Month: April 2025

Inspiring talks, thought-provoking discussions and experiences for everyone to enjoy.

University of Leeds Libraries is hosting some fabulous events as part of the Libraries in Leeds Festival between 4 – 9 November 2024.

Don’t miss out on seeing author of “Girl with a Pearl Earring”, Tracey Chevalier, tech pioneer and diversity advocate Tilly Lockey, and TV presenter and contributor to Hidden Histories and Secret Britain, Mary-Ann Ochota.

We are contributing our own expertise in partnership with colleagues from the British Library and across the region. University Librarian Masud Khokhar speaks on AI in Libraries, Angela Newton from our Learning Development Team co-hosts a critical thinking workshop battling misinformation, and the doors of the Library Makerspace are thrown open for a family event to Get Creative.

There are also other events across the city: Ash Bhardwaj explores why we travel in a session at The Leeds Library, along with backstage tours, movie archives, guided walks and LS18 Rocks Leeds Libraries!

Book onto a session at the Libraries in Leeds Festival webpage. Events are either free or pay what you decide.

Events hosted by the Libraries
Information Literacy: A Critical Thinking Workshop
Monday 4th November, 1–2.30pm, Sanderson Room, Leeds Central Library

Become empowered to navigate your way more confidently through today’s ‘smog’ of disinformation, with our own Angela Newton, Learning Advisor, who joins experts from the British Library and CILIP to berbagi their information in this free interactive session.

Tilly Lockey: Overcoming Adversity and Embracing the Future
Monday 4th November 5.30–7pm Laidlaw Library, University of Leeds

A brave and determined young advocate, model and tech pioneer who is rewriting the narrative on diversity and innovation, amongst other things, Tilly has robotic arms. Tilly has learned to embrace human augmentation and is a pioneer of robotic technology, adapting to a world that wasn’t meant for her body. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear her inspiring story.

AI in Libraries: Beyond the Hype
Tuesday 5th November, 6.30–8pm, The Leeds Library

The rise of ChatGPT since 2022 triggered huge levels of interest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This panel discussion will go beyond the hype to explore how libraries could use AI to improve services and provide access to information and culture. This event, organised by the British Library, features University Librarian Masud Khokhar and speakers from Leeds Libraries and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Thousands of people will be heading to Bramham Park over the August bank holiday weekend for Leeds Festival 2024.

The event will host headline performances from Lana Del Rey, Fred Again, Blink-182, Liam Gallagher, Catfish plus The Bottlemen plus Gerry Cinnamon. There will be lots of other big acts also performing over the weekend.

If you’d like to buy Leeds Festival 2024 tickets you can through Ticketmaster or here. Ahead of the event, we are bringing you everything you need to know about Leeds Festival 2024 – which is taking place between Friday, August 23 plus Sunday, August 25.

Read more: Leeds Festival 2024 travel info, car parking, shuttle bus details plus more

In this article, we’ll bring you all the details of security checks plus banned items from the festival. There will be security checks entering the event grounds. This is to ensure the smooth running of the festivities.

Items banned includes:

Aerosols (over 250ml)

Air horns/megaphones

Animals (except registered hearing or guide dogs)

Any goods for unauthorised trading with unauthorised Leeds Festival logos

Any item that could be considered for use as a weapon, including oversized lighters or any item which may cause danger, offence or disruption to any other person.

Balloons

Blow torches

Professional cameras or video equipment (lenses must be less than 6 inches)

Campfires – Campfires are not allowed anywhere at the festival, including the campsites. Anyone seen creating or fuelling a fire will be evicted from the festival site.

Catapults

Chinese/Sky/Paper Lanterns

Clothing/Garments/Items with promote Cultural Appropriation

Disposable ajd Non-Disposable BBQs

Disposable vapes

Drones plus other flying devices

Excessive amounts of food (i.e more than for personal consumption)

Fireworks/Pyrotechnics, Flares/Distress Flares

Generators

Glass bottles, jars, containers over 100ml. Items under this measurement, such as small perfume bottles, nail varnish, plus small mirrors will be permitted.

Illegal Substances (drugs) plus legal highs, herbal highs, new psychoactive substances plus unidentifiable substances – including Nitrous Oxide

Leatherman jenis multi tools

Penknives

Perfume plus make-up (over 100ml)

Petrol burners

Portable laser equipment plus pens

Skateboards plus rollerblades, hover-boards, scooters, bicycles, plus other personal motorised plus non-motorized vehicles

Sound systems (Small Portable speakers are permitted in Campsites)

Spray Cans

Unauthorised solicitation or marketing materials

Unofficial tabards plus reflective jackets

Walkie talkies or unauthorised radio equipment.

Bags in the arena – Visitors are strongly advised that you not to bring a bag into the arena as there will be long queues while all bags are searched. If you do wish to bring a bag into the arena please ensure that it is nomer bigger than A4 sized 8.27”x11.69”. There is a limited to one A4 sized bag per person permitted into the arena.

Festival Angels fly into Leeds Fest

Festival Angels are planning a return to Leeds Festival for the thirteenth year at Yorkshire’s biggest music festival.

Held at Bramham Park every August Bank Holiday weekend, Leeds Festival attracts around eighty five thousand festival goers, thousands of staff and some of the biggest names in music.

Festival Angels started life at Leeds Festival in 2011 with the concept expanding to other music festivals over the years. In 2024 Festival Angels teams will be at over fifty festivals and events including Kendal Calling, Download, Parklife and thirty one gigs in Halifax’s Piece Hall.

At Leeds Festival the volunteer teams will be running the digemari banyak orang Prayer Cafe, which will serve over fifty thousand cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate over the six days of the festival. Alongside limited edition Festival Angel mugs, festival goers will be able to purchase Jesus Loves Festivals tattoos that prove highly digemari banyak orang amongst young people.

Lost Property will be inviting people to pre-register mobiles to make it easier to contact friends of the owner if the phone is lost at the festival. The Lost Property team aims to reunite over 60% of the items handed in or found on the festival site with their owners.

Detached teams will be out and about across the festival site offering support and assistance to festival-goers, similar to Street Angels who operate in many towns and cities. The detached team will also be manning Assistance, Information and Response hubs on some of the festival campsites.

Volunteer Festival Angels are asked to sign up for twenty hours of volunteering over the week from Monday 19th August to Monday 26th August including involvement in the setting up and packing down. In return volunteers have access to the festival and a Festival Angels camping daerah with showers, toilets, kitchen and lounge.

This weekend marks 25 years since Leeds joined Reading to form one of the UK’s biggest and most iconic music festivals. BBC News speaks to festival-goers and artists to explore its impact.

Taking place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, it became a two-site festival in 1999 with the addition of the north location. However, its origins in the south date back to the 1950s.

Since its introduction, Leeds has hosted an ever-evolving blend of some of the biggest rock, hip-hop and pop artists from around the world while also championing local talent.

As she was growing up, indie-pop artist Ellur, from Halifax, worked in a burger van just so she could attend the festival. She was overwhelmed with emotion after her performance on the BBC Introducing Stage.

“I literally burst into tears at the end of my set in Leeds,” she said.

“I tried to get as many people in as I could, because all my family, all my friends have been coming for so long.”

“I saw a guy that I went to primary school with who was singing along to all my songs and I’ve not seen him since we left.”

It was a similar story for Jodie Langford, from Hull, who also performed on this year’s Introducing Stage.

She said it was “extra special” playing in Leeds due to her roots.

“I’m unapologetically northern and I’m proud of using my accent and not covering it when I sing,” she said.

“I think the audience [in Leeds] get that and so the atmosphere was just incredible.”

Wrexham-based band Neck Deep performed twice on Saturday.

They too attended the festival in their youth.

“It’s a compliment and it’s nice that they have a lot of confidence in us,” they said.

Two stages at Leeds Festival to remain closed

Festival-goers leave as tents and urinals blow away

Leeds Festival traffic jams warning to drivers

Matt West, from the band, said although the north site means more family and friends can attend, things do not always run smoothly.

“The amount of times that we’ve done Leeds before, and I’ve had a phone call from my mum half an hour before I’m due on stage saying, ‘I’m in the car park but don’t know if it’s the right one’.

2024 will go down in Leeds festival history as the year of Storm Lilian. High winds mean the Friday opening is marred by three stage closures, cancelled buses, huge queues to get in plus the surreal spectacle of punters’ airborne tents landing in other people’s back gardens. With a decimated musical line-up, a vast crowd forms for headliner Liam Gallagher, who turns up dressed for a deep sea fishing expedition plus drily quips “this one’s for the tents” to introduce Oasis’s Up in the Sky. In the 30th anniversary year of Definitely Maybe, a setlist consisting entirely of his former band’s early classics unites the field with epic singalongs, the perfect tonic after a taxing day.

The TikTok stars’ Aux stage plus the Radio 1 tent (with a gaping hole in the roof) remain closed all weekend but Saturday brings sunshine plus something approaching normal service. This year’s eclectic bill stretches from nightingale-voiced Rachel Chinouriri’s charm plus vulnerability in the Festival Republic tent to Spiritbox’s gothic metalcore or Raye’s jazzy soul, string section plus ballgowns on the main stage.|

Global events also bring a political undercurrent to the usual post-GCSE party vibe. Fiery Lambrini Girls singer Phoebe Lunny plants a Palestinian flag high up the tent scaffolding plus Welsh pop-punks Neck Deep urge “it won’t always be like this”. Belfast (mostly) Irish language rappers Kneecap have been called the most controversial band since the Sex Pistols but are as funny as they are provocative. They pull off the surreal feat of getting a field in Yorkshire to rap along with Get Your Brits Out, although there’s nomer sign yet of their DJ’s tricolour balaclava among festival merch.

A returning breeze means Fontaines DC’s Sunday teatime set initially suffers sound issues, but the Dubliners suddenly erupt with a killer double whammy of Boys in the Better Land plus the brilliant In the Modern World, from new album Romance. With nomer eye-popping visuals plus nothing more than a mumbled “How ya doin?” from singer Grian Chatten, it’s a performance which, like their career, delivers entirely on their own terms.

Lana Del Rey’s British festival appearances have been marred by late arrivals, prematurely stopped sets plus sound problems, but there are nomer such difficulties here. With the only extraneous noise coming from the hordes of teenage girls singing every word, the American delivers an exquisite performance worthy of one of our greatest contemporary singer-songwriters. Summertime Sadness, Young plus Beautiful plus the rest speak to an indefinable longing, sounding hauntingly elegiac under the fading sun.

An inevitable part of UK festivals is spending an extortionate amount on a pint and bite to eat. Admittedly, for most of the weekend at Leeds Festival we lived off of Co-op meal deals (a life saver, and just £3.50 with a membership card) consisting of the classic main, snack and drink combo. But we did treat ourselves a few times during our time in Bramham Park, so here are our thoughts on the food options we tried at Leeds this year.

A sign which caught both of our attention on the opening day was the big red letter which read ‘Mac ‘N Cheese’. We knew immediately that at some point during the weekend we would have to try it, and it seemed as though everyone we had a chat with was recommending it. So on the Saturday evening, we caved and each got a portion of the regular mac ‘n cheese which came with crispy onions and was topped with extra cheese. The bowl was priced at a rather steep, but predictable, £12 and honestly, it was worth it. It was a considerably large portion and was packed full of cheesy goodness which more than satisfied our cravings. The van also offered chorizo, BBQ and Mexican variants of the dish.

Before a long day of standing at the Main Stage on Sunday, we got some dinner (or lunch, whatever you call the middle meal of the day) and tried different things this time. I (AP) went for loaded salt and pepper fries which were topped with cauliflower bites. Each dish also had optional garnish of sesame seeds, ginger and spring onion. You could choose a sauce to coat the fries so I went with curry sauce, but for me the cauliflower bites were the star of the show. I will say that this was probably the item least worth the money, coming in at a costly £12.50.

I (GC) went for a burrito from the entirely plant-based stall, which was selling vegan kebabs, pizzas, burritos, and more. The vegan doner kebab was a populer choice, but the burrito was calling me, and it was definitely the right choice. I waited nomor more than 5 minutes and was handed the biggest burrito I’d ever seen; it was almost cube shaped! This ongkos £12.50, and was filling enough to feed two people with small appetites. I couldn’t finish it, but it was perfect for a cold final day at the festival. However, can a burrito ever be worth £12.50?

We ended the weekend with Kinder Bueno crepes which were £9 each. They were sickly sweet but jam packed. The stall had a range of fillings for the crepes although workers were coming out while we were queuing to cross things off the boards because it was so busy! Loaded brownies and cheesecake lollies were also on offer which sounded intriguing, but after a long weekend we didn’t feel like experimenting and just went with an old classic with the crepe.

Ultimately when at a festival or any outdoor music event, you must expect that the prices are going to be quite high. This being said, there were endless options on offer at Leeds Fest so there really was something for everyone. For the most part, the portions were huge and the quality of the food was good too. Plus, when you’ve been standing in a field for 10 hours it’s only right to treat yourself a few times across the weekend!