Leeds has a habit of doing Pride with a bit more colour, a bit more noise and a lot more personality than the average city rollout. This time, it has gone straight for spectacle: two giant POPek Balloon Dog sculptures by Whatshisname have landed as part of a Pride activation, and the result is exactly the sort of public-facing statement that understands what a celebration should look like.
One sculpture is in Victoria Quarter and the other is outside John Lewis in Victoria Gate, giving Victoria Leeds a split-stage installation that is hard to miss and even harder to mistake for background decoration. It is a temporary exhibition, but it is doing a very clear job: turning the city centre into a visual marker for Leeds Pride while also acknowledging 10 years of Victoria Leeds.
Two milestones, one pop of pride
The point here is not subtlety. According to Victoria Leeds centre director Jo Coburn, the installation is designed to celebrate two major milestones at once: 20 years of Leeds Pride and 10 years of Victoria Leeds. That is the right instinct. If you are marking anniversaries with cultural weight, you do not bury them. You put them in front of people and let them speak loudly enough to be felt.
Coburn said the aim was to create something memorable that reflects the city’s creativity, inclusivity and vibrant cultural scene, and that Whatshisname’s work fits the mood because it captures joy, individuality and self-expression. That is exactly the sort of language Pride activations should earn, not borrow. Here, it feels earned because the installation is built around a simple idea with real public impact: make the city centre part of the celebration.
Whatshisname himself clearly understands the value of the setting. He described bringing the POPek balloon dogs to Leeds as a thrill, said it has been a decade since the characters first came to life, and noted that they have travelled the world while sparking smiles wherever they go. That matters because the work is not just being dropped into Leeds for the sake of filling space. It arrives with a history, a personality and enough visual wit to match a Pride event that is supposed to feel alive rather than ceremonial.
There is also a neat symmetry to the timing. The POPek balloon dogs first came to life a decade ago, and now they are being used to mark another anniversary moment in a different place. That is the sort of crossover public art understands best: familiar enough to be welcoming, playful enough to be memorable, and well-placed enough to make people stop and look.
The exhibition at Victoria Leeds runs until Monday 27 July, which gives visitors a short window to see it while it is part of the city’s Pride celebrations. That limited run gives the installation some urgency, and in this case urgency is a strength. It keeps the display from becoming routine. It turns it into an event.
And that is really the point. Leeds Pride is not just being acknowledged here. It is being given a visual centrepiece. In a city that wants to celebrate its cultural energy, that is exactly how it should be done.
