Leeds Festival was another first for me. Over the years they have had some legendary headliners including the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Metallica, Eminem, Stormzy, Muse, Foo Fighters and many more.
This year it wasn’t the best line up but there were a few bands there I had never seen and absolutely loads I’d never heard of.
The ones that had got my attention was Bring Me The Horizon, Rage Against The Machine, Witchfever, Arctic Monkeys and was curious to see what Dave was all about. As you can see from the above I like my Rock Music but I like anything as long as it’s catchy.
The Arena as a whole is massive, in my opinion WAY too big, it was a near 1 hour round trip from Press Room to my tent. There were a lot of stages too…….BBC had Dance, Extra and Introducing and then there was Festival Republic, Main Stage East and Main Stage West.
I’ve been to Hellfest in France where they have 2 Main stages, there it works because they are right next to each other and both have similar Genres on them. At Leeds I don’t think it does work, they are quite a distance apart and D-Block Europe could be followed by Bring Me The Horizon?
As an experience Leeds is a special festival, after you walk through the gates you can see the 2 main stages in the distance like Massive Greek Mausoleums waiting for the gods to walk out onto them …….it was a breathtaking sight.
I arrived just in time for Halsey and The 1975. I don’t mind The 1975, I’ve seen them a few times but I can understand why people were pissed at them replacing Rage. Rage Against The Machine not playing was a fact no one was responsible for and unavoidable but me personally would have replaced them with somebody similar, there are a lot of bands would have been more suitable………..that said, The 1975 were fantastic.
Over the weekend I wandered around trying to get as much in as I could. Artists that really stood out were Little Simz, Cassyette, The Skinner Brothers, Madison Beer, Witchfever and Black Honey.
Dave was brilliant too, not my kind of music but this guys lyrics are a bit special and kept me away from the bar which is no mean feat.
I was disappointed with Arctic Monkeys, I love their early sound but they just don’t seem like that band anymore. They weren’t bad but not for me.
The stars of the weekend for me had to be Bring Me The Horizon, they really are good live. As well as the brutal sound, the visuals were epic. There was one occasion where the undead were getting closer each time there was a flash on the horizon, there were people at the back stopping to check the show out as they went to another stage.
Although a very tiring weekend, it was a blast. Was great chatting with the crowd and getting to check out some new music. I’m hoping for a monster line up next year and I’ll go again.
Photos and Words by Philip Goddard
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