Leeds Waterfront Festival is set to make a splash this summer with the return of the British Street Food Awards and iconic Dragon Boat Race.
The plans for Leeds Waterfront Festival 2023 have been announced, and it's going to be an unforgettable weekend full of fun and plenty of food.
Taking place on 1 and 2 July 2023, the festival is the largest of it's kind in the north and showcases the very best of the city's waterways.
This year, The British Street Food Awards will return to Leeds for the festival after a three-year hiatus, inviting 12 Northern traders to battle it out for the top prize.
Image: Supplied
The North heats will feature Leeds favourites Little Red Eats who will take on the likes of Oi Dumplings from Manchester and Acropolis from Newcastle to compete for the crowning title.
The competition will be judged by Michelin-starred Will Lockwood, Head Chef from Roots York. There will also be a People’s Choice winner, chosen by those attending the event. Both winners will go the British Street Food Awards finals taking place in London this August.
Image: Supplied
The notorious Leeds Dock Dragon Boat Race is set to be another highlight, sailing back into town with smaller boats this time for extra speed. Registrations are now open for up to 24 teams of 7-11 people per boat to take on the challenge to win the highly coveted trophy.
Leeds Dock’s event director, Alex Webb, said: “The smaller dragon boats this year mean more people can get involved. Groups of mates can take on the challenge, or if you’re planning a hen or stag do, or big birthday celebration, this would be ideal. It’s something fun and different to do, and you get to flex your sporting prowess at the same time!”
Image: Supplied
Local bar and kitchen, The Canary, will also be hosting live musicians and DJs throughout the festival, as well as serving cocktails, locally brewed beers and great food- perfect for sunshine catch-ups with friends.
For more information about the Waterfront Festival, take a look at their website.
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Clementine Hall -
24th April 2023 
