Leeds's biggest cultural month: what is on in November

Leeds is about to have its busiest month of the year. There are more than 1,700 events listed for November 2026, and a good chunk of them fall into the three things most people head out for: music, theatre and comedy. It is also the home stretch of Leeds400, the year marking 400 years since the city got its first Royal Charter from Charles I back in 1626.

Music is the easiest place to start. The First Direct Arena opens the month with The Script and James Morrison on Tuesday 10 November, doors at 6pm and the show at 7.30pm, with tickets from £42.50 plus fees and £1 from every ticket going to the Live Trust. Over at the O2 Academy, Squeeze play their new album Trixies on Friday 20 November, and Bleachers follow on Thursday 26 November. If you prefer something quieter, Viennese Christmas by Candlelight runs from 14 November at Leeds Minster, with doors at 6.45pm and the concert at 7.30pm, and Belgrave Music Hall keeps a Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong tribute going well into next year.

Comedy is where the City Varieties Music Hall earns its keep. Dylan Moran brings Looking For Trouble to the hall on 9 and 10 November, about an hour and fifty minutes long, aged 15 plus with parental guidance recommended, and tickets between £34 and £37 including booking fees. The hall's wider tour keeps going through November with names like James Phelan, Rachel Parris and Jason Byrne. Elsewhere, Kevin Bridges plays on Thursday 19 November and Bill Bailey brings a vaudeville show to the First Direct Arena on Saturday 28 November.

On the theatre and immersive front, The Jury Experience lets you decide the outcome of a dramatic case at the Riley Smith Theatre from 14 November, and the Leeds Palestinian Film Festival runs from 13 November to 6 December, with a screening of short films shot by women in Gaza at the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall on Sunday 6 December. At Leeds Art Gallery, Steve McQueen's Resistance exhibition opens on Friday 6 November and runs through to April.

For the Leeds400 programme, the Leodis exhibition at Central Library, with its 17th-century manuscripts, rare maps and old photographs, closes on 11 November, so that is the one to catch early. The rest of the month fills in with talks at Kirkstall Abbey, a Halloween-themed session on witchcraft and the supernatural on 4 November, and a free Tea and Talk at Temple Newsam on Wednesday 25 November. The Farsley Lit Fest runs until 23 November with Jay Rayner, John Boyne and Joanne Harris among the headliners, and the Morley Literature Festival takes over from 5 to 8 November.

If you are planning a weekend around any of this, it is worth knowing what else is on. The Royal Armouries' Genghis Khan exhibition and the Leeds Industrial Museum's Engineery both wrap up on 1 November, and PAT RIOT at Hyde Park closes on 8 November. Behind The Streets and In the Picture both stay open at Abbey House Museum, and Lines of Enquiry continues at Leeds Art Gallery. With so much on, the best way to keep track is to follow the listings as the month fills up.