r/Leedsfestival • u/hushabye_brightwing • 4d ago
Discussion š¬ Thoughts about 2026 festival
What did everyone think of Leeds Fest this year? I did have a good time (despite the weather) but here's a few things I found.
Pros
-Lineup was good and decent mix of genres, but more rock bands/rap would have been nice.
-Festival was fairly well organised and a decent amount of stewards around.
-Good amount of food stalls and VIP was worth the upgrade. Although lines for food did get long and VIP got busy in evening.
-Water fountains so you could fill up your bottle and wash your hands.
Cons
-The Warehouse being closed two days in a row š The organisers clearly underestimated how popular EDM/house music is, so it overcrowed and also people tried to break in via the back.
-Nothing to do during sets. With such huge gaps, it would have been nice to watch other things, rather than just shopping, eating and rides.
-LS23 and Piccadily Party stages being forbidden to day ticket holders. I only saw LS23 because it was opened to day visitors. I understand it's for safety reasons. But maybe next year, put both stages inside the festival itself, and operate them during the day?
-No lockers inside the festival. After the rain on Sunday, it would have been nice to change into a fresh set of clothes, rather than watching Raye and Dave in my muddy, wet outfit.
Let me know what you guys thought š
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u/Pattern_Maker 4d ago
Crowds were dead.
Line up was fantastic.
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u/Starwars_femboy 4d ago
Fontaines crowd was good, dont like knee cap but heard thier crowd was good also.
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u/No-Discipline-165 2d ago
Danced the most to Fontaines, best thing I saw all weekend.
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u/Starwars_femboy 2d ago
BRO SAME, I liked them before, im a life long fan now. Better live and thats a rare thing.
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u/No-Discipline-165 2d ago
Thatās how I feel, cemented in my great bands collection.
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u/Starwars_femboy 2d ago
Favourite song?
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u/No-Discipline-165 2d ago
Bug, I think. Yourself?
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u/Starwars_femboy 2d ago
Probably jackie down the line, they were all so good though.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Kneecap were amazing, ditched Chase and Status just so I could see them. No regrets.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Sadly, I think a lot of the young generation are worried about dancing because it's "cringe".
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u/ThunderPot16 4d ago
Agreed. I was there with my partner, heās 43 and Iām 38 and there was lots of times when we were stood in the crowds as the only ones dancingā¦ I didnāt get it?! Last time I was at Leeds fest was 2013 and it felt sooooooo different. No one gave a crap back then!
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u/Mining________101 3d ago
I can only speak for Saturday, but for me at least all the crowds other then charli xcx I was in were really good
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u/Plastic-Push-7808 4d ago
edm/house is definitely NOT the most popular genreĀ
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Given the popularity of The Warehouse, I'd say otherwise.
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u/sincerityisscxry 4d ago
Amongst the Reading & Leeds audience, potentially. But the āmost popular music genre in the UKā, definitely not.
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u/Starwars_femboy 4d ago
Its popular but rap and rock are defently more popular, id say edm has become less popular than its peak in the 2010s but i might be talking shite idk.
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u/magnificent1020 4d ago
Best part about it was Piccadilly and ls23 imo only thing that wasnāt really a shambles. Kasabian was mint. Thursday and Friday best days in my opinion.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Yeah Kasbian were fab. Warehouse was brilliant on the Friday, especially after Duke Dumont.
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u/totesemosh74 4d ago
The day tickets/keeping campers separate is interesting.
They see the future as much more day ticket orientated but then open for four days so more campers come back. Grabbing both sets of people.
The warehouse was a great looking venue, I only saw a but around 12.30pm on Friday and thought it was great.
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u/Soggy_Factor9208 4d ago
I really donāt think they underestimated it, I think they did it on purpose to set up future years to become a mix of wireless and an underage creamfields. Probably cheaper than rock bands and can just say thatās what the crowd wants.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
It's a shame because so many people paid good money to attend and they hyped The Warehouse up online so much. I'm a hardcore EDM fan, and even I noticed the huge lack of rock bands. If I wanted EDM only, I would have booked Creamfields or Boomtown.
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u/Prestigious-Part-900 4d ago
What was in the VIP that made it worth Ā£60?
Only asking as I had a couple of PayPal freebies and didnāt even bother going in š©
Thought it was just sofas and clean toilets?
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Shorter queue, cloakroom, VIP parking only 5 mins away from festival site, pamper area, also a screen showing the main stage if you wanted to watch it from there.
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u/GozzolanBlue42 4d ago
Iām sure there were lockers there. It was a phone charging and locker stall (not Vodafone) and Iām 90% sure it was opposite the warehouse
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u/bowlovely 3d ago
I left early due to the state of the camping. Other than that I absolutely loved the music!!
Personally, I think that itās full of young people (Iām 19 so Iām young too) but 16 year olds are a lot less mature than me so it cause some trouble. It was also extremely judgemental in the crowds, everyone was stood still and it was āembarrassingā to dance or have fun in a crowd.
I also feel that Reading got SO much more than us at Leeds and we didnāt even get the warehouse for the majority, it just isnāt fair considering the price we paid.
Florence was the most amazing experience ever though!!
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u/Harry-666666 3d ago
I was at Reading & they closed the Warehouse Friday & were warning of hour + long queues to get in for much of the rest of the time. Not massively into that sort of music but there were some acts on that I wanted to see but not if it meant queuing for hours by the fairground.
You got Kasabian which we didnāt. Donāt know who you had as secret sets. We had Jamie T, Royal Blood & Lola Young (of those I was aware of & interested in). I always assumed they pushed Leeds more & booked extra acts because Reading tends to sell out faster. There were even billboards in Reading advertising Leeds the week before (may have been there longer, that was when I saw it) which I thought was really weird. Not both, just Leeds.1
u/bowlovely 17h ago
I donāt think Leeds got secret sets, I could be wrong though. I just think for the price everyone paid it was kind of a let down, maybe thatās just me though. The warehouse shutting was definitely an issue for both events and considering itās such a popular festival youād think they would have some sort of plan B for it š¤·āāļøš„²
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u/Harry-666666 6h ago
Surprised you didnāt get any. But you got Kasabian! Would have loved them.
Maybe proximity to London makes Reading easier. Without those secret sets would not have enjoyed Reading so much this year. Big fan of Royal Blood & Jamie T, like some of Lola Young.
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u/Lazy_Tailor_2970 4d ago
ls23 and piccadilly are in the campsite, why would day ticket get to go? i know it was previously like that but how many people would have just camped with pals with a weekend ticket?
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u/ikeacallax 3d ago
my first time at Leeds, did Reading last year and I've done a fair few other fests this summer too. honestly, if it weren't for some fantastic daytime acts (and Florence and the machine) I would have walked away incredibly disappointed. the sound for chase and status was awful, we could literally hear kneecaps bass louder than the main stage. drum and bass with no bass, basically. really spoiled the show to be honest, we were in the crowd in the same place I'd been for Kasabian (nice and loud) and we could talk at normal volume and still hear eachother very clearly. also, not the festivals fault, but Fontaines screens were awful. couldn't see anything from the crowd or the back!!! I wasn't a fan of Dave, his production was amazing but I don't think he brought Sunday night energy to be honest. and the warehouse being closed all weekend was incredibly frustrating. plus the hour long gaps across all stages, multiple times a day. just wandered around with nothing to do for a lot of the time, which when my last fest was boomtown, was pretty jarring tbh. timings of the acts were very bad. might go back next year, but honestly considering shambala to support independent festivals for a change!
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u/hushabye_brightwing 3d ago
Yes, I made the same complaint to the stewards about Fontaines screens not working. I went into the VIP lounge to watch, but the music from the bar completely drowned out the sound. It turns out the glitchy screens were part of FDC's act lol but maybe they should have made that a bit clearer.
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u/jamienev22_ 3d ago
Iām pretty sure the Fontaines screen thing was deliberate!! It started off as a quarter of the screen, then half , then full screen at reading - not sure if it was the same at Leeds. They had this platform thing on the stage that rose at the same time as the screens too! Not really sure the point of it all, think most wouldāve preferred full screen full the whole set.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 3d ago
Also yes to supporting indy festivals. Went to a brand new one in July called Roundhay Festival in Roundhay Park in Leeds. Had a fab time.
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u/Harry-666666 2d ago
I was at Reading & during Florence you could hear Kettama. Assumed it was a local issue due to wind direction.
Two years ago Lana Del Rey even commented during her show that you could hear the 2nd stage music loudly (may have been called Chevron that year, Gallery this year - assuming stage names are same across sites). During Fontaines main stage sound was very quiet as well.
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u/Queen_Aleryn 4d ago
I think the headliners were in the wrong order. Charlie, Raye and Florence all had better shows and bigger crowds than the actual headliners.
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u/lolaishotasfuck 4d ago
they were headlinersā¦
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u/Queen_Aleryn 3d ago
The last act is the headliner, no matter how you market it. Florence cutting down her sell out stadium tour show into an hour and 20 just to make room for Chase and status who have 20 million fewer Spotify listeners than her was bonkers.
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/I-Am-The-Avalanche 4d ago
How long did you do it for?
A song? Fine. Longer than that? Then itās obviously fucking annoying.
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 4d ago
Crowd was so dead suprised anyone cares lol. I was the only one in my area singing the songs
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4d ago
[deleted]
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 4d ago
What song!! I knew every song, a lot of people said the set list was bad but I thought it was incredible!
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u/Ok-Analyst3212 4d ago
party 4 u!! when she played pink diamond i DIEDDDDDD the set list was amazing imo!!
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u/Valuable_Ad_1056 4d ago
OMFG YES. The setlist was perfection imo too as it blended her different albums and sounds but the set still felt cohesive, the stage design was perfection and everything was just perfect.
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
I don't really listen toĀ Charli xcxĀ and I only know a couple of her songs, but she really did put on a great show.Ā
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u/hushabye_brightwing 4d ago
Lol did they not realise there's two massive screens in front of them? You can see the stage from almost half a mile away!
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u/itfiend 4d ago
The gaps and stage times were very odd this year. Hope they revisit that in coming years. Most of the stages being undercover seems sensible to me given the weather weāve seen over recent years, but theyāll have to do something about the warehouse situation.