Mint XL: Leeds Finally Gets a Proper Superclub — A Student's Guide to the New 2,500-Cap Venue

TL;DR

Mint XL is a new 2,500-capacity, multi-room club opening Friday 25 September 2026 — the first weekend of the 2026/27 freshers season.
It's in the Merrion Centre, in the unit that was Pryzm until it closed in 2024. Walkable from campus and the Hyde Park student belt.
Run by the Mint team — Mint Club, Mint Warehouse, Mint Festival — who've programmed electronic music in Leeds since the '90s. Not a chain.
Funktion-One Vero sound, and a strict no-phones policy on the dancefloor — photos and video banned, to keep the focus on the music.
The opening line-up hasn't been announced yet. Line-up and tickets will come through mintleeds.com and Instagram @mintwarehouseleeds.

If you're starting at Leeds this September, you're arriving at a genuinely good moment for the city's nightlife. Leeds has always punched above its weight for clubbing — and it's about to get the one thing it's never really had.

The gap Leeds has always had

Here's the honest state of Leeds clubbing, the version the freshers tour won't give you. The best rooms in this city are small. Wire is a ~200-capacity basement. Mabgate Bleach is a DIY warehouse. Belgrave Music Hall is three intimate floors. They are excellent — genuinely some of the best small rooms in the country — and you should go to all of them.

But Leeds has never had a large-format venue that was any good. The big rooms were chains. If you wanted a 2,000-plus-capacity headline night with a sound system worth travelling for, you went to Manchester, or you waited for Mint Festival once a year.

That's what's changing.

What Mint XL actually is

Mint XL is a new 2,500-capacity, multi-room venue — and the people building it are the reason to pay attention. It's the latest project from the Mint team: Mint Club, the legendary Leeds basement; Mint Warehouse, the current venue; and Mint Festival, Yorkshire's biggest dance-music festival. They have been booking electronic music in this city since the 1990s.

Mint XL is them levelling up — taking a big room and running it the way they've always run small ones.

2,500 capacity, multiple rooms — main-room headliners, plus secondary spaces for live acts and touring DJs under one roof.
Funktion-One Vero sound in the main rooms. If you don't know yet why that matters, you will the first time you stand in front of it.
High-spec production throughout — this isn't a chain venue with a smoke machine.

✓The no-phones policy — read this before you go

Mint XL runs a strict no-phones policy on its dancefloors. Once you're in the room, photos and video are banned — the venue wants you watching the DJ, not your screen. It's a deliberate choice and it's enforced. Plenty of the best electronic venues in Europe do the same. Don't turn up expecting to film your night — turn up expecting to have one.

Yes — it's the old Pryzm

If a second-year tells you "Mint XL is the old Pryzm", they're right, and they're also missing the point.

Same building — the multi-room unit in the Merrion Centre that was Pryzm until Pryzm closed in 2024. The shell has sat empty since. What Mint XL is doing is gutting and rebuilding it: new fit-out, the Funktion-One system, and — crucially — a team that programmes for the music rather than for a national chain's spreadsheet.

It's the same address. It is not the same venue.

Where it sits in a Leeds night out

Don't read Mint XL as a replacement for the underground rooms. It's an addition — the big-room option the city was missing.

Want underground, intimate, a record you've never heard? Wire, Mabgate Bleach, Belgrave's smaller floors. Still your rooms.
Want a free, low-pressure midweek night? Belgrave's Monday indie night, the SU on Fridays. Still the move.
Want a 2,500-cap headline night with a proper system, in Leeds, run by people who care? That's the new thing. That's Mint XL.

A healthy clubbing city needs both ends. As of September, Leeds finally has them.

Opening night — what we know

Mint XL's launch party is confirmed for Friday 25 September 2026 — the first weekend of freshers. The opening line-up had not been announced at the time of writing; line-up and ticket details will come through the Mint channels, so keep an eye on mintleeds.com and Instagram @mintwarehouseleeds.

The timing isn't a coincidence. Opening on freshers weekend means Mint XL wants its first-ever crowd to be the 2026/27 intake. If you're a fresher, the city's newest venue and your first month in Leeds line up exactly.

Getting there

The Merrion Centre is central — and for a student that's the good news.

From campus: about 10 minutes on foot from the University of Leeds down Woodhouse Lane; Leeds Beckett is closer still.
From Hyde Park / Headingley: walkable from Hyde Park (around 20 minutes), or a few minutes on any Woodhouse Lane bus with your MetroCard.
Landmark: it's right next to the first direct arena — if you can find the arena, you can find Mint XL.

No taxi needed from the standard student areas. Budget the fare for the way home, not the way there.

“
Don't make Mint XL your whole nightlife personality in week one. Go to the opening because it's a moment — the city's biggest new venue, opening the same week you arrive. Then go to Belgrave on a Monday, find a basement you love, and let Mint XL be the big-night-out option, not the only one.
”

— The take a Leeds final-year would give a fresher

The bottom line

Mint XL is the most significant thing to happen to Leeds clubbing in years — a 2,500-capacity room, built by the people who've run this city's electronic scene for three decades, opening the same weekend a new intake of students arrives. It won't replace the basements and the warehouses, and it isn't trying to. It's the big room Leeds never had. Opening night is 25 September. Keep your phone in your pocket.

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