Situation Leeds returns: city-wide art festival reawakens after nearly two decades

One of the most ambitious artist-led festivals Leeds has ever produced is coming back. Situation Leeds, the grassroots city-wide arts platform last staged in 2005, returns in May 2026 with a core programme running 11–24 May and further activity spilling through May and June.

This is more than a revival. The original festival was a landmark moment for the city, bringing together over 100 artists across 60 events and activating more than 30 venues. Twenty-one years on, Situation Leeds 2026 picks up that thread with more than 40 artists working in and around Leeds, presenting new work, temporary interventions and events shaped from the ground up.

Crucially, it remains DIY in spirit. Rather than a top-down programme, the festival is being built collaboratively by a growing network of artists, organisations and spaces, with process valued as much as polish. Work will appear across galleries, artist-led studios and everyday locations, the idea being that art doesn’t have to wait behind a gallery door to find an audience.

“The reincarnation of Situation Leeds as an artist-led endeavour will enrich not just the city, but the wider field of art in the public realm,” says Emma Bolland, an artist who took part in the original 2005 festival. “Situation Leeds embraces spontaneity, playfulness, and interrogation, and it is brilliant to see its reinvention.”

Photo North at Kirkgate Market

The clearest example of that public-facing ambition is Photo North’s free pop-up exhibition at Leeds Kirkgate Market, opening 11 May. Placing contemporary photography within the everyday rhythm of one of the city’s busiest and best-loved spaces, the show brings work by Soulla Petrou, David J Shaw, Joanne Coates, Mike Abrahams, Peter Dench, Anne Worthington and Tom Shaw, alongside Leeds International African Arts Festival artists Tobi Dosumu, John Moussa Kalapo and Oluwakemi Oluwunmi. Finalists from the Alumno Photo North Student Photography Competition (Tracy McIlhatton, Riley Lawless and Georgia-Millie Crocker) feature too.

“This project is about meeting audiences where they are,” says Sharon Price, founder of Photo North. “Bringing photography into the everyday life of the city and opening up space for conversation, curiosity and connection.”

Elsewhere, Hyde Park Picture House is opening its doors to artists working with still and moving image, sound, and experimental forms. “Rooting parts of our programme in collaborations which invite play and new thinking is essential in keeping us rooted in the needs of our community today,” says Wendy Cook, Head of Cinema for Leeds Heritage Theatres.

That sense of openness runs through everything. From exhibitions and performances to workshops, screenings and informal gatherings, Situation Leeds 2026 is being shaped as something to walk into rather than walk past — a festival built on the city’s long-running culture of self-organisation, mutual support, and a stubborn belief that art belongs everywhere.

Situation Leeds 2026 runs 11–24 May, with further activity continuing into June. Find the full listings and follow updates at situationleeds.org and @situation_leeds.