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Music across Bede Park, DMU and Castle Gardens
Family activities and heritage sites add to the weekend
Key details for planning a visit

Leicester’s Riverside Festival returns on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June with free entry, a family-friendly programme and activity spread across Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.

The festival starts at 12pm on Saturday, when the bells of St Mary de Castro Church are due to ring out to mark the opening. Leicester City Council and DMU say the two-day event will bring music, arts, craft, theatre, heritage access, street food and licensed bars into the city centre.

For families deciding whether to make a day of it, the offer is broad: daytime activities for children, music across several stages, Busk Leicester performers around the site and evening DJ sets at Bede Park.

Music across Bede Park, DMU and Castle Gardens

Bede Park carries much of the main-stage programme. 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 be rounded off by DJ Simon Philip from 6pm. Across the weekend, 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.

DMU’s campus will host the Cultural eXchanges stage, opening on Saturday with the Talent 25 carnival parade. Families from the Talent 25 programme will lead a procession showing upcycled festival costumes.

The Cultural eXchanges programme is also expected to include dance, music and spoken word from 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 with Riverside this year as it marks its 25th anniversary.

Castle Gardens and DMU Campus will also have acoustic performers and street entertainers through Busk Leicester. A further Castle Gardens stage, curated by BrightSpark Arts, will feature spoken word, music, comedy and dance, while the roaming Beatbox Jukebox will move through the festival.

Free Riverside Festival brings music to Leicester on 6-7 June

Family activities and heritage sites add to the weekend

Away from the stages, the festival is built around hands-on activity. Leicester Libraries storytelling, arts and crafts, theatre, poetry, sports taster sessions and vintage vehicles are all listed as part of the weekend programme.

The heritage offer gives the festival a different shape from a standard music weekend. Visitors can get discounted entry to Jewry Wall during the festival. St Mary de Castro Church, one of Leicester’s oldest buildings, will be open, with choral evensong planned 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, are also due to open over the weekend, with additional activities at the DMU Gallery.

Leicester assistant city mayor for culture Cllr Vi Dempster said the festival was expected to welcome thousands of people into the city centre for “a huge range of music, art and activities”.

Dr Jacqui Norton, Associate Professor at DMU, said the university was looking forward to showcasing the work of final year Arts and Festivals Management students.

Key details for planning a visit

Detail	Information
Event	Riverside Festival
Dates	Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 June
Start time	12pm on Saturday
Locations	Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens, Leicester city centre
Entry	Free
Audience	Family-friendly
Food and drink	Street food, drink and licensed bars
Organisers	Leicester City Council and DMU

The full programme, accessibility information and travel details are listed by the organisers at visitleicester.info/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.

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Confirmed the event dates as 6 and 7 June.
Checked the listed venues as Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.
Verified that entry is described as free and family-friendly.
Kept end times, transport and accessibility details limited to what the source provided.

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