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The spiritual bat

Clare Grogan and her band perform the iconic album ‘Happy Birthday’ in full

Silent Saloon presents Garrett T. Capps

Andie & Isobel Knight

Green and pleasant land: how The Meadows is building sustainability and community health

Five years ago, the Notts suburb of The Meadows got a major funding boost to help the community live greener, richer lives and take local action on climate change. With that grant now ending, local resident Lottie Limb takes a look at what the Green Meadows project has achieved and how it can evolve.

King Arthur and the Holy Fail

Interview: Alexis Gregory in Smoke, a queer thriller at Nottingham Playhouse

Smoke is a new play from acclaimed queer theatre-maker Alexis Gregory coming to Nottingham this month. As well as a hard-hitting, savage, comic-thriller, a panel follows the play, hosted by You Are Loved and exploring issues from the play. LeftLion speaks to Alexis about social media, drugs, homophobia and much more...    

How Dale Harvey's 'Great British Pub Crawl' became a social media sensation

Dale Harvey is a man on a mission to champion and save British Pubs. A former publican, in March 2022 he, alongside his partner Holly Booth, set themselves the challenge to visit every pub in Notts. A year or two later, having completed this, they expanded to covering all the pubs in England, Scotland and Wales too. Thus the social media sensation The Great British Pub Crawl was born. Four years, 9500+ beers and over 300k social media followers later ‘Professional Drinker’ Dale is fast closing in on visiting his 10,000th pub…

East Midlands Pamphlet Prize launched by Bad Betty, in partnership with Writing East Midlands and Nottingham Poetry Festival

Notts based independent publisher Bad Betty Press has announced the launch of the East Midlands Pamphlet Prize, a new initiative designed to support and platform poets living, working and studying across our region.

Posturing

Undercover artist: Heather Hodkinson champions Green Hustle festival

Our Green Hustle festival-inspired May cover is the work of artist Heather Hodkinson who, as well as helping to shape the visual identity of Green Hustle, has lent her talents to promote lots of other green initiatives around Notts. She talks to us about her love of collage and why it’s important to get out and about.

Joseph Decosimo

Comedy, music festivals and local talent: Here's what's on this week in Nottingham 18 -24 May

 This week in Notts! Enjoy local theatre performances and live comedy, or head to Dot to Dot music festival and dance the night away in various venues across Nottingham. Here's our top picks...

Chris Brain

Michael McGovern

Art works: PRF by Iulia Matei

For this month’s artworks, illustrator and regular LeftLion contributor Iulia Matei shares the concept behind her new graphic novel PRF (Punk Rock Fairies) and why we need independent art now more than ever.

What to expect from Green Hustle festival 2026

After five joyous, community-celebrating and grassroots action-galvanising Green Hustle Festivals, the team behind the event are this month putting on the most expansive and exploratory edition yet. With the theme of ‘Sow Good’, Green Hustle CIC Co-Director and LeftLion Environment Editor Adam Pickering guides us through how the crew hopes to seed a sustainable and thriving Notts through creativity, inclusion and inspiration.

In photos: Ella Clayton at The Grove, with Dring and Connexion George

After visiting Nottingham's The Grove in March to support Eyre Llew, Ella Clayton couldn't resist coming back with her own Could it be you? album launch tour. In support were local artists Dring and Connexion George...

Golden era: catching up with electronic-rock duo ALT BLK ERA before their Rescue Rooms show

In 2022, sister duo and Notts natives Nyrobi and Chaya Becket-Messam emerged onto the local music scene as electronic-rock act ALT BLK ERA. Since then, they’ve gone from strength to strength, from winning a MOBO award in 2025 to touring late last year with drum and bass band Pendulum. It’s been a while since we’ve caught up with Nyrobi and Chaya, so they set aside time to walk us through their crazy journey to this point.

Lost Faculty with Cherry Stone & Wired Euphoria

Binks Yard Film Club - The Greatest Showman

Gig review: Kneecap album launch at Rescue Rooms

Ahead of the release of their third album Fenian, Irish rap trio Kneecap brought a double bill show to Rescue Rooms this week to give Notts a taste of what they’ve got in store this year…

Conscious Pilot + Big Girls Blouse

Groovebox In The Park 2026

14 great music festivals in and around Nottingham for 2026

You can feel it starting... The evenings are lighter and the first warm weekends spark everybody into optimism, and suddenly someone shares a line-up in a group chat and writes, ‘We have to go!’

Across Nottinghamshire and the wider east midlands, 2026 is shaping up to be another packed one. Big-name headliners, grassroots weekends, city takeovers and quieter escapes all sit side-by-side. If you want to start planning your festival season soon, here are some suggestions.