Leeds Lowdown: What’s on in August 2026

As ever, Leeds goes all out in August: Bramham Park hosts Leeds Festival, Chapeltown gears up for the West Indian Carnival, and Temple Newsam finds room for a food festival and four centuries of dancing, all within a few weeks of each other. 

Plus, brand new for 2026: the city turns into a giant board game, as Trivial Pursuit Leeds takes over the streets right through to 30 August, with six zones across the centre each built around a classic category: Entertainment, Geography, Sports and Leisure, Science and Nature, History, and Art and Literature. This month, our (packed!) listings fall into these categories, with plenty of summer family activities thrown in for good measure. Are you ready? Let’s roll…

Entertainment

The pursuit begins! Celebrate 400 years of Leeds by playing along with Trivial Pursuit Leeds. It’s free to take part, with junior and classic questions at each of the six zones so all ages can get involved – everyone’s an expert in something. Collect wedges as you go and see how well you really know the city. Each day, for a limited time only, look out for some familiar faces with the opportunity to answer a bonus question for your chance to win a £500 holiday voucher, courtesy of Hays Travel.

Leeds Festival returns to Bramham Park from Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 August, featuring an all-British and Irish lineup that opens with Kasabian on the Thursday night for the first time in the festival’s history, before Charli XCX, Dave, RAYE, Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C. and Chase & Status take turns headlining across the weekend. This year, The Warehouse, a new purpose-built stage dedicated to dance music, pairs state-of-the-art lighting with cutting-edge sound for a club-like, immersive experience, while LS23, an expanded late-night area, will return for post-main-stage partying.

Elsewhere, comedian Paul Smith brings his new arena show HAPPY to first direct bank arena on 12 August, promising the crowd work he’s become known for scaled up to arena size. On 27 August, The Stand Up Comedy Experience brings a more intimate night of laughs to Hyde Park Book Club. And on 30 August, An Evening with Sir David Jason comes to Leeds Grand Theatre, with the Only Fools and Horses legend joined by Mike Bushell for stories from a career that also gave us Danger Mouse and Del Boy.

On the theatre front, Cole Porter’s High Society opens at Leeds Grand Theatre on 25 August and runs through to the 29th, with Helen George leading a 28-strong cast through Porter’s songbook, including I Love Paris and Well, Did You Evah. Over at Carriageworks Theatre, catch a workshop performance of Ratcatcher on 14 August, a new musical that reimagines the Pied Piper story through the lens of misinformation and populism. For younger audiences, Wrongsemble’s Rapunzel unspools at Leeds Industrial Museum on 28 August, while Puppet Theatre: Dame Judy and Mr Punchinello brings good old-fashioned puppetry to Leeds City Museum on 10 and 11 August. Panto at the Abbey also returns to Kirkstall Abbey throughout the month (12, 20 and 25th), for anyone who fancies shouting “it’s behind you” on a summer evening.

Music lovers should head to Brudenell Social Club, which has a stacked month: New Zealand psych-poppers The Bats on 14 August, Denmark and Brazil’s wall-of-sound duo The Courettes on the 15th, Leeds-formed post-metal outfit HumanFly on the 21st, and Gary Stewart presents Graceland on the 22nd, a faithful run through Paul Simon’s classic album. On the same night as The Courettes, Hayao Miyazaki’s Dreams by Mystery Ensemble brings a live musical tribute to the Studio Ghibli catalogue to St George’s Centre.

For the kids, Rock School UK is once again opening its studios for five consecutive weeks (27 July to 28 August), giving young musicians aged 9–16 the chance to experience life in a real band. Over six action-packed days, participants work alongside professional musicians to form bands, learn popular songs, write and record original music in a professional studio, and perform a live showcase at Leeds music venue, The Wardrobe. If film’s more their thing, film fans can catch the Leeds Young Film Festival Screenings at Leeds Discovery Centre on 19 August

And for something to dip into on your lunch break, the Leeds Piano Trail is out and playable every first Saturday in August, with pianos scattered across Trinity, Victoria, Merrion, St John’s, Leeds Playhouse, the Parkinson Building, Kirkgate Market, The Light, Leeds City Museum and Leeds Bus Station. No booking required, just turn up and tinkle.

Geography

It’s time to party! The African and Caribbean Food Fest: Living Square, Rooted in Harmony sets up in Leeds City Square on 29 August, timed to coincide with Carnival weekend and bringing stalls, music and workshops celebrating culture from across the diaspora.

The following day, the Black Music Festival marks its 40th anniversary at Potternewton Park on 30 August. Formerly known as the Leeds Reggae Concert, it’s billed as Europe’s biggest free open-air reggae concert, with a line-up spanning reggae, dancehall, rap, grime and R&B in celebration of Black music’s contribution to the city and beyond. 

And then…Chapeltown and Harehills come alive for the annual Leeds West Indian Carnival on Monday 31 August, Europe’s oldest carnival of its kind, starting and finishing at Potternewton Park with two laps of costumed troupes, steel pans and a soundtrack that always carries for streets around. It’s one not to miss! 

But if you can’t wait that long, the Temple Newsam Food Festival: A Summertime Feast takes over the estate’s parkland on 15 and 16 August for its second year running, with 180-plus exhibitors, international street food, live cookery demos and, by the organisers’ own admission, a fair sprinkle of wackiness.

Petrolheads and families alike should make for Harewood, where VW Fest marks its 21st anniversary from 7 to 9 August with the biggest VW car show in the north of England, live music, a fairground and camping under the stars.

Closer to the centre, Music Around the World: Store Tour and Workshop takes place at Leeds Discovery Centre on 27 August, giving a behind-the-scenes look at instruments from across the globe held in the city’s collections. The University of Leeds’ Public Art Trail: Part III sets off from the Stanley & Audrey Burton Gallery on 20 August, taking in the full spread of public art across campus over three separate walking routes. And at Temple Newsam, Summer Stride on 12 August brings walkers together in the Stable Courtyard for a gentle, guided ramble through the centuries-old parkland.

Sports and Leisure

There’s no bigger fixture in the sporting calendar this month than the 1st Rothesay Test, when England host Pakistan at Headingley from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23 August. It marks Pakistan’s first Test tour of England in six years, and with Day 3 already close to selling out, this is one to book ahead for.

For something more participatory, the Leeds Running Festival takes over Roundhay Park on Sunday 30 August, with a 5K, 10K and Half Marathon all setting off around the lakes and woodland, raising funds for St Gemma’s Hospice along the way.

Boxing takes centre stage on 8 August, when Troy Williamson vs Callum Simpson II brings the rematch everyone’s been talking about to first direct bank arena. Williamson knocked out Simpson in December to claim the British, Commonwealth and European super-middleweight titles, and Simpson has triggered his rematch clause to try and win them back on home soil.

Over at Leeds Kirkgate Market, the free Summer of Fun programme runs right through August, packed with drop-in sessions including Den Building from 5 to 7 August, a whipped bath soap workshop from 19 to 21 August, and Chinese calligraphy later in the month. Most sessions run 11 am to 3 pm.

At Leeds Discovery Centre, Champion Crafting runs from 3 to 6 August with a Commonwealth Games theme, while over at Leeds City Museum, you can craft your own board game from 4 to 6 August.

Science and Nature

Leeds Discovery Centre goes fully wild for Amazing Animals Week between 10 and 13 August, timed neatly around World Lion Day, World Elephant Day and World Orangutan Day. Leeds City Museum picks up the theme with Animal Handling on 18 and 19 August, letting braver visitors get up close with minibeasts.

Over at Kirkstall Abbey, Urban Nature: Building in Lego runs every Wednesday morning throughout August, combining building blocks with a closer look at the abbey grounds’ natural surroundings. 

At the Thackray Museum of Medicine, the Make Your Mark workshop takes place on 4 August, and on 12 August, families can join the RHS to make a nature crown, turning foraged foliage into a wearable piece.

History

There’s an obvious reason Trivial Pursuit has taken over the city this summer: 2026 marks 400 years since Leeds was granted its Royal Charter by King Charles I, and the milestone is threaded through the year’s programming, including this month.

Yorkshire Day falls on 1 August, and Temple Newsam marks it with 400 Years of Historical Dancing, tracing four centuries of steps through the grounds of the estate. Later in the month, Trains, Trains, Trains! A Railway Extravaganza pulls into Leeds Industrial Museum on 15 August, celebrating the city’s railway heritage with hands-on activities for all ages. And if archives are more your thing, Sparky Saturdays: Perfect Prints at the M&S Archive on 8 August doubles as a dig through the retailer’s design history and a printmaking session.

Hyde Park Picture House is getting in on the act too, with a No Strings On Me: Cinema’s Living Puppet season running from 24 July to 30 August, celebrating the craft of practical puppetry and the handmade screen icons of pre-CGI cinema, including a Shadow Puppet Workshop running from 4 to 11 August.

Art & Literature

Leeds Libraries’ Read to the Beat programme runs across several venues this month, starting with a rap workshop, The Rap School, on 3 August, running from 10:30 am to 11:30 am at various hubs. Hello Hip Hop follows from 18 to 25 August, and Stories with Liv: Monkey Liver Soup rounds things off on 24 August. Over at Leeds Central Library, the Treasures Showcase on 5 August lets visitors get hands-on with highlights from the Special Collections, spanning Art, Literature, and Entertainment, so it earns its place here twice over.

Kirkstall Abbey has a full arts programme running throughout the month: Arty in the Abbey drop-in sessions run every Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 25 August, Crafty in the Cloister takes place on 5 August, and A Sketch Walk heads out around the grounds on 4 August.

At Leeds Art Gallery, Shadow Structures runs as a workshop from 4 to 18 August, Playful Art invites visitors to work alongside artist Yekta Jamei on an enormous collaborative collage from 5 to 26 August, and Kids Aloud Gallery Tours run from 5 to 20 August. The gallery closes out the month with Hannah Catherine Jones: UNEARTHING(S), a live performance on 29 August marking the closing weekend of her exhibition. 

What a month in Leeds! Whatever category you’re chasing points in this August, you won’t be short of new things to explore…