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Scene and Herd
EVENT OF THE WEEK
w/c 14th September 2026
Sheffield’s more unconventional sporting calendar gets another entry this September as The Giant International Wooden Block Stacking World Championship returns, promising an evening of comedy, competition and increasingly precarious construction.
Taking place at The Lughole in Kelham/Neepsend on 19th September, the event is an absurd comedy night built around a tournament involving giant wooden blocks. It bears a certain resemblance to a very well-known stacking game, although organisers are emphatic that it must not be called Jenga under any circumstances!
Creator Matt Tate originally imagined the championship as a collision between classic Bullseye, early ’90s American wrestling and snooker, and this year the spectacle is set to get bigger and stranger. Defending champion Claire, who emerged victorious from the audience last time around, returns to face a line-up of Sheffield comedians and clowns including Sean Morley, Ava Riverside, Ollie Yates and Sash, Charlie Hammond, and Bipolar Abdul.
There is a serious cause behind the silliness, with all proceeds going to Sheffield Electrolysis Project, a mutual-aid initiative subsidising electrolysis hair-removal treatments for trans women and transfeminine people experiencing financial hardship. Last year’s championship raised more than £200 for the project, which says it has delivered more than 150 appointments to the local community since launching in May 2025.
Doors open at 6pm for a 6.30pm start. Tickets are £10, or £8 for Squarehole Comedy subscribers, with all proceeds going to Sheffield Electrolysis Project.
Sheffield Electrolysis Project
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Herd the Word EVENT OF THE WEEK
w/c 14th September 2026
Fifty years after punk detonated across Britain, Mark Sloper’s new documentary 50 Years of Punk returns to the streets of London where a cultural upheaval took shape.
Screening at Sheffield’s Showroom Cinema on Wednesday 16th September, the film captures not simply the music but the chaos, energy and furious creativity of a movement whose influence has proved remarkably enduring.
Sloper, director of Sid! By Those Who Really Knew Him and The Story of The Skids, combines new interviews with rare archive footage from 1976 and beyond, allowing the people who created punk to tell much of the story themselves. Among those appearing are Sex Pistols bassist Glen Matlock, The Stranglers’ Hugh Cornwell, The Damned’s Dave Vanian and Rat Scabies, Gaye Advert of The Adverts and many more.
Archive material also brings back some of punk’s defining figures who are no longer here, including X-Ray Spex frontwoman Poly Styrene and Vivienne Westwood, punk’s queen of fashion, whose provocative designs and partnership with Malcolm McLaren on the King’s Road helped create the movement’s unmistakable visual language. Styrene, meanwhile, brought something entirely her own to punk with X-Ray Spex: a startling voice, sharp intelligence and songs that attacked consumerism, conformity and expectations of women.
It is in the collision of these voices and images that 50 Years of Punk most vividly articulates the glorious disorder of the period. This was a moment when music, fashion, art, politics and teenage frustration crashed into one another, overturning ideas about who could form a band, make clothes, publish a fanzine or simply demand to be heard.
Half a century later, Sloper’s film suggests that punk matters not because it can be preserved neatly as nostalgia, but because its challenge to get up and do something for yourself remains potent.
50 Years of Punk screens at the Showroom Cinema as part of Sheffield Film Festival at 8pm on Wednesday 16th September, ahead of its UK cinema release on 18th September. The special preview is followed by a live Q&A with director Mark Sloper.
SEPTEMBER 2026
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Your guide to the month ahead.
Check out our weekly event recommendations every Monday.
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Art in the Gardens
Sheffield Botanical Gardens will once again be transformed into a huge open-air gallery when Art in the Gardens returns on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th September.
The event brings together artists and craft makers from Sheffield and across the UK, with thousands of original works displayed throughout the gardens. Visitors can browse paintings, prints and handmade crafts in the marquees and pavilions, discover sculptures dotted across the lawns and see work entered into the Open Art Exhibition and Sheffield Young Artists display.
The setting is in the Grade II-listed Sheffield Botanical Gardens providing a particularly picturesque backdrop
Alongside the art there will be live demonstrations, a Home and Gardens showcase and locally sourced food and drink, while visitors can meet many of the artists and buy work directly from them.
The event runs from 10.30am to 5.30pm on both days, with advance tickets costing £8.50 and admission free for under-16s accompanied by an adult.
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Sheffield Heritage Open Days
Some of Sheffield’s most fascinating buildings and stories take centre stage from 11th–20th September 2026, when Sheffield Heritage Open Days returns as part of England’s nationwide celebration of history and culture.
The festival offers the chance to look behind doors that aren’t ordinarily open to the public, discover overlooked pieces of local history and experience the city through tours, talks and special activities. Crucially, many of Heritage Open Days events are free, making the festival an excellent excuse to explore somewhere in Sheffield you’ve walked past countless times but never ventured inside.
The programme ranges from architecture and industrial heritage to the people and events that have shaped modern Sheffield. Among the 2026 offerings are guided tours inside the Grade I-listed Sheffield Town Hall, alongside talks exploring subjects including the Sheffield Blitz and the story of Jewish immigrants who helped shape the city’s politics, commerce and industry. Some tours require advance booking.
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Float Along Festival
Sheffield’s multi-venue Float Along Festival returns on Saturday 26th September 2026, bringing a packed day of alternative music to The Octagon, Sidney & Matilda and Corporation.
Leading this year’s bill are indie favourites White Lies, joined by Dublin punk band Sprints, genre-bending South London outfit Warmduscher and the theatrical Opus Kink. The line-up runs deep, with TTSSFU,
Man/Woman/Chainsaw, Grandmas House, Nuha Ruby Ra, Gia Ford, PleasureInc., Shaking Hand, Cowboyy, Cucamaras, Your Mate’s Ex, Oslo Twins, Little Grandad, Faint Paint, Maximilian Tanner and Spanish Horses also heading to Sheffield for the festival.
Float Along has built its identity around discovering emerging artists alongside bigger alternative names, and this year’s programme continues that theme. A BBC Introducing selection adds April Tapes, Vehicle, recently Sheff Herd spotlighted local artists Hard As Nails, Cinder Path and Nature Kids to the bill.
The festival format gives gig-goers the chance to move between three of Sheffield’s best-known independent music venues throughout the day. Once the live sets are finished, the celebrations will continue with an official after-party featuring Flowdan, rounding off a festival that spans indie and post-punk through to experimental sounds and grime.
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Sheffield Half Pint Marathon
Sheffield’s Half Pint Marathon returns from 1–30 September 2026, offering a rather more sociable take on the traditional marathon.
Instead of running 13.1 miles, participants make their way around some of Sheffield’s best independent pubs, bars and taprooms, collecting stickers in a Half Pint Passport as they go.
This year’s route stretches right across the city and includes Hop Hideout, Dog & Partridge, Kapital, Three Tuns, Triple Point Taproom, Head of Steam, Forum, The Stags Head, The Botanical Arms, The Blind Monkey, The Punch Bowl, The Hallamshire House, The Harlequin, Gardeners Rest, Alder Bar, Riverside Kelham, Neepsend Social Club, The Beer House S6, The Broadfield, Waggon & Horses, Abbeydale Beer Works and The Rising Sun, among others. There’s no need to attempt them all at once either – participants have the whole of September to work their way around the route.
Getting involved is simple: pick up a passport at a participating venue, order one of the official Half Pint Marathon beers and collect a sticker for your card. Visit 15 venues to complete a half marathon or all 30 to complete the full marathon, with finishers able to claim a limited-edition illustrated print.
The event is also raising money for Sheffield Mind, with 25p from every official Half Pint Marathon beer sold donated to the charity; those choosing another drink can contribute 25p to the collection instead.
For more information, follow the Instagram page here