THE end of summer is nigh: the three-day Leeds Festival opens tomorrow at Bramham Park as the closing chapter to the music festival season.
The southern sister event, Reading Festival, has sold out but Friday and Saturday day tickets are still available for the Leeds line-up, although Sunday – Eminem Day – is fully booked.
After Wednesday's thunder, lightning and flash floods, the weather is set fair: in a nutshell, around 20 degrees C at best, some sunny spells, some showers, so maybe there will be less chance of mud larks than sometimes!
Day One, tomorrow, will be headlined on the Main Stage by festival-circuit giants Muse, a safe pair of hands at a time when you wonder which upcoming British band might step up to the plate to demand bill-topping status. Any suggestions?
Muse: Friday headliners
After his "surprise" solo appearance at the One Love Manchester benefit concert at the Old Trafford cricket ground in June, Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher returns to the northern open air tomorrow night, ahead of the October 6 release of his debut solo album, As You Were, on the Warner Bros label.
The Main Stage also will play host to Blossoms, South London rapper Giggs, Architects, Against The Current, Vant, Pins and Royal Republic, while Haim, Halsey, Mura Masa, Wiley, The Sherlocks and Pond will be among the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage acts and Marshmello and Charli XCX are the top two on the BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage.
Neck Deep, Gnarwolves and Breaking Benjamin are in action on the The Pit/The Lock Up stage; The Hunna, Tom Grennan and Ash on the Festival Republic Stage; Bugsy Malone, Dave and Mostack on the BBC Radio 1Xtra Stage.
Kasabian: Saturday headliners
Leicester band Kasabian back up the release of this year's "For Crying Out Loud" album, their first since 2014's 48:13, with the Saturday headline spot at Leeds. Or hopefully they do, after they had to pull out of Tuesday's Belfast Customs House gig when singer Tom Meighan was struck by severe vomiting shortly before the show, taken to hospital, put on a drip and told to rest.
The Main Stage also plays host to Bastille, Two Door Cinema Club, Jimmy Eat World, Circa Waves, Rat Boy, Mallory Knox, Deep Valley and Judas. You Me At Six top Saturday's NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage line-up; Tory Lanez, Sub Focus, Lethal Bizzle, Anne-Marie, Oh Wonder, teen singer-songwriter Declan McKenna, The Orwells, The Magic Gang, Marika Hackman and Lea Porcelain all play there too. Look out for Fatboy Slim, back on Yorkshire soil after his Norman Cook days in Hull band The Housemartins, taking top spot on the BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage. Dillon Francis, Shy FX and Chris Lorenzo will be on the decks too.
Billy Talent, The Amity Affliction and Arcane Roots are among The Pit/The Lock Up acts and the Festival Republic Stage has a cracking good day in store with Bear's Den, the wonderfully noir-cool Cigarettes After Sex, Jagwar Ma, The Districts, The Big Moon and The Amazons. Danny Brown and Mist cannot be missed on the BBC Radio 1Xtra Stage.
Eminem: Sunday headliner
American rapper Eminem plays Leeds Festival for the first time since 2013 on Sunday night, much to the delight of festival director Melvin Benn, who enthuses: "Eminem returning to Leeds is beyond exciting. His 2013 headline performance was incredible and I can’t want to have him back."
Keep an eye out for Cedric Bixler-Zavala's band At The Drive In on Sunday's Main Stage on their return with their first album in 17 years, the dottily named in • ter a • li •, the title being Latin for “among other things”, as all you A-level Latin students will know. Produced by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Rich Costey at Hollywood’s Sound Factory, the 11 songs pick up where 2000’s Relationship Of Command left off and then rocket off into myriad other trajectories as unpredictable as they are intense.
Further Main Stage acts will be Major Lazer, Korn, Migos, Pvris, The Pretty Reckless, Moose Blood and Honeyblood; York indie-rock band King No One open the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage line-up, which also features Flume, Glass Animals, Everything Everything, Loyle Carner, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Marmozets, Cabbage and Blaenavon.
Andy C, Noisia 'Outer Edges', High Contrast and Goldie take to the BBC Radio Dance Stage; While She Sleeps and One OK Rock can be found at The Pit/The Lock Up; The Black Lips, Japandroids, The View and Pumarosa play the Festival Republic Stage; Flatbush Zombies headline the BBC Radio 1Xtra Stage.
Katherine Ryan
The Bramham Park festival site also accommodates a BBC Music Introducing Stage, with no fewer than 12 acts a day, and a Leeds Alternative Stage, featuring headline spots for York Barbican-bound Katherine Ryan tomorrow, Rubberbandits on Saturday and Bill Bailey on Sunday.
Performing there too will be Jonathan Pie, Tiff Stevenson, Kiri Pritchard McLean and Andrew Maxwell (all Friday); Daniel Sloss, Josie Long, Reginald D Hunter and a Foals DJ Set by Edwin Congreave (all Saturday); Simon Amstell, Pierre Novelle, Joe Lycett and Tape Face (all Sunday).
For more festival details, visit leedsfestival.com. The Press will cover Leeds Festival with photographer David Harrison on site for all three days and reports in Saturday, Monday and Tuesday's editions.
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