2023 Festival

[foolee]

1 minute ago, deadpheasant said:

One of the headliners in 2023 will be Sam Fender.

Isn’t he meant to be doing BST next year which I think would rule him out. 

[Keese46uk]

10 hours ago, she bangs the drums said:

They also need to think about the many customers they have with accessible requirements as it is not easy getting from stage to stage.

The main stage accessible platforms used to be busy most of the day, now it's just busy the headliners.

I might contact Attitude is Everything to see what there comments are on this. 

I agree. It’s a nightmare for accessible because you have to choose a main stage and stick to it. 

[Jacko45]

Good chance Leeds/Reading are about to incur heavy fines/disciplinary action over the violence + rubbish.

My mate has cold storage that he rents to Leeds Festival, went to collect them all yesterday said the amount of perfectly good 6-8 man tents left was a total disgrace.

Said the rubbish on the other hand was beyond anything he's seen before. 

[andyrhodes24]

58 minutes ago, Jacko45 said:

Good chance Leeds/Reading are about to incur heavy fines/disciplinary action over the violence + rubbish.

My mate has cold storage that he rents to Leeds Festival, went to collect them all yesterday said the amount of perfectly good 6-8 man tents left was a total disgrace.

Said the rubbish on the other hand was beyond anything he's seen before. 

Not sure what time Monday this drone footage actually taken but it’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Nothing they can do though stop you leaning your tent either

 

[becca_]

27 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

Not sure what time Monday this drone footage actually taken but it’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it. Nothing they can do though stop you leaning your tent either

 

Yeah let's be honest, if people are selfish enough to leave their tent they're not going to care whatever happens.

[Andre91]

It’s happens every single year. Every single year is ‘the worst it’s ever been.’ 

[andyrhodes24]

6 minutes ago, becca_ said:

Yeah let's be honest, if people are selfish enough to leave their tent they're not going to care whatever happens.

I find it absolutely mental that people are willing to spend £100s on equipment just to leave it behind and buy it all again the next year, especially the big tents. I bought my tent for £25 in Argos in 2014 and still take it now

[Peskybee]

Pretty much certain this year will be the last time I go for the whole weekend, however it was a nice send off to what has been a nice little tradition for me and my friends since 2015. 

Friday highlights:

Frank Carter was such a great start to the day and the festival, no surprises there. Little Simz is bloody brilliant. Only discovered her after her most recent album so was nice to hear a lot of those songs during the set. The Interrupters may have been the band of the day for me, they make me happy and I don't think I stopped dancing the whole time. (I definitely called the secret set on the old thread 😂) . Fever 333 are always on top form, was nice to see such a packed out tent.

Saturday highlights:

Static Dress pulled a decent crowd and the pit was brutal. Great to see them gaining some popularity. Enter Shikari are probably my favourite band on the lineup. Was gutted their set was cut short but they always deliver. Wolf Alice had an almost perfect setlist, sang along to every word. Bring Me The Horizon were the best act of the weekend. Was concerned about them not playing anything older than Sempiternal but it really didn't matter. The songs from Post Human: Survival Horror sounded massive.  

Sunday highlights:

Was pleasantly surprised by Willow, really enjoyed her rock infused tracks. Denzel Curry is fab, he's got to be one of the best modern rappers. Run The Jewels were so fun and gave me some much needed energy on Sunday afternoon. Having only minimal interest in Halsey before the festival, she really blew me away. Shame her set was closed so won't be able to watch it back.

The only really disappointing part of the whole festival was Danny Brown storming off. I was relatively far back in the tent so unsure whether I've got all the details but 3 songs in, he asked the crowd if they were excited for Ardee and people starting chanting his name. I didn't hear any boos from where I was but apparently there were. It all happened so fast, I was super confused and thought it was part of the act at first. Gutted because he was the last act I really wanted to see at the festival.  

[becca_]

Just now, andyrhodes24 said:

I find it absolutely mental that people are willing to spend £100s on equipment just to leave it behind and buy it all again the next year, especially the big tents. I bought my tent for £25 in Argos in 2014 and still take it now

The other thing I noticed about all these 'my tent flooded so i had to leave it behind' videos is THEY DIDN'T PUT THE INNER LAYER UP. OF COURSE it's going to flood if you've literally got one layer. So so so stupid.

[NorthernSoul52]

2 hours ago, foolee said:

Isn’t he meant to be doing BST next year which I think would rule him out. 

Been wildly out of the loop on this one. Would that deem an exclusivity contract of some kind? Otherwise think he'd still be an excellent shout to do both a Hyde Park show and the R+L gig.

[andyrhodes24]

3 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

It’s happens every single year. Every single year is ‘the worst it’s ever been.’ 

It’ll keep happening too and all parties are fine with it. FR, the local councils, the two festival sites all know it’ll happen and all are happy to it to happen year after year. It’ll never change

1 minute ago, becca_ said:

The other thing I noticed about all these 'my tent flooded so i had to leave it behind' videos is THEY DIDN'T PUT THE INNER LAYER UP. OF COURSE it's going to flood if you've literally got one layer. So so so stupid.

It’s the dead simple things - put your tent up properly, don’t camp next to a main walkway/the big hill/relentless/the rides. You’re asking for your tent to be trampled if you do that

[foolee]

6 minutes ago, NorthernSoul52 said:

Been wildly out of the loop on this one. Would that deem an exclusivity contract of some kind? Otherwise think he'd still be an excellent shout to do both a Hyde Park show and the R+L gig.

Not sure if there’s exclusivity but I highly doubt he’d do a show as big as Hyde Park and headline R&L. 

[WFD]

4 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

It’ll keep happening too and all parties are fine with it. FR, the local councils, the two festival sites all know it’ll happen and all are happy to it to happen year after year. It’ll never change.

The rubbish is always bad, though I did think it was worse this year.  I expect it is just easier for them to let the litter accumulate over the weekend and then blitz it at the end, rather than do much about it during the festival.  Smaller festivals do more to deal with litter over the weekend but then if Leeds did that it would backfire because people would do the whole "they pay people to pick it up, why should I put it in the bin"

They could still help matters by having more bins out though, and actually emptying the ones they did have.

The tent thing will never change, they might be happy about the success of eco camping but doing something like that across the whole site would involve more admin/cost than they (the festival) are willing to put in.

 

[VCK]

15 hours ago, Hugh Jass II said:

Was it because of the row over the R-Word?

Would be silly if so, the guy apologised and edited his post.

[GeezLouise]

Yeah, that was my fault. I reported the posts that had the R word in them, didn’t realise the whole thread would get shut down, I just thought the offensive posts would be deleted. My bad. Don’t use slurs plz guys! 

[GeezLouise]

I didn’t report that one as the guys genuinely didn’t seem to realise. But there was another that doubled down on the use of the slur. Anyway, Halsey ey? I cried

Edited August 30, 2022 by GeezLouise
I meant to quote @VCK

[BenG92]

Not your fault, that's just nuclear moderation, should be individual posts removed / users warned. Nothing stopping someone just remaking the thread the next second anyway and this forum is constantly full of spam shit that never gets removed. 

It's free, so I'm not meaning to whinge about it, but it is what it is 😅

[metallimuse]

1 hour ago, Peskybee said:

Pretty much certain this year will be the last time I go for the whole weekend, however it was a nice send off to what has been a nice little tradition for me and my friends since 2015. 

Friday highlights:

Frank Carter was such a great start to the day and the festival, no surprises there. Little Simz is bloody brilliant. Only discovered her after her most recent album so was nice to hear a lot of those songs during the set. The Interrupters may have been the band of the day for me, they make me happy and I don't think I stopped dancing the whole time. (I definitely called the secret set on the old thread 😂) . Fever 333 are always on top form, was nice to see such a packed out tent.

Saturday highlights:

Static Dress pulled a decent crowd and the pit was brutal. Great to see them gaining some popularity. Enter Shikari are probably my favourite band on the lineup. Was gutted their set was cut short but they always deliver. Wolf Alice had an almost perfect setlist, sang along to every word. Bring Me The Horizon were the best act of the weekend. Was concerned about them not playing anything older than Sempiternal but it really didn't matter. The songs from Post Human: Survival Horror sounded massive.  

Sunday highlights:

Was pleasantly surprised by Willow, really enjoyed her rock infused tracks. Denzel Curry is fab, he's got to be one of the best modern rappers. Run The Jewels were so fun and gave me some much needed energy on Sunday afternoon. Having only minimal interest in Halsey before the festival, she really blew me away. Shame her set was closed so won't be able to watch it back.

The only really disappointing part of the whole festival was Danny Brown storming off. I was relatively far back in the tent so unsure whether I've got all the details but 3 songs in, he asked the crowd if they were excited for Ardee and people starting chanting his name. I didn't hear any boos from where I was but apparently there were. It all happened so fast, I was super confused and thought it was part of the act at first. Gutted because he was the last act I really wanted to see at the festival.  

From what I was hearing backstage on Friday Danny Brown was pretty out of it before going on stage and it was a sh*t show trying to get him on, one of his crew also wasn’t there and they had to get one of the 100 Gecs crew to sort out something to do with his stage management. Dunno if all that played a part in his walk off but was just what I saw.

[Nobby's Old Boots]

3 minutes ago, metallimuse said:

From what I was hearing backstage on Friday Danny Brown was pretty out of it before going on stage and it was a sh*t show trying to get him on, one of his crew also wasn’t there and they had to get one of the 100 Gecs crew to sort out something to do with his stage management. Dunno if all that played a part in his walk off but was just what I saw.

He was definitely a bit wasted but people were chanting for Arrdee, then I think he was annoyed & saying something about him being "the next act on" so lots more people started chanting for Arrdee, so he threw his mic in the air and walked off. Such a rude, pathetic crowd. 

[K2SO]

I worked at the festival this year, and I have to say that 99% of people I dealt with were pleasant. There were a couple of dickheads, but you'd get that no matter where you go.

However, the camp site was actually vile. Whenever I wanted to go into the arena to watch anything, I purposely left the site and walked around the river to get in whilst going through a minimal amount of the camp.

As for next year, I think that the double main stage thing might change because there's been a lot of negative feedback about it, and honestly I believe it's a safety nightmare waiting to happen. I also wouldn't be shocked if we see something a bit stricter come in to try and crack down on the trouble and destruction. Maybe allocated pitches so they know where everyone is camping or a strict 18+ only policy.

In terms of headliners, I actually think The 1975 may well come back. It's not unheard of for R+L to re-book an artist for consecutive festivals, seeing as they booked Post Malone in 2019 and 2021. I fully expect Kasabian to be there but otherwise I feel like R+L is basically unpredictable... Maybe Courteeners, seeing as they're announcing a St Jude 15th anniversary thing tonight. However, the majority of punters from what I noticed this week do not really care what's booked. They just watch whatever is on and enjoy themselves.

[Will b]

Anyone see the skinner brothers set? It was sensational 

on the other hand the sound and crowd for bastille was dreadful, and Fontaines and wolf Alice were ruined by the tiktok 16 year olds waiting for AM (and this is coming from an 18yo myself so it must have been bad lol) 

charli xcx, the 1975, 100 gecs and glass animals stole the show imo 

[jonnyisRFC]

9 minutes ago, Will b said:

Anyone see the skinner brothers set? It was sensational 

 

Brilliant set even though they missed out some of their more well known songs! Only got into them last month but I can’t stop listening to them, wouldn’t surprise me at all if they absolutely blew up in the next year or so. 

[charlie.light]

28 minutes ago, K2SO said:

I worked at the festival this year, and I have to say that 99% of people I dealt with were pleasant. There were a couple of dickheads, but you'd get that no matter where you go.

However, the camp site was actually vile. Whenever I wanted to go into the arena to watch anything, I purposely left the site and walked around the river to get in whilst going through a minimal amount of the camp.

As for next year, I think that the double main stage thing might change because there's been a lot of negative feedback about it, and honestly I believe it's a safety nightmare waiting to happen. I also wouldn't be shocked if we see something a bit stricter come in to try and crack down on the trouble and destruction. Maybe allocated pitches so they know where everyone is camping or a strict 18+ only policy.

In terms of headliners, I actually think The 1975 may well come back. It's not unheard of for R+L to re-book an artist for consecutive festivals, seeing as they booked Post Malone in 2019 and 2021. I fully expect Kasabian to be there but otherwise I feel like R+L is basically unpredictable... Maybe Courteeners, seeing as they're announcing a St Jude 15th anniversary thing tonight. However, the majority of punters from what I noticed this week do not really care what's booked. They just watch whatever is on and enjoy themselves.

Hi, I am one of the campsite managers, allocated pitches would never work at Reading, the idea has been discussed before and gets disregarded straight away, it would be absolutely chaos to organise and to Implement. A few reasons are, different tent sizes, extra staff to manage the allocation of pitches, the need for a bigger campsite as you can’t utilise all the space etc 

 

 

[WFD]

2 minutes ago, charlie.light said:

Hi, I am one of the campsite managers, allocated pitches would never work at Reading, the idea has been discussed before and gets disregarded straight away, it would be absolutely chaos to organise and to Implement. A few reasons are, different tent sizes, extra staff to manage the allocation of pitches, the need for a bigger campsite as you can’t utilise all the space etc 

 

 

Not sure what it would achieve anyway - the idea is usually that punters would have to pay a deposit which they only get back if their patch is clean when they leave, but as you suggest it would take so many people to run it properly and anyway there would be nothing stopping people just shoving their cans and leftover equipment into another patch and saying it wasn't theirs.

[she bangs the drums]

6 hours ago, swede said:

I went 2003-2008 when I was in my early 20's. The Sunday of 2008 was the worst id ever seen, I went back camping in 2011 in tangerine fields and the festival had put safety measures in place to try to minimize the crazy sunday behavior and it seemed to work. 

I've never been camping since but have done 1-2 days in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, getting the shuttle bus in and staying in a hotel and its the only way I would do it now. I took my kids in 2019 on the sunday to see Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots and it was one of the friendliest Leeds crowds I've ever been in. 

I think this year could have been a combination of things on the last night. Hot weather all weekend, high prices for booze, the 1st one after the pandemic with zero restrictions, and the woodstock 99 documentary, all creating this storm where people went wild. Id expect people to be much calmer next year. 

I had friends who camped at Leeds all weekend and they had a great time. 

I'm 40 so will never camp at Leeds again, however Id def do a day next year if Kendrick got announced, saw him headline in 2018 and again the vibe in the crowd was fantastic. 

I'm 48 and it's fine camping in Brown. You get the odd dick head turn up last minute on Friday evening or Saturday and camp in this section as they have nowhere else to camp, however on the whole very civilised, apart from people leaving their shit everywhere instead of in a bin / bag, though sadly that is human beings for you. 

I did see a fight in Brown, though this was some scrotes leaving on Sunday to get to the car park so hadn't camped on Brown.