Riverside Festival will bring a free weekend of music, arts, culture and family activities to Leicester city centre on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June.
The festival is free to enter, starts at 12pm on the Saturday, and is spread across Bede Park, the DMU Campus and Castle Gardens. Leicester City Council and DMU are organising the event, with a programme built around live music, hands-on activities, street food, heritage sites and family-friendly performances.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Event | Riverside Festival |
| Dates | Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June 2026 |
| Start time | 12pm on Saturday |
| Venues | Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens |
| Entry | Free |
| Best for | Families, music fans, arts audiences and city-centre visitors |
Bede Park brings DJs, dance and family music
Bede Park will be one of the main music points across the weekend, with THE OLD BOY headlining on Saturday evening from 7pm. His set is billed as a mix of soul, jazz, rare groove, funk, house, garage and hip hop.
On Sunday, DJ Simon Philip is due to close the Bede Park programme from 6pm during the free weekend festival. Other main-stage performances across the weekend include 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 spread gives the festival a broad rhythm: daytime family activity, city-centre wandering, and evening music without a ticket price attached.
DMU Campus adds parade, spoken word and student work
The Cultural eXchanges stage at DMU’s campus starts on Saturday with the Talent 25 carnival parade. Families taking part in the Talent 25 programme will lead a procession showing upcycled festival costumes.
Across the weekend, the stage will feature 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, held in collaboration with Riverside. This year also marks its 25th anniversary at Riverside, with final-year Arts and Festivals Management students involved in the showcase.
Dr Jacqui Norton, Associate Professor at DMU, said the university was looking forward to presenting the students’ work as part of the partnership with Leicester City Council.
Castle Gardens and heritage sites widen the weekend
The festival will not sit in one corner of the city centre. Acoustic performers and street entertainers will appear at Castle Gardens and the DMU Campus as part of Busk Leicester, while a Castle Gardens stage curated by BrightSpark Arts will feature spoken word, music, comedy and dance.
Visitors are also being encouraged to look out for the roaming Beatbox Jukebox across the festival.
Alongside the performances, the weekend includes arts, crafts and theatre activities, sports taster sessions, vintage vehicles and access to heritage sites. Riverside Festival visitors can get discounted entry to Jewry Wall over the weekend, while St Mary de Castro Church will be open. Its bells are due to ring at 12pm on Saturday to mark the start of the festival, with choral evensong at 5pm on Sunday.
Newarke Houses Museum, which is free to enter, is 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 extra activities at the DMU Gallery.
Food, drink and full programme details
Families will find storytelling with Leicester Libraries, arts and crafts, theatre and poetry among the interactive activities listed for the weekend. Street food and drink will be available across the festival, including licensed bars.
Cllr Vi Dempster, Leicester’s assistant city mayor for culture, said the festival was expected to welcome thousands of people to the city centre and described it as a collaboration between local organisations and partners.
The full programme, accessibility information and travel details are listed by the organisers at visitleicester.info/riverside-festival/.
Source: Leicester City Council
Source check Source trail
This preview is based on the published Riverside Festival programme information from Leicester City Council.
- Confirmed the event dates as 6 and 7 June 2026.
- Checked that entry is described as free and family-friendly.
- Matched the listed venues to Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.
- Kept travel and accessibility references limited to the organiser’s stated programme page.
- Source
- Leicester City Council
- Scope
- Leicester
- Updated
- 2026-06-04 23:59
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