.png)
to add an item to your Itinerary basket.
It has been such a packed year that once again we struggled to fit this into one part, so we’re going to do the first six months in this blog, and the second half in another to follow!
January
It was pretty chilly and we once again saw Leicester’s fountain freeze mid-flow. It’s always worth sharing this beautiful sight, and we absolutely did!
Our Taste the Place campaign branched out into our districts and in January we launched the Visit Blaby Taste Adventure maps and their new videos at Stanton Lakes. Take a look at the video of the event below, and you can check the maps out here.
2024 was a year of street art and it started at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery, where the Paint 2 Pixel exhibition showcased fantastic street artists and set us up perfectly for May’s Bring The Paint Festival.
February
It was the year of the dragon here in Leicester as we celebrated the Lunar New Year with lanterns, dragons, lion dances and fireworks!
TV chef Rick Stein visited Leicester with food writer Gurdeep Loyal for his Food Stories show. Rick took a tour of Leicester’s best Indian food, from street food to Indian high tea. You can watch the show on iPlayer right here.
Pay attention 007. James Bond villains and stars came to the city in a fantastic exhibition at Phoenix cinema by top celebrity photographer Andy Gotts. From Sir Christopher Lee to Charles Dance by way of Rami Malek and Sean Bean, plus of course Dame Judi Dench and Daniel Craig, some of Hollywood’s biggest names were on the walls.
February is the time for the Leicester Comedy Festival, and once again the city came alive with laughter. The Festival is the biggest and best of its kind in Europe and if you want to see small scale shows by superstars of stand-up, this is the place to!
March
A new fine dining Indian experience came to the city as top restaurant Varanasi opened on High Street. Their branch in Birmingham has been visited by the likes of Johnny Depp and launch night saw Jamie Vardy at the chef’s table!
Leicester went green as the St Patrick’s Day Parade came to town with shamrocks, sunshine, bagpipes and plenty of Guinness flowing to celebrate the day!
We celebrated English Tourism Week with some amazing activities including Leicester’s Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby visiting the KRIII Centre to find out about their accessibility initiatives including a new app; Alberto Costa MP visiting the Cosby Yarn Bombers to celebrate their success in creating one of the biggest home grown successes in the county; and throwing our support behind Field Sport UK in their bid to be named this year’s Tourism Superstar!
And to top it all off, Visit Leicester was named the official tourism organisation for Leicester and Leicestershire by Visit England. This will allow us to help transform the visitor economy in the UK and draw even more people to our lovely county.
April
These are no April Fools! In April we took time to showcase some of the top inventions and innovations to come from Leicester and Leicestershire. From blu tak to Star Wars toys and camera lenses, how many of these did you know about?
Celebrating our country’s national day, the St George’s Day Festival brought some fantastic entertainment to Leicester’s Old Town, with people of all ages joining us for the revelry.
It was Man Vs Food Vs Leicester as celebrity chef and foodie Adam Richman visited Leicestershire for his new Food Channel show Adam Richman Eats… In his time here, Adam sampled loads of local food, from pork pies to curry, and left fully satisfied! Check out a snippet from the episode here
Vaisakhi is a highlight of the year for the Sikh community, often bringing thousands of people out onto Leicester’s streets, but we had to share this guy at Fosse Park who was definitely feeling it, and then went viral thanks to his efforts!
May
Leicester City’s short sojourn in the second tier of English football ended this month and we met you at the Clock Tower as the city came together to celebrate the mighty Foxes’ fantastic Championship win! Less said about the start to this season though, we’re hoping Ruud has what it takes to get us back on track.
Loughborough’s Taylor's Bell Foundry Museum reopened in the late summer after a major refurbishment, and we were lucky enough to get a sneak preview AND see bells being cast in their workshop. Always a stunning sight.
Renoir’s masterpiece Umbrellas came to Leicester Museum and Art Gallery this summer as part of the National Gallery’s 200th anniversary celebrations. Thousands of people were able to view this amazing artwork for free!
From fine art to modern art. The Bring the Paint Festival came back to Leicester after two years away to add a splash of colour to the city centre!
June
Leicester’s Riverside Festival brought the sunshine to the city, with boating, music, food and loads of fun! Thousands of people packed the banks of the River Soar for loads of fun.
The Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe in Melton reopened after a refurb and it looks absolutely fantastic. And of course it serves the very best local produce and the best Pork Pies you can get anywhere!
Leicester was rightfully named as England’s Curry Capital this month, beating out previous winner Bradford. The announcement came after a long online campaign by Romail Gulzar, Leicester’s Mr Curry!
The Download Festival rocked North West Leicestershire with headline sets from Queens of the Stone Age, Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold. The UK’s second largest music festival behind Glastonbury, Download is a major date on the international music calendar.
Related
Comments
Comments are disabled for this post.
.png){kind=icon}
