This August Bank Holiday Weekend saw around 200,000 music fans head down to the iconic Reading and Leeds Festivals. With one of the festivals biggest line ups to date including a massive amount of names fans were treated to some great performances in the sunshine.
Highlights from the Saturday of Leeds include The Wombats, considering their somewhat early set time for a band so popular, main stage was fit to bursting with fans eagerly anticipating their set. The band performed a perfect mix of old and new material much to the crowds delight, including Moving To New York, Let’s Dance To Joy Division and Lemon to a Knife Fight. Back in the The Pit / Lock Up Stage we also saw a solid set by The Maine. The bands dedicated fans filled the tent as the band burst onto stage opening with the track Black Butterflies and Deja Vu, the song is a perfect start to a set and had everyone bouncing from start to finish. The Maine are no strangers to performing at festivals but debuting at this years Reading and Leeds they certainly put together a setlist that showed their talents perfectly. Performing tracks like Slip The Noose and Numb Without You from their latest album release to closing their set with fan favourite Another Night On Mars it is without doubt that this band know how to put on a show and have the audience hooked on their every word.
Leeds Saturday headliners The 1975 drew crowds in the masses to their main stage set which was visually one of the best performances of the weekend. Alongside playing fan favourites including Love It If We Made It, Chocolate and Sex the band performed their newest single release People. The northern band were certainly made to feel welcome. Following their set we headed over to The Festival Republic Stage to catch Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers make their festival debut. Despite being seemingly short on time the band jam packed their set with fan favourite Peach Scone, Romeo and Juliet and Sex In The City, but also included new material of their soon to be released album The Fall Of Hobo Johnson. A stand out moment of the set was their performance of the track Creve Coeur in which the audience, hooked on his every word, stayed incredibly respectful and quiet throughout, not something that you would typically see in a late night set.
Sundays highlights included the incredible Billie Eilish. Making her Reading and Leeds debut on the main stage she drew in a huge audience who had been waiting all day in the blistering sun to see her. Opening her set with Bad Guy the energy of the festival definitely kicked up a notch as she performed hit after hit from her album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go. It goes without saying that one day she will be a headlining act for the festival. Following her set saw Anderson Paak & The Free Nationals and Blossoms both of which went down a treat as the evening drew in.
A set highlight from the Sunday of Leeds Festival was most definitely Twenty One Pilots, securing a joint headlining spot with Post Malone the band made sure that the main stage crowd knew why they were there. If you’ve ever seen the band live you will know that they connect with the crowd in a way unfathomable to most bands, from being held up by fans during Holding Onto You and Morph to the drum finale of Trees it is without doubt that they deserved their headlining spot at this years event. As a tribute to the UK audiences for being so welcoming to the band were joined on stage by Post Malone for a cover of Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis a perfect set alteration that was very welcomed by the Northern crowd.
Tickets for next years Reading and Leeds Festivals go on sale Tuesday 27th August and midday for full ticket and festival information check out – readingandleedsfestival.com
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