Reading & Leeds Festival is well known for being the last main festival of the summer season and what a line-up we have this year! And what’s more there is a brand new stage setup with The Grid (Main Stage), The Gallery, The Warehouse, The Ballroom will host mostly up and coming bands including The Clause, Westside Cowboy, Bleech 9:3 and Basht. among others whilst The Canopy replaces the former BBC Introducing Stage. Let’s take a closer look at what band’s will be rocking in Bramham Park on the last weekend of August.
Thursday
The Grid (Main Stage) runs on a Thursday for the very first time, the main headliners in Leeds being Kasabian who are sure to get the place bouncing nice and early, with a frontman such as Sergio Pizzorno we are guaranteed mayhem amongst the crowd. Joining Kasabian are Wigan indie rockers The Lathums who are hot off the heals of supporting Kings Of Leon in Glasgow. Up and coming Manchester band Arkayla open proceedings for what is sure to be an unforgettable weekend. Scottish folk star Dylan John Thomas has a massive following around the UK and with album number two on the way in September we are sure to hear a few new tracks from the young Glaswegian. The Clause and M60 are bands we have watched grow over the past few years and we would highly recommend taking some time out to watch their performances.
Friday
The Grid welcomes dance act Chase & Status and what is sure to be one of the highlights of the weekend when Florence & The Machine take to the stage to play songs from sixth album release Everybody Scream as well as a hitlist of previous releases, this is one performance not to be missed. Stockport band Blossoms have been releasing new music recently and we can all look forward to hearing the new tracks live at Leeds.
The Gallery Stage is hosting two of the best up and coming bands in the UK right now: Kneecap and The K’s, both need little introduction, Kneecap have been selling out shows around the UK, Ireland and Europe for some time now and The K’s are not far behind them. The latest Kneecap album Fenian has been well received by the fans who should turn up in big numbers for this performance.
Saturday
Charli XCX released new album Music, Fashion, Film in July and we are sure to hear more than a few tracks from that release alongside big hits such as party 4 u, 360 and Von Dutch to name a few. Co-headliners on Saturday are Dublin-based Fontaines D.C. who will surely be the big buzz of the weekend, Grian Chatten brings his punk/alternative vibes to a massive crowd, these guys are surely one of the biggest bands on the planet right now.
Declan McKenna and James Marriott will showcase their musical abilities while TikTok star Skye Newman will be very popular amongst festival goers. Londoners Keo are one of the most promising up and coming bands right now and are sure to bring the energy to Leeds, we were lucky enough to catch them at Sound City and TRNSMT this year and can confirm that they are the real deal, a performance not to be missed. Talking of up and coming bands let’s not forget about the excellent Birmingham band Overpass who have just released debut album Elsewhere, Always as well as Bleech 9:3 and Cardinals, Saturday is shaping up to be the day of days.
Sunday
The final day of the Leeds festival has rapper Dave headlining on The Grid stage offering something completely different, that’s the great thing about festivals, it allows a good mixture of music performances while Multi award winner RAYE will bring her charm and amazing vocals to Leeds.
Maisie Peters dropped an album not that long ago and it will be great to hear the new songs live, Maisie is such a talented all-round musician. Irish folk band Kingfishr are not long off a very successful UK tour and are sure to attract a decent crowd into The Gallery area while Liverpudlian Jamie Webster will showcase some new music from his upcoming album as well as loads of his well established songs.
The Leeds (and Reading) festivals are shaping up to be ones not to miss this year, we are buzzing for it already! Check out the line-up below and find out more about the festival here.
Written by: Alan Brown
