We’re beyond excited to bring Leeds Indie Food (LIF) back for 2022, and this year we’re on a mission to create a hub of inspiration and innovation for the city’s very best independent food and drink businesses.
The brand-new home of LIF comes in the form of a fresh website – the place perfect for championing indies, showcasing stories and sharing the exciting experiences this year’s mini festival has to offer.
The Covid years are behind us (we hope) and they taught us a lot about our own capacity and tenacity. To survive them, we acted fast, transforming our festival into a supportive digital platform and launching the ‘Support Your Local Indie Scene’ directory – a magazine full of recipes and stories, which we funded ourselves with help from Hungry Sandwich Club and Leeds City Council.
Since then, we’ve lost a lot of the support – financial and otherwise – that we relied on, and have had to think outside the box to keep the spirit of LIF alive. But giving up isn’t something that’s ever been an option – especially not with the Leeds indie scene growing more vibrantly than ever.
Despite the challenges, we’re setting our sights even higher this year. In 2022, LIF will:
• Showcase stories from indies and hospitality venues
• Strengthen the Leeds food story
• Talk more about street food and its impact
• Share more opinion pieces on a range of foodie topics
• Share knowledge with the industry
• Help educate traders and hospitality professionals
• Establish Leeds as a top foodie destination
• Host regular events throughout the year
• Launch the patrons scheme by the end of 2022
• Lay the foundations for an indie membership scheme
• Start making plans for an annual showcase, awards night or celebration 👏
It all begins with a 10-day mini festival starting on May 19th – which you can buy tickets for on our website now. Beyond that, there’s plenty in the pipeline, including a week of activity in autumn, and a bigger project launching next year. 👀
That’s it for now indie fans, but we’ll see you very soon. Take care out there. ✌️
Much love,
Team LIF
