There’s a particular kind of buzz that only a festival can bring to a city, and this autumn it settles on Leeds Playhouse. From 6 to 10 October, Leeds International Festival of Ideas (LIFI26) takes over the stage with a line-up that reads like the most interesting dinner party you’ll never quite manage to throw yourself. 

The headliners alone are worth clearing your diary for. Louis Theroux opens the week on Tuesday, taking us Inside the Louisphere for an evening with Britain’s most quietly disarming interviewer, before Tim Minchin closes things out on Saturday with Creativity Among the Chaos — expect wit, music and mischief in equal measure. Both are already sold out, which tells you everything about the appetite for a proper night of ideas in this city. 

Happily, there’s plenty still to book. Elizabeth Day brings her much-loved gospel of getting things wrong to a Failure Is an Option fireside on Wednesday, and Dame Evelyn Glennie — the trailblazing percussionist who has spent a career redefining how we listen — takes to the stage on Thursday for Strength Beyond the Silence. Later that evening, Chris Packham, Dr Mya-Rose Craig and Juergen Maier CBE tackle the climate head-on in The Planet Hasn’t Stopped Burning. 

What makes LIFI so watchable is that it never talks down to its audience. The panels are the beating heart of the programme, gathering familiar faces around the questions we’re all quietly chewing over. Friday asks whether it’s finally time to switch off social media, with Megan McKenna among the voices, then spins back through the decade that shaped us all in What Did the 90s Really Do to Us? — Denise van Outen, Judge Jules and Harriet Harman on one bill is very LIFI indeed. Saturday keeps the momentum going as Vicky Pattison and Laura Hamilton weigh up whether kids are still part of the plan, before Afua Hirsch, James O’Brien and Samira Ahmed close the panels with a searching look at belonging. 

There are quieter, braver moments too. On Wednesday, Roman Kemp leads a frank and compassionate conversation on how we talk about suicide — the kind of subject a festival of ideas is uniquely placed to hold with care. 

That’s the real charm of LIFI26: one venue, five nights, and a programme that swings from laugh-out-loud to genuinely moving, often within the same evening. It’s a chance to think a little harder, feel a little more, and do it all surrounded by a city that loves a good conversation. 

LIFI26 runs 6-10 October 2026 at Leeds Playhouse. Tickets and the full programme here.