Riverside Festival returns to Leicester city centre on Saturday 6 June and Sunday 7 June, with free entry across Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.
The two-day, family-friendly festival starts at 12pm on Saturday, when the bells of St Mary de Castro Church are due to ring out to mark the opening. It brings together live music, arts and craft activities, theatre, street entertainment, heritage sites, food and licensed bars in one of Leicester’s busiest summer event weekends.
Organised by Leicester City Council and DMU, the festival is aimed at families, music fans, culture lovers and anyone looking for a free city-centre day out. The full programme has now been released, with music spread across the main festival areas and extra arts activity supported by new funding from Arts Council England.
Readers planning more local family days out can also find ideas in our guide to free and low-cost Leicester activities.
Festival essentials for Leicester visitors
| Detail | Confirmed information |
|---|---|
| Event | Riverside Festival |
| Dates | Saturday 6 June and Sunday 7 June |
| Opening time | 12pm on Saturday |
| Main locations | Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens |
| Entry | Free |
| Best suited for | Families, music fans, arts audiences and heritage visitors |
| Organisers | Leicester City Council and DMU |
End times have not been listed in the source information, so visitors should check the full programme before setting off, especially if planning around specific performances.
Music across Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens
Bede Park will carry some of the biggest music moments of the weekend. On Saturday evening, THE OLD BOY headlines from 7pm with a DJ set covering soul, jazz, rare groove, funk, house, garage and hip hop.
On Sunday, DJ Simon Philip is scheduled to round off the Bede Park programme from 6pm. The main stage will also host 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.
At DMU’s campus, the Cultural eXchanges stage opens on Saturday with the Talent 25 carnival parade. Families involved in the Talent 25 programme will lead a procession featuring upcycled festival costumes.
Across the weekend, the Cultural eXchanges line-up includes 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, and this year marks its 25th anniversary in partnership with Riverside.
Castle Gardens and DMU Campus will also host 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 site.
Hands-on arts, heritage access and food stalls
The Riverside Festival programme is not limited to music. Visitors can take part in arts, crafts and theatre activities, sports taster sessions, storytelling with Leicester Libraries, theatre and poetry.
The weekend also opens up parts of Leicester’s heritage offer. Riverside visitors can get discounted entry to Jewry Wall, while St Mary de Castro Church will be open. Newarke Houses Museum, which is free to enter, will open on the Saturday.
Heritage sites on the DMU campus will also be open over the weekend. These include the Great Hall at Leicester Castle, Trinity Chapel, the herb garden and the DMU Museum, with additional activities planned at the DMU Gallery.
A wide range of street food and drink will be available across the festival, including licensed bars.
Source-backed details to check before travelling
Leicester’s assistant city mayor for culture, Cllr Vi Dempster, said the festival is expected to welcome thousands of people to the city centre for music, art and activities.
Dr Jacqui Norton, Associate Professor at DMU, said Cultural eXchanges will celebrate its 25th anniversary at Riverside and showcase work by final-year Arts and Festivals Management students.
The source notice says full programme, accessibility and travel information is available through Visit Leicester’s Riverside Festival information page.
Source: Leicester City Council
Source check Source trail
This preview is based on the published Leicester City Council event notice and keeps unsupported travel, booking and access details out of the article.
- Confirmed the event dates as 6 and 7 June 2026.
- Checked the listed venues as Bede Park, DMU Campus and Castle Gardens.
- Verified free entry and family-friendly positioning from the source notice.
- Kept end times and detailed accessibility information out where not supplied in the brief.
- Source
- Leicester City Council
- Scope
- Leicester
- Updated
- 2026-06-01 13:22
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