Music and football have a long and enduring connection, whether it’s fans taking inspiration from chart-topping singles to create terrace chants or indie bands creating world cup anthems and sponsoring non-league clubs.

part of Otley Baroque May Festival (3rd to 5th May)

Join us for an illuminating hour-long lecture with musicologist Dr. Bryan White (University of Leeds), as he delves into lives and legacies of female musicians in the Baroque era.

Discover the extraordinary stories and compositions of Barbara Strozzi and Isabella Leonarda, two trailblazers who defied societal norms to pursue their art.

This insightful talk serves as the perfect prelude to our main concert on Sunday, celebrating these exceptional women and their contributions to the world of Baroque music.

This July, Lisa Jewell is back with her latest addictive read ‘Don’t Let Him In’. We are absolutely thrilled to be hosting an Evening with Lisa, the number one New York and Sunday Times Author who has sold over ten million books worldwide.

Don’t miss this opportunity to meet and find out more about an international, bestselling Author’s new, page-turner and gain an insight into Lisa’s astonishing writing and publishing journey.

The New Book

During this hour long talk, the intriguing history of luxury textiles and fashion will be revealed through the geography of the winding streets and wide boulevards of Paris.

Travelling from Opéra to Le Sentier, we'll meet kings, politicians, spies cloth merchants, milliners, glove-makers, feather-workers, embroiderers and the fiercely independent Midinettes.

About Rebecca Devaney

Experience an evening with the artists featured in our latest exhibition, Loops.

During this 2 hour Meet & Make session, Netherlands-based artists Gea van Eck, Monika Loster, Hanneke van Broekhoven and Yorkshire-based artists Andi Walker, Hannah Robson & Jane Claire Wilson will come together to share the journey behind their collaborative project.

They'll discuss the process of designing and making the centrepiece of the Loops exhibition - an installation created across many months and hundred of miles.

The Quilt Collection from The Quilters’ Guild contains over 1000 items of patchwork and quilting, that charts the heritage and development of those crafts from the early 18th century to the present day. Each one tells an important and unique story that represents the people that made them and the time in which they were made.

Wax Print traces the vast and multi-stranded global history of a fabric that has become an iconic symbol of Africa and her children worldwide. This beautiful, transnational two-year journey has taken director Aiwan Obinyan around the world, in search of African wax prints and the untold story of how wax print fabric came to symbolize a continent, its people, and their struggle for freedom.

SEND Next Choices - Getting ready for adult life is returning to Leeds first direct arena on Tuesday 24th June 2025!

The event is an opportunity for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their parents, carers, support workers and teachers to prepare themselves for adult life. You will be able to find out about jobs, training, apprenticeships, college courses, voluntary work, leisure activities, finances, support and benefits available in Leeds. Over 70 organisations will be there on the day with support and information.

We’re proud to unveil the Leeds International African Arts Festival 2025 — a dynamic celebration of identity, heritage, and creativity rooted in the African diaspora.

We ask the questions that shape us — through music, art, fashion, and storytelling. Join us for the answers!

With special guests. Expect powerful performances and an exclusive preview of our 2025 programme.

RSVP by reserving your free ticket, see Tickets below.

Nuclear weapons could destroy us all, right now – so why aren’t we talking about them?

Sometimes the threat slides into view – Russia invades Ukraine – but that doesn’t make the weapons more dangerous. They’re always dangerous. And one day, deliberately or accidentally, they’ll be used again.

From the team that created the award-winning Status and Confirmation, comes a show about a new nuclear weapons treaty – one that’s trying to give the power to eliminate nuclear weapons to the states, and people, who don’t possess them.