Leicester Communities Together Festival – Spotlight Discussions
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The Leicester Communities Together Festival on 13 September 2025 brought Jubilee Square alive with advice stalls, performances and community spirit. Hosted by John Coster for the Spotlight on Leicester podcast, the event featured engaging conversations with local leaders, artists and volunteers. Topics ranged from diversity and resilience to mental health and creativity, showing how Leicester’s communities work together. Well attended and lively, the festival proved both informative and entertaining, highlighting collaboration as a strength of the city.
The Leicester Communities Together Festival, held on 13 September 2025 in Jubilee Square, brought hundreds of people together for a day of shared learning, celebration and connection. Recorded as part of the Spotlight on Leicester series, the accompanying podcast captures the energy of the event, with John Coster hosting conversations throughout the day with community leaders, artists, volunteers and visitors.
The festival served as both an information fair and a cultural showcase. Local groups ran stalls offering advice on services and opportunities, while performances on stage and activities in the square created a welcoming and lively atmosphere. The podcast highlights the central message of the day: Leicester’s diversity is a strength when people work together, exchange ideas and support one another.
Issues discussed include the value of networking across community organisations, the need to create safe spaces for discussion and creativity, and the importance of tackling stigma around mental health. Guests also reflected on Leicester’s history of community resilience, and the role that arts and cultural activity play in strengthening social bonds.
From community gardens and allotments to poetry workshops, performance projects and mental health initiatives, the podcast highlights the breadth of activity taking place across the city. Each story demonstrates how shared experiences, whether through conversation, art, or volunteering, can have a lasting positive effect.
The festival organisers deserve praise for creating such a successful event. Well attended and widely supported, the day was both entertaining and informative. With John Coster guiding the discussions, the podcast offers a vivid flavour of the conversations and encounters that made the festival memorable, and it stands as a record of Leicester’s continuing commitment to inclusivity and collaboration.
