Leeds Festival Unveils New Stages & Local Artists
Written and edited by Millie Cain
With less than 100 days to go, Reading and Leeds Festival have unveiled plans for 2 new stages, as well as releasing local Leeds artists you can catch over the weekend at the BBC Music Introducing Stage. Catfish and The Bottlemen, this year’s long-awaited headliners started out in 2013 at Leeds BBC Music Introducing Stage, as well as the likes of Beabadoobee, Corella and Kid Kapichi who are all playing this year.
Reading and Leeds have announced that they always have and will continue to champion new and upcoming artists with the North of England being ‘full of talent that speaks across genres and generations’. With the following local artists playing:
Delilah Bon hailing from Barnsley is a force to be reckoned with blending elements of hip-hop, nu metal, and riot grrrl ethos into her signature “Brat Punk” style. The self-described Rage Queen excitedly announced how she ‘can’t wait to bring my girl rage to the stage at Reading & Leeds this year, was such a surprise being chosen to represent BBC Introducing, so so honoured. So excited! Been wanting to play this festival for so long. Girl power!’ Her music serves as a fierce anthem for marginalized communities, particularly women, non-binary and the LGBTQ+ community. 2024 promises to be a monumental year for Delilah Bon, with a highly anticipated album slated for release in September.
Indie-pop artist Ellur from Halifax will bring her youthful energy and guitar anthems to BBC Introducing this year. Her self-detrimental love letters to herself celebrates and reflects on relationships, womanhood & growing up. After being named named by Clash Magazine as one of the ‘Five Sets That Defined Live at Leeds In The Park’, and with her new festival-ready anthem ‘Boys’ released, she’s one to catch. Especially if you haven’t got the chance to see her at her sold-out headlining shows in Leeds.
Sun King are coming off the back of touring with Wunderhorse and Deadletter to play Leeds Festival this year. The five-piece band from York, are on the rise, notably by blending sounds from the past and present with an electric feel. SunKing’s live shows have gained themselves a fierce reputation as ones to watch this year, describing how ‘We’ve always wanted to play R&L. Having all been as punters throughout the years, it’s high on the list of festivals to play for us. It’ll be nice this year to roll up and plug in the amps. We are very much looking forward to it.’
Jodie Langford‘s passionate message as a unapologetically Northern spoken word artist quickly became the go-to voice for the youth within her hometown of Hull. She’s known for exposing the injustice and plight of young people across the city and further across the north. With dry humour and lyrical content that tackles everything from downing pints, dead-end jobs and the government’s treatment of young people to more personal relationship issues. Working to carve a sound that darts between thrashing Post Punk sensibilities, feverish Techno rhythms and Drum & Bass chaos. She’s known to become a force of nature when she performs live, hypnotising audiences with ferocious, confident, thought-provoking shows and has been described as one of Hull’s best new artists to keep an eye on.
Exclusively debuting this year is groundbreaking new stage: The Chevron. Positioned in the main arena of the festival site, The Chevron is an immense 40,000 capacity open-air venue, with the world’s first floating video canopy made up of hundreds of thousands of programmable LED lights. The exclusive structure, promises an immersive show environment, raising the bar for dance music and hip-hop fans and artists alike. The legends themselves, The Prodigy will be playing here, along with techno artists Sonny Fodera, Nia Archives, and Skrillex.
Reading and Leeds have also unveiled The Aux, a pioneering live stage for digital creators, for the first time at a music festival. To highlight some of today’s most popular and culturally relevant personalities and providing a new platform in the live sector. The site has described The Aux as the place to bridge the gap between the digital world and live entertainment, with the likes of The Chunks & Filly Show, The Useless Hotline, Antics With Ash, In Ayamé We Trust, The M1 Podcast and many more acts to be announced.
Full Lineup Below:
