As summer slowly comes to an end and students get ready to return to campus, Leeds Festival is just around the corner, to make the approaching of the new term a bit more bearable. Once again Bramham Park will be the setting of the twentieth edition of the annual event that takes place from the 23rd until the 25th of August. This year’s main headliners are Foo Fighters, The 1975, Post Malone and Twenty One Pilots, that will perform alongside other huge names, such as Anderson .Paak, Dave, Bastille and Blossoms. With the recent move of Billie Eilish to the Main Stage, Managing Director Melvin Benn confirms to be thrilled with what he promises to be “one of the highlights of the weekend.”
Leeds Festival is often praised because of its dedicated attention to local artists and untapped talents, with over 100 British acts on the various stages this year. This dedication to homegrown talent has also been possible thanks to the partnership with BBC Music Introducing: a platform for emerging musicians, that has been providing an original experience both to artists and festival-goers since 2008. The program supports emerging performers skyrocketing them to bigger audiences in festivals. In fact, 41% of the main lineup, in this edition, has been firstly promoted and launched thanks to the BBC Introducing stage.
The Gryphon had a chance to have a chat with local bands Marsicans and Talkboy (that will be performing on the abovementioned stage) as well as with part of the Leeds Festival team, and we came up with some tips for you to enjoy the weekend at its best.
- Don’t schedule your whole time there and don’t limit your plans to the headliners only: there are plenty of new artists to discover!
- Don’t be afraid to make friends and share the moment with the people around you.
- Be smart… bring portable chargers to avoid unnecessary queues to the charging stations. And versatile clothing. It’s British summer after all.
- Stay hydrated: sustain the environment by bringing your own water bottle and refill it at the multiple water stations.
- Respect the ongoing initiatives to fight climate change and say no to single-use plastic (tents count as well, people!)
- Have fun!!!
Very limited tickets can be found here!
By Giulia Miccio and Giulia Dana Pesce