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LeftLion Issue #184 June 2025

This month featuring our guide to local summer music festivals, Nottingham Poetry Festival, actor LaQuarn Lewis on BBC's What It Feels Like For A Girl, the Nottingham Attacks Two Years On, Nottingham Playhouse's Adam Penford, Nottingham Craft Beer Festival, the Lenton Centre, Future Makers and more...

Community, culture and the music at The Concert Hall: here's what's on events this week in Nottingham 26 May- 1 June

This week in Notts, cultural vibrations ring from the arrow of Robin Hood! 

Get Your Skates On at Nottingham's National Ice Centre

When was the last time you went ice skating? With arguably the nation's best facilities right on your doorstep we look at what's coming up at the National Ice Centre over the next few months and how you can get involved...

Theatre Review: The Zoo That Comes to You at Lakeside Arts

Nadia on... Young Men and the Manosphere

In her regular column, and in the wake of the Netflix conversation-starter Adolescence, Nottingham East's MP Nadia Whittome talks about the climate surrounding young men and the Manosphere....

[Content warning: mentions of gendered violence, rape and sexual assault.]

Experience different cultures, historical theatre, and homegrown Notts music: here's what's on this week 5 - 11 May 2025

This week in Notts, learn the Afro Brazilian martial art of Capoeira, experience Greek culture, check out some historical theatre or enjoy some lovely homegrown talent from local musicians...

Have you ever felt unsafe as a woman in Nottinghamshire? Your voice is needed

In a new campaign, Nottinghamshire Police are surveying women’s experience of feeling unsafe in public to drive positive change. 

Have You Got What It Takes To Be Nottingham’s New Nature Poet Laureate?

Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature has announced an open call for a Nature Poet Laureate...

Chicago takes over Notts, unleash your Primal Scream, get creative with Collage N’ Cocktails, and lots more: here’s what’s on in Nottingham this week 7 April - 13 April 2025

With BBC Introducing’s Tom Hewitt and Riley Marsh making appearances in Acoustic Rooms, to 130 years of War of the Worlds and a Broadway classic making its way to Nottingham's Theatre Royal, there is a lot going on this week in Nottingham so make sure to clear your calendars…

Nadia on… youth violence

Spring in Your Step: Nottingham’s Best Walks for the Season

Spring's here, though in Nottingham that often means a stand-off between sunshine and drizzle. The sky still carries the pale reluctance of winter. The trees, bare-boned and brittle through the winter months, begin their slow green eruption. But when the daffodils are up and the air smells of wet earth and optimism, there’s no better excuse to lace up your trainers and embrace the outdoors. Nottingham, rich in both greenery and stories, has plenty of spots worth wandering. Here’s where to go when you fancy stretching your legs without running into the masses.

Theatre Review: Look After Your Knees at Lakeside Arts

Natalie Bellingham delivers a solo performance celebrating the messy business of life...

Offline crafting, theatre, day parties, cultural festivals, and 80s new wave: here's what's on events this week 10-16 March 2025

This week in Notts! Get yourself out to enjoy the first inklings of spring, plus a load of great events around the city. Check out a four day festival at New Art Exchange, enjoy gripping theatre at Nottingham Playhouse and Theatre Royal, get crafting in a no-phone-zone, or head down to Vicky McClure's Day Fever at the Palais...

Pick Six: Rastarella Music Programmer & Community Engagement Expert at Cultural Vibrations (Unity Through Music)

For this month’s Pick Six, we spoke to Rastarella - Music Programmer & Community Engagement Expert at Cultural Vibrations (Unity Through Music) and Radio Host at 97.5 Kemet Fm. Rastarella will oversee the music programming at this month’s Ay-Up Market.

Gig review: You Me At Six at Rock City

You Me At Six bid farewell to their Nottingham fans with three shows at Rock City on their Final Nights of Six Tour. Intensity and nostalgia were mixed with the undeniable energy of a band at their peak...

An open conversation: journalist Gary Younge tells us about a public assembly on issues facing minority communities coming up in Nottingham

Well known for his twenty years at The Guardian and a current position as Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester, journalist, author and broadcaster Gary Younge has led conversations on minority experiences and systematic racism for decades. Those conversations have become all-the-more pertinent since 2020, so Mr Younge is planning new measures to address the issues facing minority communities. 

This will take the form of public assemblies in four cities, one of which will be Nottingham. In January, Mr Younge arrived here to meet the local community who inform the substance of that assembly. Here he presents an open letter, explaining what people can expect from the meeting.

Put your records on: we find out about Revinyl Sessions, a night where anyone can be a DJ

Fancy sharing your music taste with other music lovers? Revinyl Sessions at The Golden Fleece has you covered. With an ethos that celebrates the DJ for their ability to create community in a crowd, Revinyl invites anybody, experienced or first-timer, the chance to get behind the decks and unite the room with their sound. We spoke to organiser Robin Powell to find out more…

What happens when you realise winning means betting on others losing? Gary Stevenson knows first-hand.

Gary Stevenson became the youngest and most successful trader in the city. Now he shares the insider's guide to the financial world that influences all our lives. 

Beat The Streets 2025 preview: 10 acts you must see

Since its inaugural event in 2018, charity festival Beat The Streets has firmly established itself as the annual curtain-raiser for Nottingham’s music scene. We look at ahead to this year's edition...

Switch Up founder Marcellus Baz talks about changing the lives of disadvantaged young people

The story of Dr Marcellus Baz BEM is stuff of Nottingham legend. From a kid weighed down by poverty to the leader of an internationally recognised social enterprise, he’s lifted countless people out of disadvantaged backgrounds while inspiring others along the way. Having started collaborating more often with businesses and charities across the city, he made time in his busy schedule to chat with us about the credo behind his long career.

All you need to know about the International Postcard Show at Surface Gallery Nottingham

This month, Surface Gallery's International Postcard Show unites artists across the globe with an inclusive exhibition showcasing a multi-medium array of postcard-sized artworks, created by artists as far-flung as Japan. Charlotte Pimm-Smith talks to exhibitions co-ordinator Jez Kirby about it.

Promote and advertise your business to people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire with LeftLion

LeftLion Magazine has been shouting loud about the best of Nottingham culture since 2003. We're passionate about showcasing our partners to over 50,000 readers each month. Find out more about the reach we can offer you...

The Nottingham Culture Review of 2024

Welcome to our annual culture review of 2024, a year marked by a national changing-of-the-guard from fourteen years of the Tories. On a local level, we saw highs and lows in Nottingham arts and culture, from the sad final days of some loved businesses to inspiring successes for individuals, artists, groups and charities….

Who do you think you are? We meet the experts tracing George the Gorilla at Wollaton Hall

Most long-term residents of Nottingham will at the very least be aware of George the Gorilla: a well-loved taxidermy exhibit residing in the natural history museum at the heart of Wollaton Park. But what kind of animal is he, really, and where does he come from? A newly-formed collective of scientists and heritage specialists at the Uni of Nottingham set out to answer these questions. In doing so, they hope that visitors to the museum will see the exhibit, and the site as a whole, in a whole new light... 

We meet urban and rural explorer Ant Daykin, or Trekking Exploration on YouTube

Bulwell’s Ant Daykin has accumulated nearly thirty thousand followers by posting category-evading content on his YouTube channel: Trekking Exploration. Having spent days exploring derelict, industrial sites in-and-around the Peak District and abandoned corners of towns between Derby and Notts, there are few people as familiar with East Midlands industrial history as he is. We met Ant to chat about hiking, history and his feelings about our innate ‘right to roam’ in the country and town.