Leeds celebrates Languages, Cultures and Global Connections

This November, Leeds will be holding a two-week celebration of languages, cultures and global connections.

The Leeds City of Languages festival will run between 10th - 24th November 2025 and follows on from the the success of Leeds Language Week in November 2024, where hundreds of people tried a new language for the first time in a University of Leeds initiative to celebrate the city’s linguistic diversity and promote language learning.  It proved so popular, that the festival is now running for a fortnight!

Led by Bettina Hermoso-Gómez and Sofia Martinho in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at the University of Leeds, Leeds City of Languages aims to encourage children and adults alike to celebrate multilingualism, learn new languages and discover other cultures.  

With many partners supporting the initiative and hosting events within the community there is an event for everyone: multilingual poetry competitions, international photography exhibition, concerts, language taster sessions, talks for the general public, professional development sessions for teachers and performances amongst others.

In a city where more than 170 languages are spoken, academics and students at the University of Leeds have worked with the local community to promote Leeds's rich tapestry of cultures in two week-long programme from the .  

The most widely spoken non-UK language in Leeds is Polish, with over 8,000 Leeds residents using it as their main language, closely followed by Arabic, with significant communities speaking Romanian, Urdu, Panjabi, and Portuguese.

For access to the full programme of activities and further information, please visit https://leedscityoflanguages.leeds.ac.uk or contact the founders and organisers Sofia Martinho and Bettina Hermoso-Gomez on leedscityoflanguages@leeds.ac.uk