The annual Kirkstall Festival has been a key date in the Leeds cultural calendar since 1981, always held on the second Saturday of July.
This free to enter family festival attracts in excess of 20,000 visitors every year, with entertainment provided for all ages. The festival is entirely run by volunteers who tirelessly work throughout the year to put it on. We rely heavily on sponsorship, grants and donations to cover the cost of the event - which in 2025 was around £45,000.
For the last three years Kirkstall Festival Future Funding has put on a ticketed gig within the actual church of the Abbey on the evening before the main festival to raise much-needed funding for the main festival. It’s the fervent wish of the organisers to keep the Saturday event FREE TO ENTER so that as many of the local community as possible can enjoy it.
It is believed that Kirkstall Festival is the largest volunteer-led festival in the country, without a single member of our team receiving any form of payment for their service.
YOUR SUPPORT OF OUR TICKETED EVENT WILL GO A LONG WAY TO SUPPORTING THE SURVIVAL AS THIS KEY EVENT IN OUR CITY’S CULTURAL CALENDAR.