Leeds Student Guide: Stuff To Do in November

Humans are creatures of habit, and students are no different. It’s easy to settle into a routine of waking up, going back to sleep, remembering you have a lecture, missing your lecture, eating nachos while watching Family Guy, going to the pub, making a fool of yourself, and then going back to bed. For the sake of one’s sanity, and a more complete Leeds experience, it’s good to break the cycle from time to time. Here’s a few things to do in Leeds this month: 

1. Leeds Thai restaurant Chaophraya has re-launched after a gargantuan refurb that includes peaceful Buddhas and elegant elephants as decorations. In addition to the restaurant, they’ve developed a very lah-dee-dah bar called Palm Sugar to complete the Thai dining experience. It’s situated on Swinegate, Leeds city centre, not far from the train station. Reviews for the food have thus far been excellent.
2. Celebrating and raising the profile of the music and arts of Ireland is the Leeds Gathering Festival, which runs to the 24^th. There aren’t many events left, so if you have yet to partake in the festivities, get booking! In this dark age of X-Factor and soulless music created for the very specific purpose of making rich people richer, supporting traditional Irish folk music is the real way to fight the power. The Leeds Gathering comes but once a year, serving up a reminder that Ireland has far more to offer culturally than Guinness, Jameson, and leprechauns.
3. As if you didn’t already know, the annual Christkindelmarkt is up and running daily on Millennium Square. Made up of over forty traditional wooden chalet stalls from Germany, this Christmas village serves up food and fun, as well as gifts. The friendly Bavarian atmosphere is always a treat, and the moose head that belts out carols in English and German never fails to amuse, but the overpriced stollen is always a bit of a let down. All in all, good fun.

   

4. Seven Jazz is celebrating its fifth anniversary this week with a two-evening special event, including new music written specially for the event by Kim Macari. Winner of Jazz Club of the Year at the Jazz Yorkshire awards, Seven Jazz is a voluntary organisation in Chapel Allerton. It’s a little out of the way for most Leeds student property dwellers, but is well worth the trek/bus journey. The venue has good acoustics and is a very warm and welcoming place for all. And yes, they have concessions for students! Great chance to celebrate and be mellow at the same time.
5. On the 25^th there is the Kirkstall Abbey Crafts, Collectibles and Vintage Market . It’s the fourth and final one of 2012, running between 12 noon to 3pm amidst the picturesque 12^th century ruins of Kirkstall Abbey. As long as it isn’t raining it should make for a relaxing afternoon of browsing. There’s going to be loads of odd stuff from all over Yorkshire that could possibly make for unusual Christmas presents. Plan ahead!
6. A new exhibition opens at the Henry Moore Institute on the 22^nd called 1913: A Year Without Qualities. Anyone with an interest in sculpture, or just enjoy looking at crazy-shaped objects that apparently have meaning, get in there and see what they have on show. The exhibition is all about looking at sculpture in relation to other artistic mediums, and questioning the extent to which sculpture helped to demonstrate and further the ideas of the time, so history buffs should like it also.
7. If critical artistic analysis isn’t up your street, then perhaps you’d prefer some straight up entertainment. Delivering on that front, the City Varieties Music Hall is bringing back the madness in time for Christmas, with Cinderella The Rock ‘n’ Roll Panto opening on the 30^th and running all the way into January. It was a great success the last time it was on, and will no doubt be so again. Tickets start from £13.50, so it’s more expensive than a trip to the movies, but you can see a movie any time.

Seven is an odd number to leave you with, but that’s how it is. We’ve got less than two weeks left of November, but there’s still time to get out of your Leeds student property and do something different!

Back to news