What to do in Leeds this summer? From a huge children’s festival with Cbeebies stars to 100s of activities across the city – Welcome to #ChildFriendlyLeeds
Leeds city centre will come to life over the summer holidays with a jam packed calendar of activities for families starting at the end of July.
Whether you want to relax on a deck chair at City Beach, enjoy live entertainment at Child Friendly Leeds Live, soak up the sunshine at one of our pop-up spaces or get involved with one of many free activities with #CFLSundays, there is something for everyone!
All we ask is you take pictures and #ChildFriendlyLeeds and tag them into our new instagram account @SnappLeeds < monthly winners will recieve vouchers to shop at Trinity Leeds!
Child Friendly Leeds Live
Last year, 350 children and young people entered a competition to share their ideas on ‘Making Leeds city centre more child friendly’. One of the winning suggestions was to bring a ‘children’s festival’ to Leeds. Read more about it here and our journey in making Leeds City Centre the heart of family fun!
Child Friendly Leeds have been working closely with the Leeds City Council events team, the Breeze team and a range of other partners to turn Will’s idea into a reality, and create ‘Child Friendly Leeds Live’. This exciting summer event will take over Millennium Square for one day in August! Headlining the festival will be star of CBeebies Andy Day and his band ‘Andy and the Odd Socks’. Hosted by former CBeebies presenter Alex Winters, the event will also feature the ‘Breeze has Talent’ competition, which showcases local young talent. Festival goers can support the young people as they perform on stage in front of a panel of industry professional judges. The festival will also include exciting performances from DAZL and The Rainbow Factory.
In addition to this, there will be a whole range of fun, free activities for children to enjoy around the square including arts, bath bomb creations, climbing wall, balloon modelling, facepainting, crafts, sport, sensory play and much more.
The event is made up of two separate, almost identical three-hour ‘Child Friendly Leeds Live’sessions. The first session will run from 10am to 1pm, and the second will run from 2pm until 5pm. For more information and tickets visit:
Child Friendly Leeds Sundays
Every Sunday during the summer holidays is a Child Friendly Leeds Sunday.
Here’s a handy six-week calendar of free events and special offers happening slap bang in Leeds City Centre every Sunday in the Summer Holidays. Download your PDF guide here.pdf to find full details of what is happening and where.
Rumani, one of our competition winners, dreamt of creating fabulous play spaces in the city centre, where she and her friends could hang out together and have fun.
The retail network have joined forces with the library, the city museum and the Tetley, as well as variety of Child Friendly Leeds ambassador organisations to create a range of exciting and free projects, which are aimed at children and their families.A key aim of the project, is to encourage children to be outside, be active and experience new things. For example, children can learn circus skills, handle birds of prey, visit a huge T-Rex model, develop their dancing skills, be thrilled by animated story telling and taste new cuisines.
Find out more: https://breezeleeds.org/about-breeze/child-friendly-leeds-sundays
Leeds city centre events & play
Pop Up & Play will transform Victoria Gardens this summer, creating a colourful platform for 2 weeks of free, fun, family-friendly activities.
The space has been designed to encourage play for all ages in the city, making the most of the historic public square and surrounding area including temporary green space on Cookridge Street.
To find out more about the activities, please visit: http://www.popupandplay.co.uk/ Special thanks go to all our partners, individuals, funders and sponsors who made Pop Up & Play possible.
Further events include a Roller Disco at Kirkgate Market between 28 – 31 August and a whole host of music performances across the city centre.
Alternatively, if you just want to find a space to put your feet up, you can lounge back on one of the many deck chairs scattered across the city centre courtesy of Leeds BID, or visit City Beach as it returns on 11 August – 2 September in its new home at Victoria Gardens, or take time out in a second pop up park in front of the iconic Leeds Town Hall (August only).
Breeze on tour
Summer fun for under 19s! Arts, inflatables, sports, crafts, performances, dance, Breeze has Talent semi finals and so much more!
If you bring your BreezeCard with you you’ll have fast track entry, otherwise you can sign up on the gate. Be prepared, get yours in advance!
The dates for The Big One – Breeze on Tour 2018 are…
Wednesday 1st & Thursday 2nd August – Roundhay Park, Soldier’s Fields 12 – 5pm
Wednesday 15th & Thursday 16th August – Kirkstall Abbey 12 – 5pm
Lots of mini Breeze Leeds events throughout summer and they’re FREE. Find out more: https://breezeleeds.org/about-breeze/breeze-on-tour
Thanks for reading and don’t just enjoy these events and activities yourself, share with friends, family & colleagues! 🙂
