When news broke out that PRYZM was shutting down, students were wondering what would replace and fill the void? After a few years Mint XL has officially taken over and been open for nearly a month, and I feel like it is time to give it an honest review.
Mint XL is part of the broader Mint brand, including Mint Festival and Mint Warehouse. Having opened its doors in late September 2026, the venue has been boasting its state-of-the-art sound system and multi club room set up. The venue is massive, with a capacity of around 2500 people, 3 music rooms, a huge smoking area, and even a bean bag room! That’s right, a bean bag room – that is the first time I have seen that in a club.
One of the main features of Mint XL is its strict no phone policy on the dance floor. Upon entry, they tape up your phone camera. In an era when people are always on their phones on the dance floor, this policy is refreshing as people can spend more time living in the moment and enjoying the atmosphere.
Mint XL has two main student events, including Groove Mondays and After Dark on a Thursday. The event Groove Monday only uses 2 rooms, The Ballroom and The Clubroom, but is still one of the biggest student Mondays, giving Bobby’s Disco a run for its money. This event has a variety of music – ranging from Garage, House; tech in The Club room; Disco and dance anthems in The Ball Room.
After Dark on a Thursday is one of my favourite student nights out in Leeds, for the range of music it has and rooms. This event uses all three rooms, with House, Disco and Dance classics playing in the main Ball Room. My favourite room of all time is the Club Room, playing early 2000s, Club Classics, sing-alongs and throwback songs – the type of songs I thought all clubs would play when I was younger. If you love traditional club music that you can sing-along to and Rihanna (they play a lot of Rihanna), this is the room for you. Last but not least, is The Cage, in this room you can vote for the music you want to listen to on the After Dark Instagram story. The most popular choices are usually Hip-Hop, R&B and D&B, but there are more options to choose from.
For student nights out, on Mondays and Thursdays it is quite affordable in both ticket and drink prices with final release tickets being around £8 maximum and pre 11.30 tickets being around £2 and sometimes even free on select releases. Just a word of warning, make sure to arrive on time for your allocated time slot, as they will charge you more if you come late. Just watch out for that.
The venue is very spacious and not as overcrowded with venues like The Warehouse, which is refreshing. Again in comparison to The Warehouse, queues for the bars and toilets are not as long at Mint XL, which leaves more time for dancing and hanging out with your friends.
However, all positives aside, the length of the queue every week is terrible and it still has not gotten any better! Mint XL really needs to sort this out, as every time I have been there I had to wait for over 40 minutes for entry, with the worst wait time being 1 hour and 30 minutes. To save yourself from such a long wait time, go before 11.30 (you can thank me later). The bouncers are notably very strict and a surprising amount of people have been denied entry into the venue, so make sure you have a valid ID and avoid arriving visibly drunk.
So is Mint XL actually worth the hype? Overall yes. I recommended Mint XL as a venue for students, particularly the After Dark event on a Thursday. Once you finally make it inside, the spacious layout, variety of music and atmosphere, makes it a really fun night out. If management can streamline the outer queuing system, it could even be one of the top nights out in Leeds. My final advice, get there early and you are guaranteed a great night!
Editor: Tamima Islam