Official Reading & Leeds 2026

[nathanh]

5 minutes ago, Benj said:

Yup, it’s going back to what all us oldies have been calling for since 2022 though!

 

They had a great festival, very successfully selling festival and spent every year since COVID trying to change it for some reason!

Maybe Melv is finally listening to you @Benj in a desperate attempt to get you back haha!

 

But in all reality, I really dont understand why the hell they have gotten into this trend of unnecessary changes. Just focus on delivering a satisfying festival with options and the people will show up. They had this festival sh*t down before Covid, there was no need to overcomplicate things. 

[Benj]

1 minute ago, nathanh said:

Maybe Melv is finally listening to you @Benj in a desperate attempt to get you back haha!

 

But in all reality, I really dont understand why the hell they have gotten into this trend of unnecessary changes. Just focus on delivering a satisfying festival with options and the people will show up. They had this festival sh*t down before Covid, there was no need to overcomplicate things. 

Think their hand was forced a bit in 2021 to be fair but I think they fell into the trap of that selling well (due to revenge spending) and then  having the Arctic Monkeys sell the whole thing out in ‘22 that they had a winning formula on their hands.

 

Hopefully this is a proper effort to get back to basics and just provide a good balanced program offering people a good choice of what they want to see

[WFD]

On 14/07/2026 at 14:06, korokband said:

I'd probably be a little more excited if they weren't all AI generated. They never lived up to the initial promise of the Chevron stage.

 

I'd be amazed if they turn out to look like that in real life.  If they do, they are spending a lot more on production than they have previously.

[Benj]

1 hour ago, WFD said:

 

I'd be amazed if they turn out to look like that in real life.  If they do, they are spending a lot more on production than they have previously.

Assume this has to be the 2.0, given nothing else has really changed!

[jonnyisRFC]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp871g996qno
 

The BBC aren’t pleased with FR axing the introducing stage!   

[Chapple12345]

19 hours ago, jonnyisRFC said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp871g996qno
 

The BBC aren’t pleased with FR axing the introducing stage!   

It seems a shame. I know they mention theres another up and coming stage in The Canopy but its not like for like at all. I somehow don't think the BBC would choose the daughter of Dave Grohl, the son of David Beckham and a Simon Cowell constructed act would play the Introducing Stage 

[Benj]

9 minutes ago, Chapple12345 said:

It seems a shame. I know they mention theres another up and coming stage in The Canopy but its not like for like at all. I somehow don't think the BBC would choose the daughter of Dave Grohl, the son of David Beckham and a Simon Cowell constructed act would play the Introducing Stage 

I don’t see the problem, for us the punters anyway, if the stage offers bigger names in a festival environment that’s great for their fan bas.

 

It would be great to have the Intro too for what it provides to the artist but this is a better option as whole for the tricker buyer if it has to be or the other. 

[iminthevoid]

3 hours ago, Benj said:

I don’t see the problem, for us the punters anyway, if the stage offers bigger names in a festival environment that’s great for their fan bas.

 

It would be great to have the Intro too for what it provides to the artist but this is a better option as whole for the tricker buyer if it has to be or the other. 

 

What bigger names are we getting on the new Canopy this year that are that much bigger than what we had on the BBC Intro previously?

To me this just screams of Live Nation wanting more control over pushing artists they have a vested financial interest in. (A-lister nepo babies by the looks of things).

Edited July 22 by iminthevoid

[Andre91]

The Introducing Stage has been dying on its arse for a while now, drawing tiny crowds compared to back in the day.

 

I think a lot of it has to do with how music consumption / fandom has changed over the last decade and a half. Back when the lineup focused mostly on bands, fans of those kinds of music were more in touch with smaller, underground acts (for want of a better word) because you had music media publications being consumed massively, as well as online bits and pieces where fans would connect with each other over music and share smaller, upcoming bands’ music.
 

I don’t think younger people these days are as in touch / interested in stuff that isn’t already ‘big’, or don’t see the need to try and discover the next big thing or smaller artists because they just consume what the algorithm serves them up. 

[Chad888]

Ed Sheeran didn't blow up because he went on the BBC Introducing stage in 2011. Likewise it wasn't the thing that gave the 1975, Charli XCX, Florence their big breaks either. Its completely disingenuous for the BBC to even suggest they were part of their rise to fame.

 

Its like me asking not to dismiss my ideas on music because I listened to BOB before anybody else, and getting his debut album on Limewire led to him featuring on Hayley William's Airplanes.

 

Playing to 50 drunk teenagers waiting on a food van, on the Introducing Stage does nothing more (probably less) for an artist than playing local venues across the country and supporting similar bands. 

 

Music is consumed immediately now. Ed Sheeran would have blown up the instant A Team came out on Spotify. He would have subbed on Main Stage if that was in 2026 on just the one song (akin to Polo G / Megan the Stalion, Glass Animals etc).

Edited July 27 by Chad888

[KJP98]

How long of a set do we think Florence will get? All six headliners getting around 90 mins or ? Will be really weird seeing her in the light if she's definetely not going on last😂

[Benj]

26 minutes ago, KJP98 said:

How long of a set do we think Florence will get? All six headliners getting around 90 mins or ? Will be really weird seeing her in the light if she's definetely not going on last😂

I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t be the case

 

Think her starting in the light and finishing in the dark kind of works for her music

[KJP98]

50 minutes ago, Benj said:

I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t be the case

 

Think her starting in the light and finishing in the dark kind of works for her music

Will she not be starting in light and finishing in light? I was thinking she was going to be on about 18:50-20:20 and C&S on at 21:10-22:40, well at Leeds not Reading.

 

Hopefully it works well enough her being in the light, she'll be the best of the headliners regardless! 

Edited July 28 by KJP98

[KJP98]

DMA's secret set at Leeds? Doing acoustic show in Leeds on Sat 29th August, nothing on 28th. 

[Benj]

11 hours ago, KJP98 said:

Will she not be starting in light and finishing in light? I was thinking she was going to be on about 18:50-20:20 and C&S on at 21:10-22:40, well at Leeds not Reading.

 

Hopefully it works well enough her being in the light, she'll be the best of the headliners regardless! 

Oh yeah Leeds runs a little earlier than Reading. Subs always end in the dark at Reading, dunno about Leeds

[OliverC]

Wonder when set times will be, maybe they're moving it back to the week of the festival like before