Additionally, the twin festival’s 2026 run closed, a year marked by drizzly sunsets and bratty tech house. For Leeds Festival, most were busy coping with the thunderstorm that swept through Bramham Park.
Although weather did not stop youngsters on the muddy dancefloor, DJ sets were cancelled at the Warehouse due to overcrowding.
This Leeds Festival was a rollercoaster of events.Moreover, more is to be said about the actual performances. Arriving just in time, we caught Arkayla, the rising stars from Manchester.
They made history by playing the first ever Thursday slot on a Leeds Festival main stage.
The four delivered an amazing opening set for the festival. It featured tracks from their latest EP Back to Belle Vue’ and fan favourites such as ‘Fortune Teller and ‘Doctor’. Most fun came from my favourite track, Run Kid, with moshing and clapping from the Grid Stage crowd.
Kasabian also left a legacy as the first Thursday headliners, blessing the crowd with hits.
Many more had been dancing their night away at LS23, the faraway partying venue deep in the woods.
Somewhere to host the rowdy teenagers in place of the Warehouse being shut down for two consecutive days.
Proving how love for dance music has been growing every year.Friday saw an exciting blend of indie and pop spectacles.The Gallery, the second biggest stage, saw most of it.Moreover, a pumped up crowd grooved to electric mixes from Duke Dumont. They rocked with indie stars Julia Wolf, Kneecap and The K’s.
While The Ballroom had its own spectacle with the rising four-piece Westside Cowboy.
The Grid was shared between three vastly different acts.
Amongst the Friday headliners, Florence + The Machine left the most impression for me as I came to believe Florence’s “witchcraft” rumour, to whatever magic she pulled to stop the rain during their set. The ethereal stage brimming in the sunset while the Leeds crowd sings happy birthday to Florence Welch was nothing short of wholesome.
The highlight has to be when Florence commanded the crowd to put away their phones for Dog Days Are Over, which brought about one of the most beautiful moments of the festival. For a few minutes, it was just Florence + The Machine, the glistening sunset and the enchanted crowd.
In no surprise Saturday was the most popular day, and the triple main stage act brought together one of the most diverse crowds.
Having caught Adela’s set at The Gallery, I was pleasantly surprised by how supportive the crowd was for the rising Slovakian pop star, who, drenched in strobing lights and rocking the pink high ponytail, gave her absolute best for Leeds.
You can tell the performance was well thought-out, namely the interchange between heavyweight electro-pop and the orchestral-ballet intervals.
While Skepta had an early start in prepping the crowd’s energy for the evening, his set was rather dull for the lacklustre stage effects and a disappointing setlist. One of the most anticipated headliners, Charli XCX however, delivered a spectacle for the stage sets and outfit changes. Credit must be given for her dancers, where paired with the on-stage fireworks and masterful vision-mixing, created this visual feast of a performance.
Charli’s music is made to be experienced at big stages with big sound systems, and with this being her only festival UK appearance this year, she definitely took the opportunity to polish the set. I did wish she played more of her older songs, as the setlist was basically a speed-run of Brat featuring only a few hits from her new EP ‘Music, Fashion, Film’.
The Grid crowd was packed for Fontaines D.C., as the long monologue opening went on as the sky slowly turned dark.
While the big screen reveal execution did confuse me a little bit, the Irish rockers did give a satisfying finish to the big Saturday, as the Leeds crowd were blessed by the three songs that got cut from Reading due to technical issues, ‘Big’,‘Hurricane Laughter and the new tune Happy For You, a teasing track for their upcoming album Dopamine Chamber.
We have reached the final day, and the energy has dipped quite a bit. It did not help with the heavy thunderstorm wrecking Bramham Park during Sombr’s set in the evening.
However he was able to turn this into a honourable moment as he ran around hugging fans in the crowd during his Back to Friends, which also got the loudest reciprocated singalong from the crowd as he deserved.
“I’m feeling kind of sombre right now”, the singer expresses his gratitude mid set as he dived back into the second half waving the self-made Leeds flag in the pouring rain.
Raye had the best main stage set for me. No matter the way she claimed The Grid stage presence with her undeniable charisma, or the crowd being healed by all the inspiring talks she made during the set, it was the perfect display of music being medicine, .
We all got a bit emotional during I Know You’re Hurting.’ With the brass instruments sounds extra bright on the big stage, and the red melting into neon-purple for the ‘RAVE’ session at the end, Raye has showed us again how she’s indeed a natural performer and one of the few artist in the industry right now who truly realises power of music.
Finally, we have Dave closing the festival for us. While the rapper took a musically-exciting approach with his set and in theme for the end of his tour, interchanging between his well-known tunes and more balladry, orchestral-talk-rapping style songs, it was ultimately a bit underwhelming as the final act to close off the festival, reflected in the sparse crowd.
Energy peaked when he was joined by rappers Kano and Central Cee, particularly during the massive hit ‘Sprinter’. And with ‘Starlight’ and ‘Raindance’ tainted by fireworks, we have reached the bittersweet end of Reading and Leeds 2026.
I got to say this year it has been a mix of emotions and a lot has happened to steer us away from important conversations. However, the main takeaway was the way the festival had spun in direction compared to its previous years.
There has been a focus on dance music, and with a younger demographic year by year, we see a change of direction in both the crowd and lineup.
With the six headliners set up, and all the controversies to do with the Canopy Stage being switched out from ‘BBC introducing’ into the ‘Nepo Baby Stage’ this year, you could tell there are parts of the festival that is slowly losing itself.
There is no point in reminiscing about the past and it would be unfair to judge based on these two years alone, but I do hope that we could take a step back and return to the heart of Reading and Leeds Festival, which has been the celebration of rock and alternative spectacles that shine at festivals.
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