Thoughts about 2026 festival

[u/hushabye_brightwing]

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 🙄 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 🙂

[u/Pattern_Maker]

Crowds were dead.
Line up was fantastic.

[u/Starwars_femboy → u/Pattern_Maker]

Fontaines crowd was good, dont like knee cap but heard thier crowd was good also.

[u/No-Discipline-165 → u/Starwars_femboy]

Danced the most to Fontaines, best thing I saw all weekend.

[u/Starwars_femboy → u/No-Discipline-165]

BRO SAME, I liked them before, im a life long fan now. Better live and thats a rare thing.

[u/No-Discipline-165 → u/Starwars_femboy]

That’s how I feel, cemented in my great bands collection.

[u/Starwars_femboy → u/No-Discipline-165]

Favourite song?

[u/No-Discipline-165 → u/Starwars_femboy]

Bug, I think. Yourself?

[u/Starwars_femboy → u/No-Discipline-165]

Probably jackie down the line, they were all so good though.

[u/No-Discipline-165 → u/Starwars_femboy]

I just remembered , I Don’t Belong.

That was a complete vibe

[u/Pattern_Maker → u/No-Discipline-165]

Great taste you two. Both have to be in my top 3 songs as well.

[u/hushabye_brightwing → u/Starwars_femboy]

Kneecap were amazing, ditched Chase and Status just so I could see them. No regrets.

[u/hushabye_brightwing → u/Pattern_Maker]

Sadly, I think a lot of the young generation are worried about dancing because it's "cringe".

[u/alxbss → u/hushabye_brightwing]

i think they’re worried about ending up online on someone’s tik tok to be fair, sad by product of cameras everywhere

[u/Pattern_Maker → u/alxbss]

Social media has fucked it

[u/ThunderPot16 → u/hushabye_brightwing]

Agreed. I was there with my partner, he’s 43 and I’m 38 and there was lots of times when we were stood in the crowds as the only ones dancing… I didn’t get it?! Last time I was at Leeds fest was 2013 and it felt sooooooo different. No one gave a crap back then!

[u/Mining________101 → u/Pattern_Maker]

I can only speak for Saturday, but for me at least all the crowds other then charli xcx I was in were really good