Welcome to Leeds October 2022

4 Oct | Laureate to Laureate at Howard Assembly Rooms

Howard Assembly Room, 46 New Briggate, LS1 6NU

Join two acclaimed Poets Laureate, Jamaica’s Olive Senior and the UK’s Simon Armitage, for an extraordinary evening of literary excellence and conversation marking the launch of Out of Many Festival.

Olive Senior’s first collection of fiction, Summer Lightning and Other Stories, received widespread praise, winning the Commonwealth Writers Prize. The Caribbean remains central to her work and she is the prize-winning author of 17 books of fiction, poetry and non-fiction.

Simon Armitage is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards and has published over a dozen poetry collections, two novels and three non-fiction bestsellers.

Staged in collaboration with the British Library and the National Library of Jamaica, in partnership with the Howard Assembly Room and with the support of Leeds City Council.

Limited availability. Tickets here. 

7 Oct - Jan | ROOT-ed Zine at The Tetley

Hunslet Road, LS10 1JQ | 7 October 2022 – 22 January 2023

ROOT-ed Zine: Retrospect, Reality, Reform. ROOT-ed Zine’s co-founders and collaborators, Amber Akaunu (she/her) and Fauziya Johnson (she/her), are artist-curators who established the magazine and social platform in 2017, with a commitment to supporting Black, Asian and People of Colour creatives that are from, or based in north west England.

The exhibition includes work by Yasmin Ali (she/her), Liverpool-based filmmaker and photographer; Simone Yasmin (she/her), Leeds-based writer, spoken word artist and vocal soul; Hanna Gwynn (she/her), comic artist and illustrator based in Liverpool; and Linnet Panashe Rubaya (she/her), Leeds-based figurative artist.

Through their practice of platforming, collaborating and archiving, ROOT-ed Zine hope to preserve their community knowledge in order to disrupt institutional cycles and make long-standing and authentic change.

The exhibition also includes a free limited edition zine, amplifying the practices of more Northern artists and providing insight into the thoughts, ideas and research behind the artworks and curation of the show. This will sit within a reading room alongside an archive of ROOT-ed Zines, dating back to 2018.

Free entry.

7-8 Oct | In the Night Garden at Leeds Playhouse

Playhouse Square, Quarry Hill, LS2 7UP

Join Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, Makka Pakka and friends at In the Night Garden Live in their hit new show Igglepiggle’s Busy Day – where Igglepiggle looks for his friends and follows their funny sounds until he finds them all.

You’ll see all your favourite characters beautifully brought to life with full-size costumes, magical puppets, and enchanting music. And be amazed as the world’s only real-life flying Pinky Ponk takes off and flies above you!

There are other shows for young children, but as The Independent wrote, “there’s nothing quite like In the Night Garden Live.”

Pip-pip, onk-onk!

7 Oct| Linton Kwesi Johnso at Howard Assembly Rooms

Howard Assembly Room, 46 New Briggate, LS1 6NU

Join the internationally lauded, multi-award winning dub poetry pioneer and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson in conversation with acclaimed author and broadcaster, Gary Younge.

‘LKJ’ — only the second living poet to have their work (Mi Revalueshanary Fren) included in Penguin’s Modern Classics – will read from his poetry that has captured the mood and feelings of Black Britain at critical, all too often devastating moments and championed the fight against injustice and racial inequality.

In conversation with Younge – Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester – the Out of Many Festival is proud to bring this true icon to Leeds in a milestone year that marks his 70th birthday and 50 years of activism.

8 Oct | Leeds Bread Co-op Sourdough Baking Class

Unit 11 Penraevon Trading Estate, Meanwood, LS7 2AW

Want to learn how to make your very own sourdough? Then Leeds Bread Co-op has just the thing for you! Spend a day at the bakery learning how to make sourdough bread and pizzas in their Sourdough Baking Class.

In this class you will be making a classic white sourdough and seeded sourdough, as well as sourdough pizza for lunch! Designed to show how the techniques and processes used in a professional bakery can be applied at home, you will get hands-on experience mixing, shaping, scoring and baking.

As well as getting to take home all the bread you bake during the day, you will also get to take home your very own starter and, hopefully, the knowledge and experience to be able to begin making your own sourdough at home.

Led by two members of their lovely baking team, this class is suitable for all abilities – from complete beginners to those with plenty of home baking experience! Lunch and refreshments are provided. 

Tiered pricing options are available. For more info and tickets see here. 

8 Oct | Aitch at O2 Academy

55 Cookridge St, LS2 3AW

Platinum-selling, BRIT-nominated Manchester rapper Aitch takes his debut album Close To Home on the road. It’s a record that captures a young artist on the verge of global superstardom, spreading his wings and displaying his ever-growing song-writing skills.

Aitch has soared from underground rapper to chart-dominating, platinum-selling, household name in just three years. Standing at the vanguard of a fresh wave of talent from Manchester, Aitch weaves wit, humour, and confidence through his high-octane releases.

13-14 Oct | Leeds Light Night: Playful City

Various locations

Light Night Leeds is the UK’s largest annual arts and light festival. Over two incredible nights some of Leeds’ most recognisable indoor and outdoor spaces will be transformed by spectacular artworks and captivating performances. From large-scale light projections and interactive installations, to music, dance and street performances.

More than 50 installations and pieces of artwork are planned for the event, taking place on 13 and 14 October by local, national and international artists. Light Night invites people to see the city in a new light and discover free arts events across the city centre. 

Visitors to the festival will be encouraged to play and interact with installations which are spread across ten different zones of the city . For the full programme see here. In particular, we are looking forward to checking out End Over End and House of Cards. 

End Over End at Quarry Hill is a sculpture of a large scale slinky. In this giant form it is both nostalgic and surrealistic, playfully transforming buildings and rooftops into a virtual playground. Each coil of the enormous spring is illuminated in turn to create the familiar flowing form of a slinky tumbling end-over-end into the shadows. The oversized scale makes the viewer feels ‘smaller’ – proportions between you and the toy are reversed as if we have somehow shrunk and ended up in Alice’s Wonderland.

House of Cards is a light art installation that is slick and joyful in the daytime and turns into a beautiful light show at night. It consists of 128 light boxes in the form of playing cards, which illuminate according to a preconfigured choreography. The ingenious structure has several levels; it looks like a modern church from one side and like a classical structure of building blocks from the other. House of Cards at Victoria Zone has been created by Israeli artists OGE Group, who last presented the Angels of Freedom at Light Night Leeds in 2019.

Gaston Zahr, one of the artists involved in both pieces, said: “We always want to convey a message. While the Angels of Freedom meant to reveal the inner beauty of everyone, the House of Cards works on many different levels. On the one hand it is a group exhibition of over 40 international artists who helped us to design the deck. On the other hand, it is a metaphor for our society: our society can only work and stand upright, if everyone supports it and no one is forgotten. Everyone counts and we all need to work together and support each other – like cards in a House of Cards.”

Elsewhere The Queen’s Hotel will take the people of Leeds on a futuristic, digital rollercoaster ride while the historic frontage of Leeds Civic Hall will be the backdrop to a retro, interactive game paying tribute to the 1980s.

Councillor Jonathan Pryor, of Leeds City Council, said: “Year after year, Light Night sets the standard for culture in Leeds and we can’t wait to see the city animated and brought to life by these stunning installations.”

This is a free event. For programme details see here.

15 Oct | Live at Leeds in The City

Various venues 

The north’s leading festival for emerging talent. Live at Leeds is a one day music festival showcasing the best new talent from the UK and beyond!

Held in various venues across Leeds City Centre, you can go from venue to venue to see your favourite artists or discover new music you love. This year it will run across 17 stages and 14 venues throughout Leeds city centre.  Tickets purchased will be exchanged for a wristband that allows access to all venues, 

Headlining will be Pale Waves with others performing including Thomas Headon, Dinosaur Pile-Up, Palace, Working Men’s Club, Baby Queen, Sea Power, Will Joseph Cook, Prima Queen, Sprints, Highschool,Opus Kink, Chappaqua Wrestling, Claudia Valentina, Laundromat, Anorak Patch and Cate. More than 200 names in total. 

Festival promoter Joe Hubbard said: “It’s been formative for so many artists’ careers and we’re excited to criss cross Leeds City Centre this October to discover more of our favourite new artists who are set to take over in 2023 and beyond. Headliners Pale Waves are a great example of this, having stormed the Brudenell Social Club back in 2018 for an unforgettable set – so having them return to headline the festival as a whole is sure to be a real moment. With many more to be announced, it’s going to be an incredible day and we can’t wait to see everyone this October.”

For tickets and full line up see here.

25 Oct | Billy Idol at First Direct

First Direct Arena, Arena Way, LS2 8BY

The world’s favourite rebel Billy Idol has rescheduled The Roadside Tour 2022 with new dates now set for October 2022. Billy will come to the UK with new music and a stack of timeless classics. For his first appearances in the UK since 2018, Billy will play 6 Arena shows. Supporting Billy Idol are very special guests Television including original frontman Tom Verlaine.

The global lockdown of 2020 gave Billy time to reflect and thoughts turned to his near-fatal motorcycle accident of 1990, how he dealt with it and how it related to the current crisis. He says, “Certainly, the motorcycle accident was the catharsis, the wake-up moment. A little bit of me got left by the side of that road. Maybe I left behind the irreverent, youthful Billy and opened the door for a more attentive father and more sensitive musician. Something did get left by the roadside, but it was not necessarily a bad thing in the end.”

Billy’s reflections are captured in the lyrics of Bitter Taste, one of four tracks on his 2021 EP The Roadside, which was his first new music for seven years and as hard-hitting and relevant as ever.

Billy’s touring band features his long-time guitarist and collaborator Steve Stevens along with Stephen McGrath (bass, backing vocals), Billy Morrison (guitar, backing vocals), Paul Trudeau (keyboards, backing vocals) and drummer Erik Eldenius.

29 Oct | My Worst Nightmare at Dark Arches

Dark Arches, Dark Neville Street, LS1 4EN

Brought to you as part of Leeds Spook Fest, My Worst Nightmare is an immersive horror experience. What’s in there? You’ll have to walk it and find out. 

The gothic and atmospheric arches beneath the station with the river Aire running through the site are the perfect eerie backdrop to your Halloween weekend. In addition to the walkthrough experience there will be a range of stalls and exhibitors, live music and food traders.

Grab your tickets for the ultimate horror walkthrough experience now. Ticket price £10.