The City Festival 2015

GIANT street art, live music, dance, theatre and delicious food will fill Leicester’s streets as part of the annual City Festival. A spectacular programme of events is set to take place over the next 11 days, including the annual Belgrave Mela, Journeys Festival and Cosmopolitan Carnival. New to this year’s festival is the Tangle art project from Australia, which will result in a massive public art display in Jubilee Square on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (Aug 24 to 26), between 11 am and 4 pm each day. Tangle will enable children to create a gigantic woven play space using coloured elastic. The event, which will also include live music, will result in an amazing piece of art in which children can play, explore and bounce.

Firm favourites, Belgrave Mela, Cosmopolitan Carnival and Journeys Festival, will help provide a packed Bank Holiday weekend of entertainment. The Cosmopolitan Carnival will take over Jubilee Square, High Street and Cathedral Gardens on Saturday (Aug 29), from 2 pm until 9 pm. The event will showcase the vibrant, cultural mix within Leicester through every imaginable art form. Jubilee Square will host some of the best local bands, including the nationally renowned The Paradimes. And High Street will come alive with a carnival procession featuring a lion dance, samba and belly dancers.

During the two-day festival – from 11 am until 4 pm on Sunday 30 August and Bank Holiday Monday – Orton Square will be transformed into a global village. There will be an eclectic mix of music from across continents, some of the latest short films about freedom and democracy, kite crafting and flying and 3D street art.

Humberstone Gate, Gallowtree Gate, East Gates, the Clock Tower and Leicester Market will welcome a glittering mix of live music, dance, food, fashion, entertainment and Indian culture during Belgrave Mela.

Taking place on Bank Holiday Monday (31st Aug), from 11am until 6pm, the Mela will include South Asian arts and culture as well as plenty of live entertainment. There will be local bands, artists creating incredible art pieces, free cultural workshops, large-scale film projection performance, multicultural dance performances and a dazzling carnival procession.

The packed programme of events gets under way on Friday 21 August and continues until the Bank Holiday (Monday 31 August).

Pictures in the original article have been removed from this version.