Line-up revealed for the Leeds International Festival 2020

The theme is Generation Future, looking at climate, identity and city living in particular, and the festival this year features thought-provoking talks, interactive workshops, premieres, installation pieces and fun for all the family with 29 events and 45 speakers at 13 venues over ten days.

Three international speaking events lead the programme of events which take place between April 30 and May 9 and tickets go on sale tomorrow (Friday February 14) at 9am.

Future. Identity. Power: Reframing Equality and Justice is led by Dr Shona Hunter is a Leeds-based educator and speaker on identity, power, privilege and oppression and she will be speaking to a panel about how can we unite, across multiple identities of race, gender, class, generation, sexuality, and beyond?

Familiar TV presenter Michaela Strachan, fronts 'A Generation to Cool the Earth' which features four talks including one from co-founder of Extinction Rebellion Roger Hallam. They will discuss seed sovereignty and food futures, positive citizenship, the sounds of ecosystems and how we can all make impactful changes.

Living in a Future City with George Clarke will discuss everything from transport and the natural environment to urban infrastructure and services with a panel of experts putting forward their vision for future urban spaces, discussing how to build environments that are not only fit for purpose, but are also inspirational and positive places to be. The panel features Roger Nickells (Partner at BuroHappold), Leah Stuart (Associate Director at Civic Engineers), Professor Paul Chatterton (Leeds University) and Journalist Robyn Vinter.

The Leeds International Festival Village hub will also return to The Tetley. The L20 Cube will host headline talks and music events, whilst other events in the line-up are hosted at a dozen other venues across the city centre.

Five events will premiere at Leeds International Festival this year. Requardt & Rosenberg’s intriguing secret performance, Selina Thompson’s political roundtable ‘Oh God! Not Another One!’, fabulous apoca-disco ‘The End is Queer: A Doomsday Disco’, and family-friendly ‘Future Fairness’ - which gives you the opportunity to decide on what roles culture plays in communities and what you want to see in the future.

Gemma Holsgrove, Leeds International Festival Executive said: "Leeds International Festival has been growing each year since its inception in 2017. Our fourth year sees an even more extraordinary lineup of artists, speakers and innovators all responding to our theme Generation Future in their own individual way. I’m really looking forward to seeing Leeds host such an incredible array of talent this May and hope that some of the conversations, performances, workshops and performances challenge, educate and inspire audiences to make their own positive changes to our increasingly complex and interconnected world.”

Leeds voices represent strongly at the festival this year through art, dance, and music.

Award-winning photographic artist (and Leeds local) Mandy Barker brings an ethereal and shocking photographic exhibition on the impact of plastic detritus called Altered Oceans, artist/performer Selina Thompson will ask a ‘kitchen table council’ of locals to chat over today’s hot political problems to see if we can do better than the politicians, Yorkshire Dance and Phoenix Dance Theatre will both deliver participatory dance events to question our collective futures, and local boys I LIKE TRAINS will perform their first hometown gig in three years, accompanied by NYX (Electronic Drone Choir).

Naho Matsuda’s EVERY THING EVERY TIME (featuring immediate poetry prompted by ‘Smart City’ urban data), Generate’s real-life visualisations of raw data from our Leeds populace in the Merrion Centre, a secret new dance performance from Requardt & Rosenberg, and The End is Queer: A Doomsday Disco are but a handful of the weird and wonderful, powerful and pioneering events that complete L20’s line-up.

Get tickets via https://leedsinternationalfestival.com/