Roll up, roll up. The circus has come to Leeds and it needs some young volunteers to learn some new tricks during half term.
Throughout the half term holidays, Briggate will be brought to life with everything but the big top as it transforms into a circus scene with everything from performances and workshops to entertaining activities for a week of free family fun.
Brought to the city by LeedsBID in association with The Yorkshire Circus and Super Friendz, the pop-up experience aims to provide children with the chance to become the performers with Leeds city centre as their stage as they learn the skills of the circus.
There's going to be aerial hoops, trapeze, stilts, parkour, tightropes, juggling, unicycling and far more adrenaline-pumpical activities to get involved in.
Whether you want to try your hand as a plate spinner, want to have a go at acrobatics and hula hooping or reach for the sky by stilt walking, you can watch and learn from circus performers and teachers before testing out your abilities at the pop-up circus.
Offering activities for all ages and abilities, there’s the opportunity to get involved with an array of circus disciplines. And that’s not all with daily story time sessions, arts and crafts, face painting and free candyfloss for those taking part.
Image: Leeds BID
The following events will be available on the following dates:
Saturday 19th February - Aerial Hoop, Trapeze & Stilts
Sunday 20th February - Acrobatics & Parkour
Monday 21st February - Spinning Props (Diablo, Flower Sticks, Poi)
Tuesday 22nd February - Balancing & Equilibristrics (Tightrope and Slackline)
Wednesday 23rd February - Juggling
Thursday 24th February - Wheel Props - Unicycle and Hula Hooping
Friday 25th February - Spinning Props - Diablo, Flower Sticks, Poi
Saturday 26th February - Aerial Hoop, Trapeze & Stilts
In addition, there are circus themed crafts to enjoy and face painting every day between 12.30-2.30pm, and Story Corner running 11am-12pm and 3-4pm, not forgetting the free candy floss and a stilt walker or two to be spotted on both Saturdays.
The pop-up circus will run activities from Saturday 19 – Saturday 26 February, with workshops and performances every day between 11am-4pm outside the former Debenhams location on Briggate.
Feature Image- Unsplash
Leeds
Major DJ has set cancelled as overcrowding concerns continue at Leeds Festival
After closing for the entire second day, The Warehouse stage at Leeds Festival has once again been forced to evacuate.
One of the most anticipated dance acts of the day has been cancelled due to health and safety concerns just moments before the set.
Sheffield DJ Silva Bumpa was due to take to The Warehouse stage today at 1:30pm, but the set was cancelled due to overcrowding.
It's not the first time this has happened at Leeds Festival 2026, as yesterday Omar+'s set was cancelled due to the same issue and the stage was subsequently closed for the rest of the day.
The Warehouse stage is completely new for this year, and supposedly is designed specifically for dance music...which is quite ironic.
Announcing the news to Instagram, Silva Bumpa said: "So so sorry Leeds Fest but due to over crowding my set was cancelled last min I was just behind the stage and got told right before such a massive shame."
Prospa, another prominent DJ who's set was cancelled at Reading on Friday afternoon, spoke up on the situation: "We are disappointed in The Warehouse stage closure at Reading Festival. We were told it wasn't possible to play whilst on the way. This was due to too many people outside the stage.
"We have seen this happen before at larger festivals in the UK. It's time to double the capacity of tents or put dance music on the main stage."
It comes after another dance stage, LS23, was closed mid-set last night due to a health and safety hazard when all the lights suddenly switched off and ravers were forced to evacuate.
If yesterday is anything to go by, we wouldn't be surprised if The Warehouse was closed for the rest of the day which means anticipated sets from Rossi and Mall Grab will also be cancelled.
‘Actually lost for words’ – huge artist speaks out as Leeds Festival set is cancelled due to overcrowding
Clementine Hall
For the second day in a row, a huge set has been cancelled due to overcrowding at Reading and Leeds Festival.
Day two of the festival and there's some pretty disappointed ravers hanging their head as one of the biggest dance music sets of the day is cancelled.
Omar+, a rising British electronic DJ and producer, was due to play on the brand-new Warehouse stage at Reading yesterday and Leeds today.
Yesterday's set was cancelled last minute due to overcrowding, and low and behold the same has happened here in Leeds.
Announcing the sad news to his story, Omar+ said "Actually lost for words. My Leeds set has been cancelled due to overcrowding."
He then went on to show a screenshot of a text message, reading: "I've never seen something like this in my entire life where two shows back to back are cancelled due to overcrowding."
The Warehouse stage is completely new for this year, and supposedly is designed specifically for dance music...which is quite ironic.
Prospa, another prominent DJ who's set was cancelled at Reading yesterday, spoke up on the situation: "We are disappointed in The Warehouse stage closure at Reading Festival. We were told it wasn't possible to play whilst on the way. This was due to too many people outside the stage.
"We have seen this happen before at larger festivals in the UK. It's time to double the capacity of tents or put dance music on the main stage."
It comes after another dance stage, LS23, was closed mid-set last night due to a health and safety hazard when all the lights suddenly switched off and ravers were forced to evacuate.
Sophie Smith -
18th February 2022 
