FESTIVAL REVIEW: Leeds Festival 2024 – Saturday

Want more Leeds Festival? Check out our full reviews of Friday and Sunday.

If there’s one thing Reading & Leeds have shown a skill for of late, it’s snapping up new artists at the peak of virality to grace their fields. Enter Dasha, who’s opening the Main Stage today. Even with the success she’s having, this slot does feel like an underdog moment for the singer; there still feels like an air of disdain towards artists on the TikTok fast track to fame, plus commodified country-pop isn’t an area Leeds has fully jumped into yet.

Whether it’s nerves or being slightly green to performing, Dasha does sound out of breath a few times near the top of the set, but it’s ironed out quickly. Her songs are the exact kind of heartwarming and earnest that immediately get you onside (Run Like Hell is a particular highlight). It’s helped along by the full band affair onstage, players stomping and hollering throughout the whole set. The live fiddle is a gorgeous touch, singlehandedly adding a richness to the sound that few acts on this stage will probably achieve today. There is a shadow looming over this set, though, in the form of Dasha’s hit Austin (Boots Stop Workin’). There are a few instances of the singer bringing the song up prematurely when speaking about her sudden success, and it does feel like she’s lifting the curtain and acknowledging that people are only here for that one song. It’s a disservice to the whole Dasha production—this has been a lovely easing in to the first day of the festival proper, and that’s because of every song played and musician on the stage, not just the song that got them there in the first place. • GJ

---

You know how the Main Stage tends to house the biggest, cleanest, most presentable acts? Yeah, that ain’t Kneecap. You’re half-convinced the bookers mightn’t know what they’ve gotten themselves into when ‘the British government is enabling a genocide in Gaza’ briefly flashes on the screen behind them, almost like their way of smuggling through any mandate of not being too ‘controversial’ on a BBC-broadcast platform. But that’s Kneecap’s M.O., at the end of the day. Banging hip-hop predominantly in the Irish language isn’t something to be watered down; it’s why they remain an enormous draw even with their set brought forward. They’re just that vital of an act, perhaps getting to a groggier start with their slower, heavier beats, but easily ramping up. The breakdowns on Fine Art and the drum ‘n’ bass clatter of H.O.O.D. are the strongest bludgeons in their arsenal, and a measly half-hour to try and get through everything they’ve got just doesn’t suffice. Once you’ve got a taste for Kneecap, you need more—that’s simply how it goes. • LN

---

There’s a modest crowd gathered in the Festival Republic tent to see The Oozes, and as they arrive onstage it’s clear that this will be a set performed entirely on their own terms. Choosing to play their new EP Gelatinous Man in its entirety when it was released only the day prior (meaning it’s pretty likely no one in this crowd has heard it) shows incredible confidence in the material. The songs are noisy, bratty and straightforward in their left-wing politics and celebration of transgender identities, but above all it’s super entertaining to watch, mainly due to The Oozes’ clear love of theatricality. Singer Tom Gilbert is a delight whether he’s prancing about demanding attention, paring down his delivery to something more solemn to get his point across, or rolling across the stage screaming bloody murder. That said, when it comes to addressing the crowd, perhaps a tad more refinement is needed. It’s all very giggly (and not always in a way those watching feel included in), announcements of their knocked over laptop affecting the sound and pivoting to playing songs “from when we had TikTok clout” a quick finger-snap out of the initial fantasy. Even so, this set has been nothing if not compelling, and is certain to have made a splash with lots of the people in this tent today. • GJ

---

Apparently The K’s are suffering from some technical difficulties, though you’d never know if they didn’t bring attention to it. Clearly most others are in the same boat, too, amassed in droves not commonly seen for an early-afternoon set, but also indicative of a breed of indie darling with the longest legs imaginable. Thus, barrelling through any issues serves them ridiculously well, as long as they keep up the big, slick, buoyant facade which is never an issue for them. Chancer is as surefire an opening swing as festival-indie gets, while Sarajevo already feels inducted into the modern canon of all-timers, such is the undeniability that The K’s exude at their brightest. • LN

---

New at Reading  & Leeds this year is the Chevron Stage, the new and improved second main stage where much of the dance and hip-hop on the bill will be playing. Its main sell is a new immersive light display (in the form of a futuristic looking canopy hanging over the crowd) which will project artist-chosen images and ‘react’ to the beats of what’s going on onstage. While the Chevron lights are definitely pulsing as we approach, they’re hardly visible in the mid-afternoon sun. While the waiting game to see the Chevron in full swing continues, there’s no such delay for sim0ne. Her set is a seamless mix of styles, techno and trance beats, Spice Girls and Lana Del Rey remixes and her own glittering Eurodance and hyperpop-inspired material. This set feels like an unabashed celebration of 2000s girlies who love to dance, the images behind the DJ glitching through anime, paparazzi shots of celebrities like Paris Hilton, psychic hotlines and memes. What looks like an AI version of sim0ne herself is also present on the screen, but the real thing is even better, striking the perfect balance between cool, calm and collected behind the decks and constantly dancing along with the crowd. It’s a great showcase of the little nook sim0ne has carved out for herself, and hopefully we can see her back at Leeds with the Chevron at full pelt soon. • GJ

---

On a day in which blink-182 are headlining, placing Neck Deep underneath them makes way too much sense. So much so that they’re pencilled in for two sets today, the later one in the more intimate climes of the Festival Republic tent for a career retrospective / deep cut affair. Their Main Stage one, meanwhile, is loaded with new stuff, seemingly to prove how their role of pop-punk’s reliable generational figureheads is back on track. You can tell it’s working when the sun is coaxed back out, seconded by the ramming weight and ebullience lent to Dumbstruck Dumbfuck and Sort Yourself Out. A few puffs of pyro on the former don’t hurt, either, but they serve more as garnish to an already hearty, high-calorie meal. More than anything, it’s about Neck Deep being fully in business, regardless of whether or not the Americanised curl in Ben Barlow’s voice goes a bit too far on Lowlife. Of course, a machine this well-oiled will hardly suffer from a blip so minor as that. • LN

---

“WHO IS READY TO FUCK?!” screams Phoebe Lunny, with an irascible, bash-you-upside-the-head curtness that has become the tactic du jour of the Lambrini Girls leader. That’s also true of her aversion to staying onstage and her boomeranging into the crowd and back at any given moment, to where you’d almost believe you weren’t at one of the most mainstream moneymakers on the festival circuit. Yes, this is a corner of real political punk that Reading & Leeds’ visage rarely gives away. Being on a side stage will do that, with greater freedom to throw barbs at the British government’s complicity in the Palestinian genocide before God’s Country, with a fervour that doesn’t need to be tamped back for the benefit of prying TV cameras. There’s actually an impressive contingent of acts like that this year, and Lambrini Girls’ pleasantly-sized crowd indicates how deep the market for them runs. It could also just be because Lambrini Girls kind of rule, not just in the realms of undepletable dynamism, but also in punk tied fast to its sawblade edges and killer rhythm section. They’re the kind of band everyone could do with more of. • LN

---

Her headline set in the Radio 1 tent wasn’t meant to be, but it’s arguable that Jorja Smith belongs on the Main Stage in the sun anyway. That’s certainly the opinion of Leeds-goers, the crowd stretching further and further towards the food vendors the longer she’s onstage. Smith’s voice cuts above all else; it’s pristine (to a ‘how-is-this-real’ extent) and endlessly captivating. The chilled out R&B she makes can fall into something of a lull sometimes, but her backing band do wonders when it comes to bulking tracks up and keeping things textured and interesting. Addicted works particularly well with the added dimension of electric guitar, while the live drums throughout the set act as a head-bopping tether to songs like Little Things. This might not be one of the more memorable sets of the weekend, but it’s perfect for a much-needed sunny afternoon. • GJ

---

Someone on this year’s booking team must have a lot of faith in Spiritbox. Metal representation here is ever-dwindling, and though they’re unquestionably popular, fourth from the top on the Main Stage feels like a shot to the stars that the current core Leeds audience isn’t likely to appreciate as much. And yet, as they’ve shown time and time again, roadblocks of any size or magnitude simply vaporise when Spiritbox are around. For a turn at open-air conquering outside of an expected Download home, this is as valiant as it comes. With no one similar in the immediate vicinity, Courtney LaPlante only seems more impressive in her duality of effortless screams and ethereal cleans. With the size and legit impact that most djent wishes it has and a genuine cache of songs in Holy Roller and Circle With Me to match, there’s really nothing to stop Spiritbox from planting their flag on yet more unconquered ground. They’re, without question, the most melodically qualified of their generation of metal to wreck house on this scale. “We’re Spiritbox,” declares LaPlante, “and we’re here to ruin your day”—hate to break it to ya, but that couldn’t possibly be less correct. • LN

---

When you think ‘summery festival indie’, one of the first bands to come to mind is surely Two Door Cinema Club. Their arrival onto the Main Stage is met with almost a hero’s welcome from an audience who know both how reliable a band this is and how tailor-made their soft vocals and fretboard-travelling guitar lines are for a day and stage like this. The onstage visuals are the block primary colours they’ve used for the last few years, but 2023 single Sure Enough is the only song in this setlist released after 2013, which is, let’s be real, exactly what much of this crowd here wants. Something Good Can Work, This Is The Life and Eat That Up, It’s Good For You have lost none of their shine in the 12 years since their release. Delivery-wise, there isn’t too much by way of personality from the band themselves. It doesn’t affect the performance necessarily, but it does make the not one, but two unwitting false set-ups for songs even funnier (“are we ready, Leeds?” not being followed up with, um, Are We Ready? (Wreck) and “it’s sunny; we have the perfect song for this” not proceeding the aptly titled Sun). By the time the heavy hitters of Undercover Martyn and closer What You Know kick in, the thousands watching are laddishly chanting the guitar lines and off their feet to heartwarming effect—this is what people come to festivals for. • GJ

---

Denzel Curry deserves better. The crowd is much barer than it should be, perhaps a consequence of being burned by a certain other trap star the day before, and being placed on what’s nominally the Dance Stage that’s far outside his genre purview. He’s also in the unfortunate position of dealing with the Chevron’s ambitious setup not being equipped for daytime, if you fancy scratching another black mark on. So to say he’s not only able to rise above all of that, but vault over as if each were a minor impediment really puts in the work to show Curry’s triumph. When the bangers are as ironclad as they are, you don’t need fancy bells and whistles; when the performer is a wealth of charisma and showmanship, doubly so. Curating a vibe is where all the energy goes, where Curry will dance and lead crowd chants and banter with his DJ, miles removed from the aloofness that so many trap artists exhibit. It’s supposed to be fun to hear the bass and beats knock and clatter, and watch RICKY or Ultimate crank up and boil over in spectacular fashion. Curry is well aware of that, and at no point does he let that slip. • LN

---

The start of a festival headline set is always an interesting moment. Oftentimes an act will have production firing on all cylinders, or perhaps a pre-selected intro song to set the tone. Tonight, O Fortuna is setting the tone for an epic, life-changing event that will shake up Leeds Festival forever…wait, no, never mind. As the crowd is beside themselves to sing Gerry Cinnamon’s name to the tune of KC And The Sunshine Band’s Give It Up, the man himself bounds onstage, flat-capped, guitar in hand and grin wider than a punter’s waistline after a weekend diet of festival chips. Throughout the set, it does feel like this one lucky flat-capped busker has been plucked off the street to become a star. Cinnamon himself is incredibly endearing, chortling, hollering and smiling like the Cheshire Cat the entire time, the optimism that’s allowed him to grind and rise from playing in small bars to festival main stages shining through all of his songs. However, there isn’t too much to the music itself other than jolly bobbing up and down and drunken singalongs.

The entire set feels like middle-aged Britain’s love for singers in Irish bars personified, except the crowd is majority teens and twenty-somethings with a Scotsman as their ringleader. Of course, music in Irish bars is designed to get people up and dancing (something Cinnamon absolutely succeeds at), but it’s a limited sonic palette that frankly isn’t too wow-worthy. The stage production of a retro-style living room with a huge TV is homely, adding to Cinnamon’s grounded, authentic image. It may be simple but it’s detailed, flicking between ‘on’ and ‘off air’ when the singer is and isn’t playing, plus having the lyrics onscreen in the style of various iconic movies is a nice touch. As the final one-two of Discoland and Canter ring out and the people-on-shoulders and decibel levels reach ecstatic fever pitch, it does feel like a shame to be seemingly the only person in the field to not quite ‘get it’. With the reception Gerry Cinnamon has gotten tonight, there’s no doubt that he deserves to be here, but there are certainly more interesting acts to do so. • GJ

---

As one of the more notable names excised off yesterday’s lineup by the weather, it’s about right that Skrillex gets his go. The day’s reshuffled lineup bestows him 45 minutes to retool what was supposed to be double that, though it’s not quite the bespoke chop-and-change affair. This is a competently composed mix, exploring as Skrillex explores the catalogues of himself, his peers and basically everyone within a certain radius, giving some much-appreciated colour and variety. There’s a lot of trap and drill sewn into the expected swatches of electro-house and dubstep, and while the constantly electrified vibe is hard to fault, you’re ultimately getting more mileage from those classic, Skrillex-branded bomb moments. The energy prickles more noticeably around pieces of Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites and, of course, Bangarang than, say, Central Cee and Lil Baby’s BAND4BAND. But you also don’t come into a set like this to pick it apart. It’s not helpful or reasonable, not when Skrillex is so clearly far ahead in his field exactly where it matters. • GJ

---

Saturday night’s final headline slot feels like a last stand for Reading & Leeds’ alternative roots of old, blink-182 being the perfect band to hold down the fort. Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus are masters of crowd wrangling at this point, even after their decade-long break from playing together. Their trademark 18+ banter is on usual top form, whether it’s carrying on jokes about not being able to make their wives orgasm across songs or Hoppus asking who in the crowd comes from a broken home before declaring “that shit was your fault!”. They stoke the Reading / Leeds war by declaring “Reading can suck our collective dick” (which we’re sure they wouldn’t have said the inverse of when down south, no way), but still play all the traditional frontman beats to great effect.

This set is part of the One More Time tour, and there’s a considerable chunk of their latest album included here. DANCE WITH ME provides a nice singalong for even curious onlookers to get involved with, while the Travis Barker-led FUCK FACE provides the heaviest moment of the entire set. There are some nice surprises from the past, like snippets of songs from side projects +44 and Box Car Racer, plus Man Overboard and Aliens Exist (which DeLonge introduces smugly because he has done just that) getting outings. Of course though, the hits are where this set shines. Feeling This, The Rock Show, I Miss You, Always and First Date are all formative songs for a generation of people in this crowd, all of which receive rapturous reception. The singalongs for What’s My Age Again? and All The Small Things are up there with the biggest of the whole day, and while those and de-facto closer Dammit feel like a perfect cap on things,  new band anthem ONE MORE TIME is just the right level of friend-hugging sentimental to see the trio, and the last rock headliner of this year’s Leeds, off. • GJ

---

Looks as though yesterday’s wind also blew the stars into alignment, because who better to give a new high-end dance stage its inaugural headline run than The Prodigy? They’re not just a classic dance act in their own right; they’re foundational in turning rave culture in the UK into what it was in the ‘90s, and that hasn’t gone unrecognised. For a lot of Leeds’ clientele, this could very well be one of their parents’ bands, and yet the kids have turned up in full force, evidently aware of the magnitude and reputation that The Prodigy hold so dear. Even five years after the passing of Keith Flint, there’s been no significant slowdown or dropoff. Maxim Reality mightn’t have the same kick to be an outright replacement, but you can’t complain when he’s keeping momentum high all on his own.

That said, The Prodigy aren’t short on that to begin with. They never have been, not in a concoction that’s uniquely blended into part rave, part metal show, and part immersive experience that this band on this stage was built for. At night is where the infrastructure of the Chevron really shines, as the canopy of lights projects custom graphics and blocks of harsh reds and greens. It’s, in no uncertain terms, incredible, and the exact confluence of factors to further stoke the fire already ablaze beneath The Prodigy. Immersion like this is what they need, where the oppressiveness and heaviness of the sound can be matched in the visuals. They are a heavy band—Roadblox and Poison can evoke straight-up metal here—and the means of embracing that have never felt so open. Elsewhere, with its full rave strobes and lasers, No Good (Start The Dance) brings a whole different type of intensity, but one that’s just as congruent.

It goes without saying, too, that the actual setlist is just as much of a wonder to behold. Like, Breathe into Omen into Spitfire into Firestarter into Voodoo People as the opening run! It rarely lets up, either; the omission of Warrior’s Dance aside (still a little bitter about that one, tbh), every big Prodigy song worth its salt is accounted for and perfectly woven into the sweltering maelstrom. It’s borderline breathless at times, revved up by Maxim’s cries for his “party people”, his “voodoo crew”, his “shirtless warriors”. And of course, as Firestarter kicks in and the silhouette of Keith Flint from its iconic video is drawn on the stage screens, there’s a roar like no other. Here’s The Prodigy, an act who’ll transcend the generations of electronic music, doing that once again as if it were nothing at all. For what their craft demands and what they can offer within it, this is legitimately flawless. • LN

---

Words by Georgia Jackson (GJ) and Luke Nuttall (LN)

Photos by Emily Marcovecchio, Georgina Hurdsfield, Matt Eachus and Sam McMahon