Festival News: Reading + Leeds Festival share six mega headliners!
Six big ol’ headliners and a cross-section of music genres everywhere stamp their names on the R+L line-up, including Billie Eilish, Imagine Dragons and Foals.
Who hasn’t heard of Reading and Leeds by now? It’s unimaginable that one of England’s most premier festivals isn’t instantly recognisable to someone by now, particularly to someone who partakes of music websites such as this one. And now, as a final Christmas treat for music-lovers up and down the country, Reading and Leeds have dropped the first exciting look at the line-up for their 2023 edition.
In case you don’t know, Reading and Leeds changed their layout back in 2021, removing the BBC Radio One stage and, to replace it, splitting the Main Stage in twain. What this means, basically, is twice as many headliners — and twice as much excitement.
So, without further ado, let’s take a look.
At Reading on the Friday, and Leeds on the Saturday, Sam Fender and Foals headline. They might not be of the same genre, but they’re both undisputedly at the tippy top of their game. So far, they’re set to be joined by Loyle Carner, Trippie Red, Wet Leg and Bicep Live, as well as Meekz, Nessa Barrett, Tion Wayne, and You Me At Six. Not a bad start, not a bad start at all.
At Reading on the Saturday, and Leeds on the Sunday, we have rock legends The Killers, and comedy legend Lewis Capaldi - though, obviously, he’s pretty damn revered at this point for his musical prowess too. Notably, his last performance was an early evening slot in the tiny Festival Republic stage in 2018 — its a safe bet that more than a few hundred will turn up this time.
We also have Nothing But Thieves, Chase Atlantic, Central Cee, and Slowthai. Elsewhere, there’s Baby Queen, Georgia, Inhaler, LF System, MK, and Yung Lean. And this is only the first 22 names — 14 left!
‘Finally’ — or at least, finally for now — there’s the Reading Sunday and Leeds Friday. First off, there’s Billie Eilish. Reportedly drawing in the largest ever crowd at Reading Festival, back during a mid-afternoon set in 2019, it’s almost scary to imagine the number for her deserved headline a lot. And, rounding off the headliners, come the global powerhouse — and second Las Vegas alumni act — Imagine Dragons, whose track ‘Believer’ is one of only 23 songs to surpass 2 billion streams on Spotify; which, funnily enough, is a distinction shared by both Lewis Capaldi’s ‘Someone You Loved’ and Billie Eilish’s ‘bad guy’. And also her Khalid collaboration, ‘Lovely’.
Basically, what I’m getting out is this lineup has some stupidly big names, even without the rest of the Sunday/Friday — although they don’t hurt either. There’s Steve Lacy, Declan McKenna, Becky Hill; Lil TJay, Andy C, Shy FX; Don Broco, Lovejoy, The Snuts; Eliza Rose, Muna, Songer.
It’s crazy that only 36 names can build up such anticipation for an event a good eight months odd away — and yet it’s happened. Set your alarms, folks, and start your countdowns. Reading and Leeds 2023 is on the way.
Words by James O’Sullivan
