Food has played a vital role in Compass Festival’s 14-year history, and 2024 made no exception. Over the course of November 2024, Compass Festival brought together a plethora of cuisines as the starting point for gathering, connecting and sharing.
Ling Tan’s Supper Club: Low Carbon Chinatown brought together 60 people for a communal meal. Photo: Jules Lister
From the exploration of identity and pleasure with SHARING PLATTER, to addressing the climate crisis through a pop-up Supper Club and installation in Leeds Kirkgate Market, one of the aims of this year was to shine a spotlight on the discourse that matters not just to the locals of Leeds but globally too.
Peter Reed, Director of Compass Festival, says: “Food has informed the shape of Compass Festival in many ways over the years… Food has helped to tell stories and given form and frames in which artists can have conversations and exchanges with audiences.”
SHARING PLATTER by artist Amy Lawrence curated a nourishing learning space for women and non-binary people of colour. Combining conversation, an interactive workshop and an eating club, the attendees enjoyed local, community-centred food and heard from growing and herbal specialists. Through the lens of ancestral food and eating practices vulnerable to political, economic and ideological pressures, SHARING PLATTER combined expressions of resistance with celebrations of identity.
Before 2024’s SHARING PLATTER, Amy Lawrence and collaborators presented Black Eating Club at Compass Festival 2022. Photo: Sophie Okonkwo, Sable Studio
Ling Tan’s project Leeds’ Low Carbon Chinatown also reflected on identity and heritage, but alongside a mission to facilitate climate action.
Using Chinese diasporic food culture as a starting point, it looked to develop new ‘authentic’ sustainable ways of producing, sourcing and consuming food that evokes joy and memories.
A delicious bowl of wonton dumpling soup. Photo: Jules Lister
Peter says: “Food and climate has been a growing part of our programming since 2019, including last year when we commissioned “art you can smell” in the form of Flavours of a Falling Food System by Freddie Yauner of Popeye Collective as part of Leeds 2023.
This brings us to our third food oriented project: Popeye Collective’s Leeds Sauce Week – a project all about highlighting our relationships with food and place, and reimagining food systems by putting locality and community at the centre. The unique (bright pink!) rhubarb ketchup was developed in 2022 and a new batch (with all locally sourced ingredients) produced by the Compass team in 2024. Thanks to the 15 amazing independents that stocked Leeds Sauce or developed their very own Leeds Sauce dish.
The launch of Leeds Sauce Week included snacks using local and seasonal ingredients. Photo: Lizzie Coombes
As well as supporting artists working with food to extend their practices and try new things, our food focus is an important way for us to connect with communities and the amazing hospitality scene here in the city. Peter added: “Food has an unrivalled ability to bring strangers together, which also happens to be a big motivating mission for Compass programming.
It’s always been really important to me that there are many ‘open doors’ and routes into any edition of Compass Festival, whether that is picking up a flyer, hearing our team speak at a neighbourhood gathering or us presenting a project in the street you live on.”
Thanks to everyone who connected with us in 2024, through sharing a meal, encountering the flavours of Leeds, or reflecting on food cultures and systems with us.
Written by Rebecca Wayman
