I Found 80 Reasons to Love Cosby: The Yarn Bomb Is Back
I’ve been counting down to this one for ages. There wasn’t a Cosby Yarn Bomb last year, so the last time it happened was back in 2024 – which made this year’s return feel even more special! It’s one of those events that just gets better every time it comes round, and this year’s theme, “Around the World in 80 Displays,” did not disappoint.
If you haven’t heard of it, the Cosby Yarn Bomb takes over the whole village for three weeks in summer (this year 8th-29th July), with textile art installations created by the local community, for the local community. Life-sized crochet giraffes. Chinese dragons. A whole habitat zone dedicated to David Attenborough. It’s genuinely one of the most creative things happening on our doorstep, and it’s completely free!
Alfie had already been with my mum on Monday, so by the time I got there yesterday, he was the one leading me round, pointing out which corners to turn down and which shopfronts had the best surprises. Handy, when you’re trying to track down 80 displays!
We got there early, hoping to beat the crowds and the heat. No chance. It was a properly gorgeous sunny day, and we were still wandering the village gone 12pm, camera and phone out the entire time trying to capture it all, there’s just so much to see.
Why it’s worth the trip
- It’s free. Genuinely, properly free. No tickets, no time limit.
- Free parking too, at Broughton Field opposite Cosby Golf Club.
- It’s outdoors, so pushchair and wheelchair friendly, and easy to dip in and out of.
- It’s not-for-profit. The whole thing is run by Gather Create Grow CIC, a local community group focused on connection and wellbeing, and it’s an absolute triumph of what a community can build together.
- It’s in a beautiful Leicestershire village, which makes the wandering-around part just as lovely as the finding-things part!
If you want to be sure you catch every single one of the 80 displays, maps are available from most village shops for a £2 donation (cash only) – well worth it if you’re the completionist type, or if you’ve got a small human insisting you find them all. There are also monkeys hiding among the displays, and if you can tot up the correct total, you’re in with a chance of winning one, a brilliant little way to keep the kids engaged the whole way round.
The verdict
This is exactly the kind of thing that, on a lovely summer’s day, I genuinely don’t think there’s much better you could be doing with your family. It costs nothing, it’s outdoors, it’s creative, and it fills you right up with that proper feel-good, community-spirit glow.
Huge congratulations to everyone at Gather Create Grow CIC, it really is stunning work.
Don’t miss out, go and visit it before it’s all taken down!
