Reading and Leeds Festivals

"Leeds Festival" redirects here. For the 1858–1985 festivals, see Leeds Festival (classical music).
"Reading festival" redirects here. For book festivals, see Literary festival.

Reading and Leeds Festivals
Leeds Festival Site in 2012
Genre
  • Alternative
  • rock
  • metal
  • hip hop
  • dance
  • pop
DatesAugust bank holiday
Location(s)Reading and Leeds, England
  • Beaulieu Jazz Festival (1955–1961)
  • Various as National Jazz Festival (1961–1970)
  • Reading (since 1971)
  • Also at Leeds (since 1999)
Years active1955–present (except 2020)
Attendance105,000 (2019, daily) [1]
Websitereadingfestival.com leedsfestival.com
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The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm on Richfield Avenue in central Reading, near Caversham Bridge. The Leeds event is held in Bramham Park, near Wetherby, the grounds of a historic house. Headliners and most supporting acts typically play at both sites, with Reading's Friday line up becoming Leeds' Saturday line-up, Reading's Saturday line-up playing at Leeds on Sunday, and Leeds' Friday line-up attending Reading on Sunday. Campsites are available at both sites and weekend tickets include camping. Day tickets are also sold.

The Reading Festival, the older of the two festivals, is the longest-running popular music festival in the UK.[2] Many of the biggest bands in the UK and internationally have played at the festival over five decades. The festival has had various musical phases over the years, but since the current two-site format was adopted in 1999, rock, alternative, indie, punk, and metal have been the main genres featured in the line-up. More recently hip hop has comprised an increasing proportion of the lineup, including headline sets by artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Post Malone.

The festivals are run by Festival Republic, which was divested from Mean Fiddler Music Group.[3] From 1998 to 2007, the festivals were known as the Carling Weekend: Reading and the Carling Weekend: Leeds for promotional purposes. In November 2007, the sponsored title was abolished after nine years and the Reading Festival reclaimed its original name.[4] In 2011, the capacity of the Reading site was 87,000,[5] and the Leeds site was 75,000,[6] an increase of several thousand on previous years.[7]

  1. ^ "Reading Festival set for extra 5,000 revellers in 2019". www.bbc.com. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Reading in 1971: the town of the first Reading Festival". Reading Museum. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  3. ^ "History". Festival Republic. Retrieved 10 July 2022.
  4. ^ "Festivals part company with Carling". Archived from the original on 9 April 2008.
  5. ^ "Reading Festival 2011". Archived from the original on 14 March 2011.
  6. ^ "Leeds Festival capacity to rise to 90,000 music fans". Archived from the original on 2 January 2011.
  7. ^ "An extra 5,000 tickets are granted for the Leeds Festival". Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2011.