Leicester Riverside Festival is free on 6-7 June
Leicester’s Riverside Festival returns on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June, bringing a free, family-friendly weekend of music, arts, theatre, food and heritage access to the city centre.
The festival opens at 12pm on Saturday, with activity spread across Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens. Entry is free, and the programme is aimed at families as well as music, culture and heritage visitors planning a city-centre weekend.
For readers planning the weekend, our earlier guide to Leicester’s free Riverside Festival covers the basic event footprint and main locations.
Bede Park brings the biggest music moments
Bede Park will carry some of the festival’s most prominent live music slots. On Saturday evening, THE OLD BOY is due to headline from 7pm with a DJ set spanning soul, jazz, rare groove, funk, house, garage and hip hop.
Sunday’s Bede Park programme will close with DJ Simon Philip from 6pm, while visitors looking beyond the Riverside Festival can also find a free summer exhibition at Attenborough Arts Centre. Across the weekend programme, the main stage is also set to feature a Tots’ Rave with DJ Juvie and Louisa Darling, melodic grunge from Pretty Dirty Rats, and a collaboration between Nupur Arts and KAINE choir pairing Indian dance with African music.
That mix gives the festival a broad family-to-evening shape: younger children have a dedicated rave-style session, while later slots move into DJ sets and live performance.
DMU Campus adds carnival, dance and spoken word
On DMU’s campus, the Cultural eXchanges stage will open on Saturday with the Talent 25 carnival parade. Families involved in the Talent 25 programme will lead a procession showing upcycled festival costumes.
The stage will also host dance, music and spoken word from performers including DMU Dance/Moving Together, Syston Swing Band, Curve Youth Dance Group, Sam the Rapper and Mirchi Mob.
Cultural eXchanges is DMU’s annual arts and creative writing festival, and this year it is being held in collaboration with Riverside. Dr Jacqui Norton, Associate Professor at DMU, said the festival would also showcase work by final year Arts and Festivals Management students.
Castle Gardens and roaming acts widen the route
The programme is not limited to fixed stages. Acoustic performers and street entertainers will appear at Castle Gardens and on the DMU Campus through Busk Leicester.
Castle Gardens will also have a further stage curated by BrightSpark Arts, with spoken word, music, comedy and dance. Visitors are also being asked to look out for the roaming Beatbox Jukebox, which will move through the festival area.
The result is a festival layout where people can move between staged performances, street entertainment and hands-on activities rather than staying in one place all day.
Heritage sites open alongside the festival
Riverside Festival also links into Leicester’s heritage sites over the weekend. Visitors can get discounted entry to Jewry Wall, while St Mary de Castro Church, one of the city’s oldest buildings, will be open.
The bells at St Mary de Castro are due to ring at 12pm on Saturday to mark the start of the festival. A choral evensong is scheduled there for 5pm on Sunday.
Newarke Houses Museum, which is free to enter, will be open on Saturday. Heritage sites on the DMU campus, including the Great Hall at Leicester Castle, Trinity Chapel, the herb garden and the DMU Museum, will also be open over the weekend, with additional activities at DMU Gallery.
Free entry, food stalls and family activities
Alongside the music and performances, the festival will include arts, crafts, theatre activities, sports taster sessions, vintage vehicles and storytelling with Leicester Libraries.
Street food and drink will be available across the festival, including licensed bars. The source programme does not list one general closing time for the whole event, so visitors should check individual performance timings when planning around specific acts.
Leicester City Council and DMU are organising the festival. Cllr Vi Dempster, Leicester’s assistant city mayor for culture, said Riverside Festival is “for everyone” and expected to welcome thousands of people to the city centre.
Full programme details, accessibility information and travel information are listed by Visit Leicester under Riverside Festival.
Source: Leicester City Council
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This preview is based on the published Riverside Festival programme details from Leicester City Council.
- Confirmed the event dates as 6 and 7 June.
- Checked the stated venues: Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.
- Confirmed free entry and family-friendly positioning from the source text.
- Matched named performers and heritage-site details to the programme notice.
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- 2026-06-10 11:47
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