prehistoric experiences will invite residents and visitors to explore Peterborough in a new way, from fossil floor graphics in Queensgate to hands-on activity in Cathedral Square and family events across the city.
The programme will unfold across spring and into the summer, with activity taking place across the city. Dinosaurs Live will come to The Cresset in May, followed by performances at the New Theatre in June, bringing prehistoric adventure to the stage for families and young audiences.
Fossils Galore will bring its fully accessible pop-up museum to the Peterborough Celebrates Festival in Nene Park on 16 and 17 May, before moving into Cathedral Square for May half term from 23 to 31 May. The pop-up will feature live fossil preparation, real specimen handling, hands-on science and the chance to meet palaeontology specialists, offering visitors a rare behind-the-scenes look at fossil discovery in the heart of the city.
In Queensgate, a fossil trail will use floor graphics to invite visitors to follow prehistoric discoveries through the shopping centre, connecting everyday city centre journeys with the wider Dinosaur City campaign.
Peterborough Museum & Art Gallery will also play a key role, with its permanent Jurassic marine reptile collections revealing the ancient seas that once covered the region. Families will also be able to take part in the Big Jurassic Fish Hunt from 26 to 28 May, exploring the story of Leedsichthys, the giant prehistoric fish discovered locally.
By creating experiences that local families, schools and communities can enjoy and share, Dinosaur City aims to build pride in Peterborough’s story while supporting the city’s visitor economy.
Together, these experiences reveal Peterborough’s remarkable prehistoric heritage. The surrounding landscapes have yielded fossils of global importance, while the city’s museum collections are rooted in the pioneering work of Alfred Nicholson Leeds of Eye, whose discoveries of Jurassic marine reptiles helped shape modern palaeontology.
As the first coordinated campaign led by the Peterborough Tourist Board, it demonstrates how a partnership-led approach can create something far greater than the sum of its parts, aligning cultural organisations, education providers, tourism partners and public spaces around a shared narrative. This model will now be developed through the wider Prehistoric Peterborough programme, building year-on-year activity.
The campaign has already earned international recognition, with the Discover Peterborough team invited to showcase Dinosaur City at the Digital Tourism Think Tank’s flagship AI event in Brussels from 2 to 4 June, placing Peterborough on an international stage for tourism innovation and AI-powered destination storytelling.
Dinosaur City will also inspire a new children’s book by Peterborough author Tom Dexter, published by Candy Jar Books, extending the campaign into children’s fiction and bringing the city’s prehistoric story to young readers beyond the event programme. The book will follow The Lucy Wilson Mysteries: A Fright at the Museum, Tom Dexter’s Peterborough Museum-set adventure, which is currently on sale at the Museum.
Visitors can explore the full programme and plan their visit online via the Discover Peterborough website.
Adrian Chapman, Executive Director for Place and Economy at Peterborough City Council, said: "Dinosaur City is an exciting programme of events across Peterborough which is already gaining recognition further afield, thanks to the efforts of The Tourist board and its partners and supporters – we are proud to be part of it."
"These will be immersive, innovative experiences which reflect the fascinating and rich history of the prehistoric era in this region, and the campaign has already had a great start with the spectacular arrival of the Titanosaur at Peterborough Cathedral."
Paul Stainton, Head of Communications at Peterborough Cathedral, said: “The Natural History Museum’s Titanosaur exhibition has already welcomed more than 8,000 visitors to Peterborough Cathedral, showing what is possible when the city comes together around a shared story. Dinosaur City gives us a clear and unified way to showcase Peterborough, bringing cultural venues, heritage sites and attractions together under one banner and inviting more people to discover the city.”
Andrew Pakes MP said: “Dinosaur City captures so much of what makes Peterborough special: ambition, imagination and a deep pride in our story. This is a campaign that brings together our Cathedral, Museum, cultural venues, public spaces and local expertise in a way that feels genuinely exciting for the whole city.
“It shows that Peterborough has the confidence to think big, work together and create experiences that attract visitors while giving local families something memorable to enjoy close to home.”
Rebecca Jackson, Co-Director of Discover Peterborough, said: “Dinosaur City is exactly the kind of ambitious, joined-up campaign that Discover Peterborough was created to support. It brings together national partners, local attractions, public spaces and community activity around a story that is genuinely rooted in Peterborough.
“For us, this is about much more than dinosaurs. It is about civic pride, partnership and creating something that local families can enjoy, share and feel proud of, while also showing visitors that Peterborough has extraordinary stories to discover.”
Jamie Jordan, Fossils Galore, said: “Dinosaur City is a fantastic opportunity to bring real palaeontology into the heart of Peterborough. Our fully accessible pop-up museum will give people the chance to see live fossil preparation up close, handle real specimens and discover the science behind the finds.
“We want children and families to feel that fossils are not just something behind glass in a museum. They are real pieces of Earth’s history, and Peterborough has an incredible prehistoric story waiting to be explored.”