Official Reading & Leeds 2026

[Benj]

9 hours ago, korokband said:

Without knowing what stages will be back or gone next year it's quite hard to predict, but I think if I was booking the main stage I'd go for something like this for the top 3

 

Friday: Fontaines DC / Hayley Williams / The Last Dinner Party

Saturday: Sam Fender / Wolf Alice / Wunderhorse

Sunday: Muse / Turnstile / Sex Pistols & Frank Carter

 

A good mix of something old and new.

 

Is anyone paying £125 for any of those days, given the paucity of what else is on

 

You can get VIP tickets to see Sam Fender for that, without having to leave a major city for that this summer

 

Who’s paying it to stand in Branham park next year?

 

That kind of booking was fine when the rest of the lineup was stuffed with sh*t to see

 

now people take a look and go “Wolf Alice? Can catch them for £50 quid in the O2 and Wunderhorse played the last two years”

 

let’s give it a miss

 

 

[korokband]

13 hours ago, Benj said:

 

Is anyone paying £125 for any of those days, given the paucity of what else is on

 

You can get VIP tickets to see Sam Fender for that, without having to leave a major city for that this summer

 

Who’s paying it to stand in Branham park next year?

 

That kind of booking was fine when the rest of the lineup was stuffed with sh*t to see

 

now people take a look and go “Wolf Alice? Can catch them for £50 quid in the O2 and Wunderhorse played the last two years”

 

let’s give it a miss

 

 

 

Tbf my thought on that whole line up was that those headliners and acts would be astronomically cheaper than the cost of the Chappell + Travis combo this year, so in theory you could actually stack out the line up a bit, have bigger Chevron acts, maybe even bring back one of the smaller stages.

[jcarb]

With Tyler Joseph from Twenty One Pilots stating they're not touring the new album and the only tour for it is the US tour later in the year and him mentioning they may play a few festivals.
I have a feeling they've got to be in with a high chance of being one of the headliners, I can't see another UK fest booking them outside of maybe BST unless Download want to continue to play the field with booking a new headliner but I can't imagine they'd go down well there.

[Andre91]

Lewis Capaldi x Central Cee 

 

Twenty One Pilots 

 

Foo Fighters 

 

Would be suitably underwhelming in true R&L style. 

[DomDom1984]

I instantly thought of this when i seen that from TOP.

 

Personally, I want them at TRNSMT. 

[craigcharles420]

12 hours ago, jcarb said:

With Tyler Joseph from Twenty One Pilots stating they're not touring the new album and the only tour for it is the US tour later in the year and him mentioning they may play a few festivals.
I have a feeling they've got to be in with a high chance of being one of the headliners, I can't see another UK fest booking them outside of maybe BST unless Download want to continue to play the field with booking a new headliner but I can't imagine they'd go down well there.

I disagree, I think they would go down quite well at Download. But they do seem much more likely to be at R&L

[jcarb]

19 hours ago, DomDom1984 said:

I instantly thought of this when i seen that from TOP.

 

Personally, I want them at TRNSMT. 

History with L&R and it's size would lead me to think they'd play there.
It'd drag in fans from around Europe since it appears they're not touring and it's technically 2 shows.
Selfishly I'd want them at Leeds so I don't have to travel far aha!
 

 

9 hours ago, craigcharles420 said:

I disagree, I think they would go down quite well at Download. But they do seem much more likely to be at R&L

I think they'd go down well on the day and draw a good sized crowd but it would be a rather marmite booking I recon.
That festival crowd seem almost impossible to please at times on the lead up then love it when the festival comes around.
 

[craigcharles420]

16 hours ago, jcarb said:

History with L&R and it's size would lead me to think they'd play there.
It'd drag in fans from around Europe since it appears they're not touring and it's technically 2 shows.
Selfishly I'd want them at Leeds so I don't have to travel far aha!
 

 

I think they'd go down well on the day and draw a good sized crowd but it would be a rather marmite booking I recon.
That festival crowd seem almost impossible to please at times on the lead up then love it when the festival comes around.
 

Download is now a festival where Vengaboys and McFly play. Download 20 years ago would have bottled 21P, but nowadays they would fit right in

[jcarb]

1 minute ago, craigcharles420 said:

Download is now a festival where Vengaboys and McFly play. Download 20 years ago would have bottled 21P, but nowadays they would fit right in

It's such a strange one, like 2007 people were kicking off about MCR playing and now people have them as a wishlist band for next year.
It's definitely moving to be more alt than just straight metal.
 

[Andre91]

Download has never been a metal festival at any point in its history. Never. 
 

2007 was almost 20 years ago, MCR being bottled is irrelevant now they’re one of the biggest bands available. 

[jcarb]

19 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

Download has never been a metal festival at any point in its history. Never. 
 

2007 was almost 20 years ago, MCR being bottled is irrelevant now they’re one of the biggest bands available. 

I'm all about it tbf, a little variety is never a bad thing.
Vengaboys was a banging booking, they just needed a larger stage since loads of people couldn't get in aha.
 

[Benj]

1 hour ago, craigcharles420 said:

Download is now a festival where Vengaboys and McFly play. Download 20 years ago would have bottled 21P, but nowadays they would fit right in

Download just needs to add in a load of Indie, few dance and rap acts and it will basically be Reading from when Reading was good (i.e. 2019)

Edited August 18, 2025 by Benj

[Andre91]

Download isn’t turning into Reading and the people on the DL boards who say so haven’t actually been to Reading. People think by booking FOB and QOTSA it’s turned into what Reading was when they would need to book indie, dance and hip hop for that to be the case, like Benj said above. 

[craigcharles420]

18 minutes ago, Benj said:

Download just needs to add in a load of Indie, few dance and rap acts and it will basically be Reading from when Reading was good (i.e. 2019)

2019 was when Reading was good?

[craigcharles420]

1 hour ago, jcarb said:

It's such a strange one, like 2007 people were kicking off about MCR playing and now people have them as a wishlist band for next year.
It's definitely moving to be more alt than just straight metal.
 

Times change. MCR were hated on by loads of people back then. It's only really been since they broke up that they have slowly become more highly regarded. I would say the pendulum has swung too far personally. They were good, but I don't think they were doing anything all that special.

[Andre91]

MCR are the last band that actually impacted popular culture at large outside of the world of music. They’re rightly seen as legends these days. 

[Benj]

1 hour ago, craigcharles420 said:

2019 was when Reading was good?

Yes. It was good in 2019.

 

They had 6 proper music stages of options for all tastes, even yours I suspect, if you look through the lesser stages. There was lots and lots of interest

 

 

[craigcharles420]

4 minutes ago, Benj said:

Yes. It was good in 2019.

 

They had 6 proper music stages of options for all tastes, even yours I suspect, if you look through the lesser stages. There was lots and lots of interest

 

 

I remember not liking much on the lineup and choosing not to go based on that. Would have probably found stuff I liked just by watching random acts, though.

[craigcharles420]

2017 I think was the last lineup where I would say there were plenty of acts I liked. I did enjoy 24 though personally, although it could have done with a bit more depth.

[andyrhodes24]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

MCR are the last band that actually impacted popular culture at large outside of the world of music. They’re rightly seen as legends these days. 

And people were wondering if they could sell out two nights at Wembley. Someone on Twitter called it emoasis 😂

[northernangel]

Foo Fighters having Reading 2019 video watch back popping up on their socials this evening I reckon is a pretty big clue they are playing next year. I know Reading is round the corner but it's not really a major reason to put it up.

[jcarb]

20 hours ago, andyrhodes24 said:

And people were wondering if they could sell out two nights at Wembley. Someone on Twitter called it emoasis 😂

Emoasis is hilarious!

[Andre91]

Let’s have a punt at 2026. It’s much easier when you’ve only got three stages to consider…

 

MAIN: Lewis Capaldi x Wolf Alice / All Time Low / The Wombats 

 

CHEVRON: Pendulum 

 

FR: Joey Valence & Brae 

 

 

 

MAIN: Tyler, The Creator / Doechii / Boy Better Know 

 

CHEVRON: MK

 

FR: Dayseeker 

 

 

 

MAIN: Foo Fighters / Machine Gun Kelly / Turnstile

 

CHEVRON: Anne Marie 

 

FR: 100 gecs

Edited August 19, 2025 by Andre91

[jcarb]

2 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Let’s have a punt at 2026. It’s much easier when you’ve only got three stages to consider…

 

MAIN: Lewis Capaldi x Wolf Alice / All Time Low / The Wombats 

 

CHEVRON: Pendulum 

 

FR: Joey Valence & Brae 

 

 

 

MAIN: Tyler, The Creator / Doechii / Boy Better Know 

 

CHEVRON: MK

 

FR: Dayseeker 

 

 

 

MAIN: Foo Fighters / Machine Gun Kelly / Turnstile

 

CHEVRON: Anne Marie 

 

FR: 100 gecs

If the days are like this year where it's 2 themed and a mixed, I'd take your above but make the last day.

Twenty One Pilots / MGK / Yungblud for main on the last day and maybe swap Pendulum for Skrillex?

[Benj]

2 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Let’s have a punt at 2026. It’s much easier when you’ve only got three stages to consider…

 

MAIN: Lewis Capaldi x Wolf Alice / All Time Low / The Wombats 

 

CHEVRON: Pendulum 

 

FR: Joey Valence & Brae 

 

 

 

MAIN: Tyler, The Creator / Doechii / Boy Better Know 

 

CHEVRON: MK

 

FR: Dayseeker 

 

 

 

MAIN: Foo Fighters / Machine Gun Kelly / Turnstile

 

CHEVRON: Anne Marie 

 

FR: 100 gecs

Think Foo Fighters will do stadiums again after a few years off

 

Otherwise they seem realistic but won’t be selling out at 125+