THE new game of Bunny Bingo is hitting the streets during this week's illuminating York festival.

Families will be pounding the pavements to meet the challenge of finding some of the 50 decorated bunny lamps on display in shop windows throughout the city through the four-day festival that began last night.

The game is the idea of York’s bunnymaster general, Angus MacArthur, of Gillygate design and homeware shop, Snowhome. Visitors to illuminating York can collect bingo cards from Visit York’s Information Centre on Museum Street, and then, as they wander around the city exploring this year’s illuminated artworks, tick off numbers on their bingo card which correspond to the 50 ceramic bunny lamps.

“You only have to look at the success of Pokémon Go to see how these competitive trails can get kids off the settee and exploring the city, but we’ve devised this trail so that you don’t even need a smartphone," says Angus. "Just collect your bingo card and mark off the numbers on your card as you go.”

There are nine different colour-coded bingo cards, enabling groups of up to nine to play at once, although with many people returning to enjoy different fringe events throughout the festival, families can enjoy competing against each other for two or three nights without duplication.

“We are simplifying things by offering a map showing all of the streets where visitors can find the bunny lamps, but they are all randomly numbered so that there’s no advantage to any of the players by starting their tour of York from one particular spot,” adds Angus.

The bunny trail, which first took place in 2015 with 30 bunny lamps, showcases the artistic talents of many of York’s resident artists and designers. This year, students from Fulford School and Archbishop Holgate School have submitted designs too, with the best from each school featuring in the expanded trail.

Bunny Bingo will run each day of illuminating York, from 6pm to 10pm, until Saturday. Once illuminating York has concluded, many of the bunnies in the trail will be auctioned off to raise funds for York charities. Anyone wishing to bid for a bunny will be able to do so on eBay. For more details, visit illuminatingyork.org.uk