By Iola Shaw
This year’s free annual festival is in the Kirkstall Abbey grounds on Saturday, 12 July with a theme of Kirkstall Toyland.
There is a ticketed fund raising gig the evening before to help ensure this volunteer run annual event can continue in 2026 and beyond.
The Friday night event stars Weetwood Mac and Gary Steward’s Graceland, both featuring Leeds-based musicians, playing within the church of the Abbey on Friday, 11 July with tickets on sale now via Eventbrite.
The Saturday Festival is free to all from 11am-5pm, with programmes on sale to help fund the event and enable you to plan your day. There is also information on the website, including how to become a volunteer.
The primary schools parade will open the event with a revised route due to the ongoing works on Morris Lane. This ends with the presentation for the winner of the programme cover competition in the main arena about 12pm.
The festival is now fully booked for stalls across the site, with over 140 stalls. These range from face painting and fundraising, promotion of groups and charities to those selling produce, crafts, clothing, and more.
There will be a fun fair, a range of caterers, and both a tea and a beer tent.
Live music and many activities are running across seven locations throughout the day – designed to suit all tastes and age groups. Old favourites, including the dog displays and show (do you have the waggiest dog this year?), Music From the Attic, bingo and the panto dames.
This year the festival welcomes Wrongsemble, the Phoenix Squad, pétanque and even a silent disco for the first time.
The Phoenix Squad have a range of Star Wars themed activities across the day. The Wrongsemble show is a wild fairytale of music, magic and puppetry: Hansel and Gretel argue about everything: who’s the loudest, the fastest, and how they ended up lost in the forest one day, but how will they get home for tea?
Suitable for all from three years old. Updates on the day will be found on the Facebook site.
- More Kirkstall news and views from WLD can be found here.
- Check out WLD’s what’s on section for more local events, groups and activities.
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