Encore FAQs

Encore is a scheme for community groups and organisations that work with individuals who experience barriers that prevent them from accessing Opera North’s work. Our definition of ‘group’ is very open – you might be a big charity with national funding, or you might be a few neighbours who club together to help out on your street.  

You don’t need to be based in Leeds to be an Encore member, and nor do your guests, but it is handy if you’re able to get here fairly easily. 

Once you’re all signed up, you’ll receive an email every month telling you what events we have tickets for in the following month, plus a little bit of info about the artists and venues. It’s then down to the Encore representative in your organisation to coordinate with your members or attendees to find out who’s interested in coming to what. Once you’ve got back to us with that information we’ll set your tickets aside for you. 

You’ll collect your tickets from a member of our friendly team at the door in the hour before a performance’s start time. We’re easily identifiable by our clipboards that say ‘OPERA NORTH COMMUNITY TICKETS’ on the back. Your guests can come as a group with a facilitator or make their own way there – whatever is most suitable for your setting. 

We set a suggested allocation for each event based on our ticket availability, which is usually somewhere between 5 and 10.  

There’s no maximum or minimum for any group. Some of our partners come along for every gig, and some want to attend the most well-known operas every couple of years.  

Encore is totally free to join and be a part of. We ask our Encore partners to identify if their guests would like to contribute a small amount to the cost of their ticket – either £5 or £10 – and we won’t question your decision if the answer is £0. Tickets are paid for in cash on the door on the night of a performance, and if your guests aren’t able to pay then we won’t ask them to.  

Please note that any groups that work with refugees and asylum seekers will always receive free tickets. 

You can email our team on encore@operanorth.co.uk. We’ll want to meet up in person for a chat, ideally with members of your group but if that’s not possible then we can meet up with your chosen Encore representative instead. We like to meet in person to get to know your guests a little bit before they come to their first show, so they’ll hopefully feel a bit more confident about approaching us on the door.  

Sanctuary seekers can collect a scratch-off First Day Rider from our team when they collect their theatre tickets, no questions asked. If your guests aren’t able to travel to us by bus then please get in touch with us on encore@operanorth.co.uk and we’ll have a chat.

Every year we select six Encore partners to become part of our Encore Plus scheme. These groups receive backstage tours, special performances in their venues, and workshops and activities, all formed as part of a dialogue between us and our Encore Plus partners. Our Encore Plus partners also have access to higher numbers of tickets for our events.  

Let us know you’re interested! When you sign up we’ll ask if you’re interested as part of the process. Our partners are usually chosen in light of other work going on at Opera North, and we usually get in touch with our Encore plus partners for the calendar year in the autumn.  

Send us an email on encore@operanorth.co.uk, or call us on 0113 213 5649.