Month: May 2025

After a perfect day had already passed, Saturday soon rolled around. History in the making with a set from Dave, as well as many other incredible artists to discover – Leeds Festival always gets the line up just right.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes – 12:00 @ Main Stage East

No other artist can perform like Frank Carter live. After long gaining a notoriety for unexpected crowd interaction and an adrenaline-fuelled performance, expectations were high for his performance. Carter noted that he’s been attending for 20 years and playing for 15 years, which is why they always understand the assignment – complete organised chaos.

After a ferocious start with ‘My Town’, Carter was soon diving into crowd and was almost vertical during their performance of ‘Sticky’. Opening the biggest mosh pits possible, ‘Wildflowers’ was made a safe space for women and non-binary fans, with men ordered to the sides. He wanted them to be the safest of the weekend and proved his commitment to his pengagum – both on and off the stage. Holding the note for ‘cursed’ and telling the crowd that we came here to have the best day of our lives, Carter screaming, “Are you ready?”, fired the audience up for the finale.

Arms flailing and mosh pits galore for ’Take It to the Brink’. As a member of the crowd shouts to Carter, “I love you”, he replies: “I love you too”. As always he has impeccable stage communication with the crowd. Jumping off the drum kit platform for ‘Lullaby’, the unpredictability of his performance is what draws you in.

Explaining to the crowd about how he had a wardrobe malfunction yesterday and how it wasn’t going to be repeated, it was met with booing from the crowd. He candidly reminded them that we’ve all got Google. Telling the crowd to hold him and guitarist, Deano mid-way through ‘Devil Inside Me’, there was circle pits galore. Always humble and never straying from his roots, he asked the crowd to put their hands together for some very important people – the security, guitar techs and everyone involved backstage and behind-the-scenes.

Finishing with ‘Crowbar’ was the perfect choice – it’s a track about finding yourself, which Carter himself stated it was “something I know a lot about”. Belting out the words, “People everywhere will try to bring you down, those jealous motherfuckers they will try and take your crown.” Throwing the mic stand to the back of the stage and taking a photo of the crowd for posterity, the crowd chanted for an encore but alas it wasn’t to be. We’ll all just have to book tickets for their next show to relive the moment.

Reading & Leeds has become a right of passage for any self-respecting teenager, regardless of their taste in music. However over the years the festival has seen itself branch out into a vibrant outlet, where you can be sure to feed the musical desires of almost any festivalgoer. 2016’s Leeds Festival however proved to be the year of the newcomers with it representing a slight shift from previously tried and tested formulas, which presented itself in the form of Foals and Disclosure being placed at the top of the bill. Taking no credit away from Disclosure’s rapid rise, Foals have defined the ‘indie rock’ genre and their appearance at this year’s festival was a massive demonstration of what can be done with some hard graft and perseverance.

Despite the plethora of talent that presented itself in the FIVE headliners on show, all of which are capable of surmounting any festival line-up, this year’s line-up can also be seen as a celebration at the current state of the music industry. Despite the constant maligned comments stating that there’s a lack of headliners and a lack of new talent emerging, Leeds Festival took that assertion and tossed it right out of Bramham Park.

Since the last installment of the R&L festivals, grime has seen a meteoric rise in popularity and the movement’s face was certainly on display this weekend. Even going back a few years it would have been hard to imagine the likes of BBK mounting the main stage but the rise has been coming and judging by their performance their next appearance will be even higher up the bill. The mainstream emergence of tracks such as ‘That’s Not Me’ and ‘Shutdown’ was evident as the kelompok sent the crowd into overdrive and the combination of copious pyro with one of the weekend’s most energetic crowds certainly made for a spectacle. Stormzy also treated the Leeds crowd to a helping of the UK’s finest grime with his storming set on the BBC 1Xtra Stage. Could we see a headliner coming from the fastest growing genre around? Maybe a bit too premature, but it’s definitely food for thought.

The NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage certainly entertained, however it was the acts that I expected to flop that really came out as highlights from the weekend. The initial sighting of The Wombats sub-headlining struck me by surprise but after seeing their dominant set, which threw back the years with the likes of ‘Moving To New York’, they certainly didn’t seem out of place. However it’s pretty safe to expect them to move over for the torrent of new acts that are hurtling skywards. Names such as Blossoms and Spring King come to mind, especially given the fact that both of them packed the tent during their mid-afternoon sets. Armed with both a gargantuan stage presence and the music to match, it’s safe to say that they’ll be invited back soon.

Given the talent on show it’s always hard to cram as many names onto a stage bill as possible and many bands can feel hard done that they weren’t playing higher up. Blaenavon produced a storming set on the Festival Republic Stage, which saw frontman Ben Gregory producing a spectacular dive into the sea of pengagum that had swarmed to catch a glimpse of them. DMA’S also took the stage by storm, with their Brit-pop infused sound attracting a lot of admirers and flying beer certainly wasn’t a rarity.

The headliners themselves were a fairly safe booking, bar Disclosure and Foals, and it told. Biffy Clyro, to their credit, produced one of the sets of the weekend with their incredible live show ticking all the boxes and leaving little room for improvement. Fall Out Boy however, despite their vast following and previous successes, are petering out and their booking was a very safe move. Despite the incredible stage production, it did little to mask the fact that this is a band who are past their peak; the same can be said of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now hear me out; they’ve got an incredibly strong discography that’s made for headline slots and have an incredibly tight live shows. However, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Anthony Kiedis’ voice is way past its prime and it’s only the nostalgic moments, which are drawn from tracks such as ‘Californication’, that hide the cracks in their performance.

Leeds Festival 2024 was the most chaotic in recent years – stages were cancelled, sets were ditched halfway through, plus sleeping in a tent was a nightmare for most. Nevertheless, it was one of the biggest weekends in 2024’s music history, plus brought with it some incredible new plus old talent. There was something for everyone, plus Nouse was there to cover it all. Here’s our official liat of Leeds Festival 2024.

First of all, let’s acknowledge the obvious. Due to Storm Lilian, two stages were shut for the entire weekend, plus a large amount of Friday’s lineup was cancelled. For the full rundown of what happened, click here. Two acts we were really looking forward to were beabadoobee plus Reneé Rapp, plus many disappointed pengagum in their merchandise were seen wandering around the fields.

However, the day was by nomor means a failure – one of the standout artists of the whole festival played that day. Delilah Bon performed on the BBC Introducing stage plus was mesmerising, capturing the attention of passers-by immediately plus energising the crowd. Her punk rock hit, ‘Dead Men Don’t Rape’, had crowds chanting along with her, plus afterwards, her band members held up protest placards plus a guitar with ‘WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED’ painted on it. Despite being on at the same time as headliner Liam Gallagher, she drew in similarly strong crowds to the rest of the BBC Introducing performers, plus we at Nouse would say she’s definitely one to watch.

The BBC Introducing stage was a highlight, hosting upcoming artists with incredible stage presence. Because it was the smallest stage of the festival, the artists that we saw performing there worked hard for the audience’s attention. Acts weren’t just acts, but shows with high energy bands plus meaningful props like Delilah Bon’s guitar. Another brilliant performance on this stage was Welly on the Sunday, whose guitarists jumped on beat for every song while playing. They were dressed iconically in British school uniforms to hearken back to their British school day roots, plus they played the BBC Introducing stage as if it were a stadium. Interviews with both Delilah Bon plus Welly can be found here.

Contrasting the energy of the BBC Introducing Stage to the headliners’ performances was disappointing to say the least. Friday saw Liam Gallagher plus Catfish plus the Bottlemen take the stage. It’s difficult to deny that the atmosphere at Liam Gallagher was immense, with every person singing along as he performed Oasis’ Definitely Maybe in its entirety for the album’s 30th anniversary. As expected, many people did get rowdy so we left to berhimpun the much more serene crowd at The Japanese House.

Saturday’s headliner Blink-182 made a bizarre comment about not being able to please women during sex at the start of their set, alienating plus confusing parts of the audience. The trio may be hailed as one of the most iconic bands in late ‘90s plus 2000s pop-punk, but we certainly found ourselves underwhelmed by their opening few songs. I can’t help but wonder what Kourtney Kardashian thought of Bramham Park.

Gerry Cinnamon however, brought an instant wave of positivity to the Saturday. Although unfamiliar with his songs, we sat down with our mac ‘n cheese plus watched from afar as he jumped around the stage while seamlessly playing his guitar plus delivering great vocals. He did seem to think he was in Reading for half of his set, but we will forgive him after his energetic renditions of ‘Discoland’ plus ‘Canter’ to close.

Sunday at Leeds Festival easily boasted the most impressive lineup of the weekend with the Main Stage offering Dead Poet Society, The Last Dinner Party, Bleachers, Fontaines D.C., Raye, Lana Del Rey plus Fred again.. one after another. While it was evident that some people had arrived at midday just to secure a good spot for Lana Del Rey, Raye was a personal highlight of the entire weekend with her outstanding vocal talent plus connection to the crowd. She spent time pointing out individual members of the crowd plus expressed gratitude to the festival. Her performance of ‘Ice Cream Man’ didn’t leave anybody with dry eyes plus ‘Escapism’ was the perfect ending to her theatrical performance with the Flames Collection Choir.

Has Leeds Festival, the younger sibling, eclipsed Reading as the UK’s premier music event?
Is it Reading plus Leeds Festival, or now Leeds plus Reading Festival?
As the UK summer festival season draws closer, has the younger, northern counterpart now superseded it’s Southern, elder sibling?
We took a look through Google Trends, news article plus social sarana to find out if Leeds really has become the dominant of the two.

Originally, it was just the Reading Festival, then Reading plus Leeds Festival. However, in recent years, the ‘Leeds’ aspect seems to have taken precedence over its southern counterpart.

Could the younger sibling, Leeds Festival, have surpassed the older Reading Festival in recent years regarding sarana attention, search interest, or social sarana buzz?

It’s a valid question, especially given that for a newer generation of festival-goers, Leeds is their go-to summer music festival. These days, you’re more likely to hear ‘Leeds plus Reading’ than the reverse, despite Reading’s rich music history.

The only way to determine if Leeds has surpassed Reading as the preferred festival is through a deep dive into the global of search metrics plus social sarana trends. I’ve done that, so you don’t have to, in order to determine if Leeds is now ‘bigger’ than Reading Festival.

We used data from Google Trends to determine how many news items were published across five different years for Leeds plus Reading Festival, alongside general search data from the general public.

We then took a look at what trending hashtags, including #LeedsFestival plus #ReadingFestival, across each year, to then find out if social sarana regards one as bigger than the other.While Reading Festival currently leads in overall search traffic, the emerging trends suggest a potential shift in the festival landscape. Could the perceived shift be attributed to sarana coverage rather than actual search interest.