Brighter Days Festival is a new Leeds-based day festival that aims to bring the best of Ibiza to Temple Newsam this summer.
This electric gathering is set to feature two stages and headline sets from Faithless (DJ), Kings of Tomorrow feat Julie McKnight, Roger Sanchez, Fat Tony, Lovely Laura & Ben Santiago, Angel Lee, Dave Robinson, Kirsten and plenty more.
The event is a duel-location festival, with one day fest at Temple Newsam in Leeds on Friday 12 August 2022, whilst another will take place in Herrington in the North East on Friday 8 July 2022.
The festival is in its second year, but this is the first time that the festival will take place in Yorkshire.
"Brighter Days Festival enters into its second year after been put together at the end of the first lockdown, the seeds were already there and action was taken. It wasn’t with a challenge as Boris delayed the reopening of our industry, meaning Brighter Days was postponed and pushed back to August and moved venues.
"Determined not to be beaten we threw an amazing party at Rainton Meadows in a huge big top which saw thousands of ravers flock for a Sunday afternoon of killer vibes from the master Patrick Topping! The day went off and here we find ourselves going into year two with quadruple the amount of artists and stages, sit tight…"
Image: Brighter Days
The team behind Brighter Days have been in the game far longer than lockdown though. The team have over 15 years experience promoting cutting-edge house parties in the North East, starting at The Arena club in 2007. Putting themselves on the map by bringing names like Avicii, Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, Eats Everything and The Martinez Brothers, the club closed in 2013 but the pair went on to develop some huge outdoor shows, most notably the Redcar Beach site at Majuba.
Leeds's Temple Newsam Park is the team's latest project and they promise to bring "what will be a little slice of White Isle party heaven this summer. The production, the sound and the vibes will all be served up with plenty of famous Balearic spirit and wild hedonism".
Image: Brighter Days
The escapist location of Temple Newsam, is well acquainted with festivals and its rolling green park surrounded by woodland that hosts some of the North's most essential festivals makes it the perfect location for Brighter Days to debut.
With capacity set at 5,000 people with one huge main stage and a VIP Area as well as food stalls, fairground and licensed bars to keep dancers fuelled. Expect next level production that will fire the synapses while the world class DJs serve up the scintillating sounds at what might just be one of Leeds' most exclusive festivals on the year.
In honour of National Chocolate Week, two big brands are joining forces.
Fancy a freebie? Silly question, of course you do.
Tony’s Chocolonely and Yorkshire Tea have joined forces for National Chocolate Week to ask Brits to declare themselves a ‘Melt’...yes, really.
It comes after the brands discovering a new Gen Z dunking trend, with research finding that 80% of 18–24-year-olds say chocolate is their preferred tea-dunking treat.
To understand why the perculiar pairing has become so popular, the brands recruited Associate Professor of Psychobiology, Dr Lorenzo Stafford, to investigate what happens when tea and chocolate come together.
Associate Professor, Dr Lorenzo Stafford said: "It's fascinating to see how much thought Brits put into what makes a great dunk. Flavour, texture and temperature all shape how we experience food, and the combination of hot tea with melting chocolate creates a particularly enjoyable sensory experience.
"When it comes to dunking, tea and chocolate have great chemistry so it’s no surprise young people have embraced it."
If you want to try it out for yourself, then you can for free - but there is one catch.
From Monday 19 to Friday 23 October, anyone who walks into one of Hyde Park Book Club in Leeds and says ‘I'm a Melt’ will get a free mug of Yorkshire Tea and bar of Tony's Chocolonely.
Not only that, but the first 100 customers will also get a limited-edition ‘Melt’ cap.
Yorkshire Tea & Tony’s Chocolonely said of the partnership, “Brits love their tea and their chocolate and now the science shows why. This National Chocolate Week, we’re inviting everyone to give it a go, embrace their inner Melt and discover just how well chunky chocolate and a proper brew can work together.”
Leeds Bradford Airport strikes will NOT go ahead following ‘late offer’ over pay
Clementine Hall
This weekend's strikes at Leeds Bradford Airport have been cancelled.
Around 130 workers were set to walk out this weekend, Unite said, but this has been suspended to allow air traffic controllers to consider a new pay offer.
The Unite members planning on to go on strike were a mixture of air traffic control workers, customer experience staff, security staff and cleaners.
The workers involved in the dispute had recently come out of a four-year pay deal, with some of the departments having fallen behind other airports in equivalent roles.
Pay talks have been happening since December 2025, with the airport's formal offer not going far enough to address the lack of pay parity which led to the decision to strike.
However, as of yesterday 15 October, the workers have been given new pay offers from the airport and the strikes will not take place to allow a ballot on the offers.
Air traffic controllers and hourly paid staff are being balloted separately on their respective offers.
Unite regional officer Neil Whitaker said: "After receiving offers from Leeds Bradford Airport, we have suspended this week’s strike action in good faith to allow members to vote on pay deals.”
In a statement, Leeds Bradford Airport said: "While the ballot process continues with certain members of our frontline colleagues, we remain hopeful that a positive outcome can be achieved and that an agreement can be reached which works for everyone involved.
"Regardless of the outcome of this ballot, LBA has a robust contingency plan in place and will be operating as normal this weekend.
"Our focus remains on supporting a smooth and reliable experience for customers while maintaining safe and efficient airport operations."
Sophie Smith -
29th March 2022 
