Spotlight on Arts – Voices From Riverside Festival 2026
Leicester Riverside Festival is often described as one of the city’s biggest community celebrations, but behind the music, performances and activities are hundreds of conversations, stories and shared experiences that help bring the event to life.
For Riverside Festival 2026, Soar Sound’s community reporter Amelia Silver spent time in Castle Gardens speaking with artists, volunteers, educators and community organisations about their work, their motivations, and what the festival means to them.
The resulting collection of interviews offers a snapshot of a festival built around participation. Across the weekend, visitors were invited to create artwork, share stories, learn new skills, explore local heritage and think differently about sustainability, accessibility and community life.
One of the strongest themes to emerge was the value of creativity as a shared activity. At Bright Sparks, families worked together to create flowers around the theme of “What Makes You Bloom?”, encouraging conversations about what people enjoy, what helps them grow and what brings them happiness. Leicester College students contributed artwork and community activities, while also gaining valuable experience working directly with members of the public.
Poet Imania Hero reflected on the challenge and excitement of performing poetry in public spaces. Rather than the quiet environment of a traditional venue, Riverside Festival offered an opportunity to engage with audiences in a more spontaneous way, demonstrating how arts activities can reach people where they are and encourage unexpected moments of connection.
Sustainability was another recurring theme. Representatives from the LEAF project, Mission Magpie and Color Arts described practical ways of encouraging environmental action through creative engagement. Whether helping people grow their own food, reusing materials that might otherwise go to landfill, or transforming discarded spray paint cans into artworks, these projects showed how environmental awareness can be made accessible and enjoyable.
Heritage and storytelling were also central to the festival experience. Tara from Opal 22 discussed an interactive exhibition exploring the experiences of Windrush families, particularly the stories of children who travelled to Britain to reunite with parents after years of separation. Through personal testimony and public participation, the exhibition encouraged visitors to consider the human experiences behind historical events and the importance of preserving community memory.
Accessibility and inclusion were highlighted through the work of Handbeam and digital artist Simon. Using British Sign Language, visual storytelling and immersive digital art, Simon demonstrated how creative practice can open up new ways of communicating and understanding the world. His work encouraged hearing and deaf audiences to engage with one another in different ways, illustrating the value of inclusive cultural experiences.
Across all of the conversations, a common message emerged. Riverside Festival succeeds not simply because of the scale of its programme, but because it creates opportunities for people to meet, participate and contribute. Whether through arts activities, environmental projects, heritage exhibitions or informal conversations, the festival provides a space where different communities can come together and share experiences.
The interviews featured in this programme capture only a small part of what took place across the weekend, but they offer an insight into the creativity, enthusiasm and community spirit that continue to make Riverside Festival an important event in Leicester’s cultural calendar.
Listen to the full programme below to hear the voices, stories and reflections gathered by Soar Sound during Riverside Festival 2026.
