LEEDS FESTIVAL 2025 REVIEW
So the almighty Reading and Leeds festivals returned to the fields (and undoubtedly your entire social media feed) this August Bank holiday weekend. With new campsites (goodbye red camp; hello The Garden and Glitterball Grove), and a much more diverse range of genres on the line up, this year felt a little different.
Is what was once rock's biggest weekend of the year, still the reigning champion of festivals we hear you ask? We sent our team down to Bramham Park to find out.
Image: Sarah Louise Bennett
Arriving on Thursday, as all Leeds Festival purists do, we set up our tents and cracked open a celebratory beer. Swiftly after, our campsite manager made his way over to introduce himself – a festival first. Originally we thought we may have done something wrong, or camped in the wrong place and were about to be asked to move, but no, he was simply introducing himself to every campsite and making sure everyone was okay. A true legend who genuinely seemed to care about everyone being happy and safe in his camp. This theme continued over the entire weekend with every member of staff we encountered being incredibly helpful, friendly and dedicated to their job, which made the festival a really enjoyable and safe feeling place to be. We can’t talk about the staff without giving a special shout out to the security guard for the Press tent, who despite the long shifts always greeted us with a smile and a joke and made us feel so welcome – a real rockstar.
Image: Georgina Hurdsfield
Now on to the main event: the bands.
FRIDAY
The first band we caught on Friday was Waterparks on the Main Stage and although we just didn’t get it, they seemed to pull a big crowd, showing that the power of Emo is clearly still strong today.
Next up was an artist with an inescapable buzz around him; Mr Antony Szmierek. Ever since he arrived on the scene during the pandemic, Antony Szmierek has been one of our favourite live acts. Fast forward 5 years, and his shows still have the same intimate, ‘party at your mates house’ atmosphere; the only difference is now you will struggle to fit in whichever tent he's playing in.
The poet-turned-frontman returned to the festival after appearing on the BBC Introducing stage two years previously, this time ready to take on the Festival Republic stage.
The man who has inadvertently put the Stockport Pyramid on the map was greeted by a throng of smiling fans singing every word back at him. An impressive feat after only releasing his debut album earlier this year. Of course there was the crowd interaction he’s become well known for, jumping down to dance with fans and eventually ending up on a someone’s shoulders for ‘Angie’s Wedding’, the young artist from Manchester was clearly enjoying himself just as much as the crowd who were lifting him aloft. Seeming to denounce his former alias of ‘Mr Szmierek the English Teacher’ with a shout of “Fuck your GCSE results, they don’t matter, just have fun and look after each other!”, the set really felt like witnessing Szmierek entering his next era – as a serious and soon to be celebrated artist.
Image: Luke Dyson
After a few recommendations from friends we decided to watch DJ Sammy Virji on the Chevron Stage, and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. With a set that moved from drum and bass, to jungle, to reggae, with a few pop banger remixes thrown in for good measure, Sammy Virji had the crowd in the palm of his decks. An excellent decision by the festival putting him on the Chevron Stage, as the light show and graphics displayed on the stage’s mesh LED roof were nothing short of mesmerising.
Then came the biggest disappointment of the weekend, Travis Scott. This is no shade to the festival – if you booked one of the biggest rappers in the world you would expect them to at least be good. Now the staging , pyrotechnics and fireworks were all fantastic, and headline worthy, its just a shame that the man performing wasn’t. The set seemed to only appeal to those with ‘TikTok brain’, with Travis rarely playing more than 20 seconds of a song, and those he did play for longer he mumbled so badly it was impossible to hear what he was saying. Safe to say we left at what we thought would be half way through... only to turn around and see a yellow Leeds logo on the screen. Turns out he left half an hour early, although videos circulating online suggest he was injured on stage, which if so – get well soon Travis but your set was still terrible.
Image: Georgina Hurdsfield
Saturday
Saturday was a day for the 2000s indie icons, and 2025 pop princesses.
We started the day watching Bloc Party, who celebrated the 20th anniversary of their seminal debut album Silent Alarm with a set on the Main Stage. Later, fellow early 00s inside kings The Kooks treated the crowds at Bramham Park to a banger filled set. Early hits like ‘Naive’, and new single ‘Sunny Baby’ were met with the same level of adulation, proving the wide appeal and lyrical talent of this often overlooked band.
Image: Matt Eachus
Brighton and Sheffield founded punk trio Snayx tore up the Festival Republic stage and were without a doubt the loudest and most fun filled set of the weekend. From the moment they played their first note to the moment they left the stage, circle pits and mosh pits filled the tent, with singer Charlie even jumping down to get involved in the action. A highlight has to be when a pair of crutches were lifted aloft at the back, the ultimate seal of approval.
Image: Matt Eachus
Then the main event of the day, possibly the weekend; Chappell Roan. A set that genuinely will go down in Reading and Leeds history, the Midwest Princess put on a show worthy of the west end, wearing a camped-up ballerina dress emblazoned with her own face and a Jacobean ruff esque tutu. Chappell spent the set strutting around her incredibly designed fairytale-like castle staging (although it was giving more Brothers Grimm than Cinderella) as though she was born to perform. The sea of pink cowboy hats, that had been assembled in front of the Main Stage for most of the day nodded, danced and cheered in approval, signalling that even for die hard Chappell fans, this was impressive. The best moment of course had to be ‘Pink Pony Club’, which was met by a mix of euphoria and pure unbridled emotion, a song which appears fun on the surface, but tells a much deeper story of struggle and acceptance underneath. ‘Hot-to-go’ also gets a special mention, as watching 70,000 people doing the now iconic dance in unison is something we won’t forget for a long time.
Image: Sam Mcmahon
Sunday
Good Neighbours kicked off our Sunday schedule, bringing an almost carnivalesque energy to the Main Stage. A band formed from the desire to make positive, uplifting music who site MGMT as one if their influences, Good Neighbours embody a similar essence of happy nostalgia that is difficult for such a new band to carry off, and they do it very well. We can’t wait to see what their debut album has in store, when it is released on 26th September.
Then another band that seem to be the flavour of the moment, Royel Otis. The Auzzie outfit really upped the anti from when they first played the festival in 2022, returning this time with a pocket full of popular songs and pink inflatable balls, which they threw out to the crowd to keep up throughout their Main Stage set. The whole performance had much more of a light-hearted feel, with tongue-in-cheek captions like “this song is a cover” appearing on the screen throughout the set. Covers of course are a huge part of what has brought the band into the mainstream, so it was nice to see them acknowledge that, keeping their covers of Linger and Murder On the Dance Floor in the set.
Image: Sophie Ditchfield
Now we’re big fans of ‘saving the best until last’ and Leeds 2025 certainly did that, with Nu-Metal icons Limp Bizkit and Bring Me The Horizon scheduled to close out the festival.
The Sunday evening of the festival really felt like an ‘elder emos night out’ with red Fred Durst baseball caps and Bring Me The Horizon shirts wherever you looked.
Limp Bizkit took the slightly earlier slot, but played as though they were the final act of the night. With memes of various well known faces “listening to Limp Bizkit” projected on to the screen behind them, the band seemed to lean into the ‘metification’ of music, a clever way to connect with new, younger fans watching them for the first time. Of course the attitude filled ‘Break Stuff’ was met with as much appreciation and anarchy as when it was realised back in 1999. In the past bands have been accused of treating Leeds secondary to Reading, with the event not being televised, but not Limp Bitzkit. Bringing a fan up from the crowd (who absolutely smashed it btw) and playing ‘Rollin’ through twice, they left it all on the stage at Bramham Park, leaving fans chanting for more.
Image: Sam Mcmahon
Then it was time for the final act of the festival, Yorkshire’s own Bring Me The Horizon. Now, 10 years ago, if you would have said that Bring Me The Horizon would one day headline a festival, we would have laughed in your face, let alone the giant that is Reading and Leeds. But in 2025 they are more than deserving of adding “Headliner” to their resume. With many of their peers from the early 2000s alternative scene only remerging for reunion or anniversary tours, BMTH have demonstrated a an enviable sticking power which has taken them up the ranks, to a place where Oli Skyes can (deservedly) take his ‘Throne’.
The atmosphere before they came on stage was nothing short of electrifying, with the stage shrouded in a black velvet curtain and a mesmerising light show accompanied by intense music audibly building suspense in the audience. Excited screams erupted as the curtain fell revealing the ‘church’ that the band would be performing in front of as they burst into ‘DArkSide’.
It has to be said that the staging, lighting special effects and storyline that ran through the entire performance are some of the best we have ever witnessed. Even for a casual, the set was an incredibly gripping piece of entertainment; for fans an unforgettable experience watching this band of once underdogs now reign supreme.
Image: Sam McMahon
Oli Sykes himself is a born frontman, stylish, sensitive – making sure to take moments to interact with his loyal fans, and superbly talented - his vocals sound better now than ever before. Screaming in one breath, harmonising the next, he tackles even their more difficult tracks with ease, while his classic Yorkshire sense of humour added a light undertone to the otherwise quite serious set.
Bringing the set and subsequent festival to a close with the ultra anthemic ‘Throne’, as red streamers were released above the crowd, the Sheffield outfit proudly unveiled a Yorkshire Rose flag. An unintentionally symbolic act by the local band who had just conquered the most fabled stage in the north of the UK.
Image: Emily Marcovecchio
While the rock-and-alternative focused line ups of Reading and Leeds folklore seem to be a thing of the past, the festival still manages to appeal to those with heavier tastes, with a range of great established and emerging punk, rock and indie bands performing across the weekend - we actually struggled to fit in everyone we wanted to see. While some may argue that the addition of more pop, electronic, djs and rap artists dilutes the line up, we feel like it enriches it, and found ourselves opened up to a whole new selection of artists we would never have come across at a one-genre-focused festival.
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