Good morning, Leeds. Welcome to this edition of the Leeds Scoop. What a week it's been, between a brand new festival taking over Roundhay Park and half the city staying up until 2am to watch England scrape past Mexico, we reckon a lot of you are running on very little sleep right now. Get the kettle on and let's catch you up!

In today's Leeds Scoop:

  • 🎪 Roundhay Festival makes triumphant debut

  • 🏆 Holbeck Together wins Children's Choice Award

  • ⚽ Leeds pubs erupt as England reach World Cup quarter-finals

Let's get to it.

News 🗞️

The biggest stories from the past week…

🎪 Roundhay Festival makes triumphant debut

Photo by Tony Pham on Unsplash

Leeds officially has a brand new festival on its hands, and by all accounts it was a proper cracker. Roundhay Festival drew well over 100,000 people to Roundhay Park across three days.

Pitbull and Lewis Capaldi headlined the sold-out weekend, giving Leeds a genuine world-class festival on its doorstep. Not a bad way to kick things off.

Early days, but if this is what year one looks like, expect it to become a fixture on the calendar for years to come.

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🏆 Holbeck Together wins Children's Choice Award

The 10th anniversary Child Friendly Leeds Awards took place at City Varieties Music Hall on the 2nd of July, marking a proper milestone for the scheme. South Leeds charity Holbeck Together walked away with the brand-new "Children's Choice" prize.

The award is special because it's voted for entirely by children across Leeds, so it genuinely reflects who's making a difference in young people's lives. A well-deserved shout for the team at Holbeck Together.

A well-deserved win for the team at Holbeck Together, congratulations to them.

⚽ Leeds pubs erupt as England reach World Cup quarter-finals

Photo by Tobias on Unsplash

Not many Leeds locals got much sleep on the night in question, with a 2am kick-off against Mexico. Venues like the Beck and Call were absolutely rammed for the occasion.

Jude Bellingham scored twice and Harry Kane slotted home a late penalty to send England through to the quarter-finals. The city erupted, bleary eyes and all.

Nobody in the pub was heading home before full time, no matter what time the alarm was set for the next morning. Leeds proved it can turn out for a middle-of-the-night kick-off just as loudly as a Saturday afternoon one.

Honourable Mentions 📰

  • 🍬 Leeds City Council declares war on chewing gum — The council has bagged over £25,000 from the national Chewing Gum Task Force to deep-clean city centre streets, including Call Lane and Lower Briggate.

  • ⚽ 250 local kids play flag football on the Elland Road pitch — Leeds United Foundation's Unlocking Potential programme wrapped its second year with over 250 children from nine schools playing on the hallowed turf, with club legend Lucas Radebe there to see it.

  • 🐾 Noel Whelan and "Kop Cat" mascot visit Yeadon care home — The former Leeds striker and the club mascot popped into Weavers Court care home for Care Home Awareness Week, complete with World Cup themed activities.

  • 💛 Her Game Too marks five years with Leeds United — The anti-sexism-in-sport campaign celebrated its fifth anniversary on the 4th of July, with Leeds United one of its longest-running partner clubs.

Sports ⚽️

  • 🏉 Leeds Rhinos thump Bradford Bulls 50-16 at Magic Weekend — A dominant away win at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday kept the Rhinos flying in round 17 of the Betfred Super League.

  • 🏏 Yorkshire CCC beat rivals by 41 runs in Vitality Blast — Yorkshire Men secured the win at Headingley, also on Sunday, in their penultimate home Blast fixture of the season.

  • ⚽️ Pascal Struijk joins Brighton & Hove Albion — Leeds United sold defender Pascal Struijk to Brighton for an undisclosed fee.

Arts & Culture 🎭

Events coming up this week…

  • Romeo & Juliet — Oddsocks Theatre bring open-air comic Shakespeare to the bandstand at Middleton Park. Bring a picnic and a blanket. (Wednesday, 8, July)

  • The Sound of Music — Opera North's brand new staging opens at Leeds Grand Theatre, directed by Nikolai Foster and starring Katie Bird and Edward Bennett. Runs through to 1 August. (Thursday, 9, July)

  • Ageless Festival — Yorkshire Dance reimagines age through dance, with artists, filmmakers and speakers taking part. (Friday, 10, July – Saturday, 11, July)

  • Surreally Good — A one-off comedy and performance show at Slung Low Warehouse, Holbeck, billed as "overhead animation and lo-fi storytelling." (Friday, 10, July)

Food & Drink 🍽️

New restaurants and places to try…

  • Gin & Rum Festival — Back at the Royal Armouries for its eighth year, with over 120 gins, rums and tequilas to try, plus live DJs. (Saturday, 11 July)

  • Bluebird Bakery — The much-loved Yorkshire sourdough bakery is opening its seventh site, this time on Stainbeck Lane in Chapel Allerton, later this month.

Live Music 🕺🏻

Upcoming gigs this week…

On this day 📖

On this day in 1885, Louis Pasteur gave the world's first successful rabies vaccine to a nine-year-old boy who'd contracted the disease. Pasteur wasn't even a doctor and had never tested the treatment on a person before, but it worked, the boy lived, and it kicked off the age of modern immunisation. Not bad for a chemist tinkering about in a lab 🧑‍🔬

Thanks!

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