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The Sheffield culture guide written by in-the-know locals

What's On

Our Sheffield culture calendar. Filled with picks of the city’s arts, culture and heritage events, both in-person and virtual. Plus reviews and festival guides.

in//motion

Wed. 13 August 2025

The Lescar

Beautifully expressive music from an ensemble blending contemporary jazz and the sounds of folk and post-rock. With influences ranging from Brian Blade’s Fellowship band to Godspeed You! Black Emperor. 

Footprints Open Jazz Jam

Multiple dates

Alder

An open jam session led by the Footprints house band. All musicians and vocalists are invited to join – or just come down to enjoy the music.

Pollen

Multiple dates

Grey to Green, S3 8LB

An inner-city flower market, celebrating all things botanical. Taking over a patch of Sheffield city centre one Sunday a month, with plants, flowers, fresh produce and music.

¡Up Yours! Fergus Quill Plays Xero Slingsby

Wed. 27 August 2025

The Lescar

Powerful, boisterous music from an all-star band drawn from the Leeds jazz scene, celebrating the anarchic spirit of UK jazz legend Xero Slingsby.

Graves Park Food Festival

Sat. 30 August 2025 — Sun. 31 August 2025

Graves Park, Hemsworth Road, S8 8LJ

A family-friendly celebration of international food, independent drink, live music, arts and charity – all taking place in the biggest park in Sheffield.
With stalls, bars, chef demos, children's entertainment, and lots more.

Ben Shankland Trio

Wed. 3 September 2025

The Lescar

Winner of BBC Radio Scotland Young Jazz Musician of the Year 2023, Ben Shankland brings his wonderful trio to The Lescar. Music marked by an unmistakable personality in every phrase and driven by melody and lyricism.

Peddler

Multiple dates

Peddler Warehouse, 92 Burton Road, S3 8DA

Food, music and art in a former warehouse, one weekend a month. Plus kids craft activities on the Saturday afternoons. With bonus Christmas crafts for their festive edition.

Rockin the Bowl

Sat. 6 September 2025

FORGE Warehouse, 148 Effingham Road, S4 7YS

"Forged in fire, set in steel." An all-dayer dedicated to rock and metal. Back for 2025 in its new venue of FORGE Warehouse.

Open Mic Night

Multiple dates

Utopia Theatre, 11 Rockingham Gate, S1 4JD

Utopia Theatre’s free monthly platform for celebrating talent and creativity in Sheffield. Welcoming upcoming and established performers across all genres. First Sunday of every month.

The Heather Ferrier Trio

Thu. 11 September 2025

The Greystones

Accordionist, clog dancer, composer Heather Ferrier is changing the perceptions of alt-folk on her own terms. Joined by guitarist Alistair Paul and drummer Adam Stapleford.

The Ultimate Classic Rock Show 2025

Sat. 13 September 2025

The Octagon Centre

Dust off your air guitars for an evening of classic rock anthems from legends past and present.

Alpaca Festival

Fri. 12 September 2025 — Sat. 20 September 2025

A festival on algorithmic pattern-making in anything from heritage crafts to tech. With an algorave, a concert with pattern-based instrumental music, talks and workshops around patterns in juggling, textiles, music and more.

Powerlines

Sat. 20 September 2025

Crookes Social Club, Mulehouse Road, S10 1TD

A new independent metal festival for 2025 – by the fans, for the fans. Showcasing a lineup of local homegrown artists and national acts, open to all ages and types of metalheads.

Mozart Violin Sonatas

Fri. 26 September 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Ensemble 360 perform some of Mozart’s most charming works, as well as music by Robert Schumann.

Float Along Festival

Sat. 27 September 2025

Float Along music festival returns to Sheffield city centre to do it all again for the third year running. Details of this year's lineup and venues to come...

The Signatures: Northern Live

Sat. 27 September 2025

The Octagon Centre

Experience the soul-stirring magic of The Signatures, the backing band for many of the Northern Soul original artists.

Romantic Piano Trios

Tue. 30 September 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

A stirring evening of romantic favourites performed by the Leonore Piano Trio.

Sensoria

Thu. 2 October 2025 — Sun. 5 October 2025

Sheffield's festival of film and music. Expect a truly unique mix of performance, live film scores, screenings, exhibitions, and music industry activity.

The Pocket Ellington, Alan Barnes & Dave Green & Vimala Rowe

Wed. 8 October 2025

Crucible Theatre

Sheffield Jazz present a double bill featuring a classic Ellington sound followed by award-winning singer Vimala Rowe, a major talent on the British jazz scene.

Three Acres and a Cow

Thu. 9 October 2025

Crucible Theatre

A history of land rights and protest in folk song and story. Part history talk, part folk club sing-a-long, part storytelling session.

Chris Addison's incomplete guide to chamber music

Fri. 10 October 2025

Crucible Theatre

Chris Addison (The Thick of It, Mock the Week) joins Ensemble 360 to bring his infectious enthusiasm for classical music to the Crucible. Telling the story of Europe from the courts of 17th century Italy to today’s contemporary composers.

Beatles Complete

Sat. 11 October 2025

The Montgomery

A night of Beatlemania packed with hits from the most influential band of all time.

Family Concert: The Storm Whale

Sat. 11 October 2025

Crucible Theatre

A musical version of Benji Davies’ modern-classic The Storm Whale. The story of a boy, a whale washed up on the beach and friendships that will change their lives forever.

Nigel Kennedy: Heart and Soul

Sat. 11 October 2025

Crucible Theatre

Nigel Kennedy is the best-selling classical violinist of all time and a past collaborator with Paul McCartney, Kate Bush, The Who and Led Zeppelin. He takes to the Crucible stage along with cellist Beata Urbanek-Kalinowska.

No Bounds

Fri. 10 October 2025 — Sun. 12 October 2025

A weekend of bleeps, beats and sweaty grins – bringing together music, visual art and technology. Lineup for 2025 to be confirmed.

Sounds Of Now: Éliane Radigue for Organ

Fri. 17 October 2025

St Marie's Cathedral, Cathedral House, Norfolk Street, S1 2JB

Éliane Radigue’s Occam XXV – written for, and performed here by, the French organist Frédéric Blondy – envelops its listener in a slowly evolving ocean of sound.

Sounds of Now: Eliane Radique Roundtable

Sat. 18 October 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Musicians Rhodri Davies, Angharad Davies and Dominic Lash are joined by Louise Gray (writer for The Wire) and author Julia Eckhardt to discuss the work of pioneering French composer Éliane Radigue.

Eliane Radique for Harp, Violin and Double Bass

Sat. 18 October 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Welsh harpist and improvisor Rhodri Davies, together with Angharad Davies (violin) and Dominic Lash (double bass), present a selection of works composed for them by Radigue.

Bach for Solo Violin

Sat. 25 October 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Ensemble 360’s violinist Benjamin Nabarro presents Bach’s third Sonata and Partita. Unmatched in the 400 years since their composition, these are pieces that continue to dazzle and amaze.

Bach and the American Minimalists

Fri. 31 October 2025

Playhouse

Monegasque-Sri Lankan pianist Shani Diluka performs music by Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Moondog and JS Bach.

Quartet for the end of time

Sat. 1 November 2025

Playhouse

Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time is the centrepiece of this concert showcasing music to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Performed by Ensemble 360.

Messiaen Roundtable

Sat. 1 November 2025

Playhouse

Leading Messiaen scholar Professor Christopher Dingle joins musicians from Ensemble 360 for a roundtable discussion of one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century: Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time.

Ravel & Glass: Cinematic Quartets

Thu. 6 November 2025

Playhouse

Piatti Quartet perform string music composed for, and used in, cinema. Featuring compositions by Jonny Greenwood for There Will Be Blood, Bernard Herman’s for Psycho, and Philip Glass for Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters.

Songs of love

Fri. 7 November 2025

Playhouse

Singer Claire Booth and Ensemble 360 present an evening of French chamber music.

Piano Classics – Libby Burgess

Sat. 8 November 2025

Playhouse

Pianist Libby Burgess presents a recital of some of the best-loved music for solo piano – from the dazzling inventiveness of Schubert’s Four Impromptus to the lush romanticism of Rachmaninov’s Morceaux de Fantaisie.

Sounds Of Now: Konnakol, Drum Kit and Code

Sat. 8 November 2025

Playhouse

Konnakol (vocal percussive music from the South Indian Carnatic tradition) artist BC Manjunath, live-coder Alex McLean and drummer Matt Davies present an evening of live-coded electronic music and percussion.

Ultimate 70s Show

Sat. 15 November 2025 — Fri. 14 November 2025

The Montgomery

Travel back in time and relive the sights and sounds of the 1970s.

Death & The Maiden

Thu. 20 November 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

The Dudok Quartet present Schubert’s extraordinary string quartet. Alongside their own arrangement of a 17th century Italian madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo and Kaija Saariaho’s modern masterpiece Terra Memoria.

Mozart Gran Partita

Sat. 22 November 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Ensemble 360 perform one Mozart’s greatest works, immortalised in the 1984 film Amadeus, in this concert of chamber music on a large scale.

Vienesse Masterworks: Brahms and more for solo piano

Thu. 4 December 2025

Playhouse

Tim Horton returns to Sheffield for the latest in his series celebrating the musical history of Vienna. Beethoven’s well-known Piano Sonata No.15, nicknamed the ‘Pastoral’, is showcased alongside Brahms’s emotional and romantic Four Ballades.

Relaxed Concert: The Genius Of Beethoven

Sat. 6 December 2025

Playhouse

For this ‘relaxed’ concert, doors will be left open, lights raised, a break-out space provided, and there will be less emphasis on the audience being quiet during the performance. With Ensemble 360 performing Beethoven.

The Genius of Beethoven

Sat. 6 December 2025

Playhouse

Ensemble 360 celebrate one of the greatest composers to have ever lived.

The Snowman + Live Score

Sat. 6 December 2025 — Sun. 7 December 2025

Showroom

Unite the Union Brass Band present a special festive performance of the Christmas classic with a live score.

Moonlight – Isata Kanneh-Mason

Thu. 11 December 2025

Upper Chapel, Norfolk Street, S1 2JD

Pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason presents two of Beethoven’s best-loved works for solo piano: the ‘Moonlight’ and the ‘Waldstein’ sonatas.