R&L 2027

[korokband]

5 hours ago, Benj said:

A month plus since the last post on here, just 4 months from the festival and when one finally came it’s spam 🤣

 

Maybe not a sign that the festival is dead as something of true cultural significance but deffo one that it is for people who populated this messageboard!

 

There’s so few acts playing that we can’t even moan about how few are playing, yet alone predict who might be added

Even the festival itself barely seems to be alive looking at social media etc, especially in comparison to Download who really seem to have hit a home run this year.

 

That being said, Reading looks like its selling alright, and anything that isn't day tickets for the Florence / Chase & Status day will probably sell out. Leeds on the other hand seems very flat, so I really think it might be time to question whether or not there will even be a Leeds next year.

[northernangel]

On 10/04/2026 at 17:25, archiegow said:

 

Absolutely amazed to see them, Rosé and Jennie (solo and not with Blackpink) all considered headliners but Yungblud still isn’t! Also I notice Foals have been downgraded from the headliner pool.

Tbh Yungblud with this years lineuo is the last option I would see then considering 

[Benj]

40 minutes ago, korokband said:

Even the festival itself barely seems to be alive looking at social media etc, especially in comparison to Download who really seem to have hit a home run this year.

 

That being said, Reading looks like its selling alright, and anything that isn't day tickets for the Florence / Chase & Status day will probably sell out. Leeds on the other hand seems very flat, so I really think it might be time to question whether or not there will even be a Leeds next year.

 

Yup, as a 'festival' Leeds is clearly dead at the current prices for the current offering.  It will be interesting to see what kind of crowd it does manage to get in to see if it will be around in 2027, without it being heavily subsidised by Reading



 

[JimMacVeigh]

The decline of this festival needs to be studied. Absolutely insane how it’s fallen off a cliff. 

[charlierc]

34 minutes ago, JimMacVeigh said:

The decline of this festival needs to be studied. Absolutely insane how it’s fallen off a cliff. 

Everyone will have their theories tbf. I don't think there's any one answer - I think its a mix of things like the failed twin main stage experiment, the divergence from its historic rock-focused bookings, the fact that rock crowd now has a lot of smaller and cheaper festivals to play with, appealing to a crowd that may have done V Festival back in the day only to find people just aren't into that, charging Glastonbury-level ticket prices for an experience that isn't quite at that level or just not finding a niche at present.

[Ben7amin_]

My own two cents on this -  (admittedly coming from someone who has not been in ages, sorry ).  I think perhaps they are trying to be a jack of all trades festival - and perhaps being the master of none.  Whatever people preferred theming/line up/environment for a festival - their will almost certainly be a different one better suited to their tastes.   While yes the sum total of Leeds/Reading might be a bigger set of names on the line up,  are they really gonna get the dedicated Indie kids away from Bearded Theory thats around £100 cheaper - with probably more music they are interested in,  see also Creamfields, Shambala etc etc.....

[Benj]

3 hours ago, Ben7amin_ said:

My own two cents on this -  (admittedly coming from someone who has not been in ages, sorry ).  I think perhaps they are trying to be a jack of all trades festival - and perhaps being the master of none.  Whatever people preferred theming/line up/environment for a festival - their will almost certainly be a different one better suited to their tastes.   While yes the sum total of Leeds/Reading might be a bigger set of names on the line up,  are they really gonna get the dedicated Indie kids away from Bearded Theory thats around £100 cheaper - with probably more music they are interested in,  see also Creamfields, Shambala etc etc.....

This is the problem and why the festival has died attraction wise, it’s not that it’s suddenly trying to be a jack of all trades that is what it always was and it strength.

 

The problem is with the lineup cut in half, it simply can’t fulfil that promise anymore 

 

At its peak it had 6 music stages, including 3 stages catered to specific genres, supplementing the bigger, genre diverse names on the main stage and large second stage.

 

While the two large stages are somewhat maintained, one has become far more genre focused while the diversity offered elsewhere has disappeared.

 

Where once there was normally always one or 2 things you’d be more than happy to watch at any one time, were suddenly left with 3 or 4 things a day.

 

Like you say, why pay 350 quid to go to Reading and put up with all the downsides of a mass scale festival, when there are no longer any upsides?

 

The people on this forum have certainly voted with their feet.

 

 

[charlierc]

On 19/05/2026 at 07:39, Ben7amin_ said:

My own two cents on this -  (admittedly coming from someone who has not been in ages, sorry ).  I think perhaps they are trying to be a jack of all trades festival - and perhaps being the master of none.  Whatever people preferred theming/line up/environment for a festival - their will almost certainly be a different one better suited to their tastes.   While yes the sum total of Leeds/Reading might be a bigger set of names on the line up,  are they really gonna get the dedicated Indie kids away from Bearded Theory thats around £100 cheaper - with probably more music they are interested in,  see also Creamfields, Shambala etc etc.....

It's probably not been helped by the fragmentation of this stuff. All Points East gets lots of stuff that I think would've been Reading bookings back in the day, as do Victorious Festival, the other Superstruct events and to a degree Gunnersbury Park.

 

Like I said, it's charging Glastonbury level prices for a strange grab bag without cohesion. I was hoping to see Florence and the Machine, for instance, but I can't say there's a lot of acts on her day at this I'm also up for seeing. Maybe Holly Humberstone after I thought she was cool on SNL, but two acts in about 20 isn't going to be make me throw £120 at it. 

[korokband]

Glastonbury money while offering rather weak headliners and reduced stages would be what I'd blame. I do not understand why the one "new" thing that they have announced for 2.0 is a stage that is nearly completely populated by acts that are playing Creamfields. If you like that kind of music then you would just go see the same acts at Creamfields instead.

[Benj]

11 hours ago, charlierc said:

It's probably not been helped by the fragmentation of this stuff. All Points East gets lots of stuff that I think would've been Reading bookings back in the day, as do Victorious Festival, the other Superstruct events and to a degree Gunnersbury Park.

 

Like I said, it's charging Glastonbury level prices for a strange grab bag without cohesion. I was hoping to see Florence and the Machine, for instance, but I can't say there's a lot of acts on her day at this I'm also up for seeing. Maybe Holly Humberstone after I thought she was cool on SNL, but two acts in about 20 isn't going to be make me throw £120 at it. 

Exactly. There is too much competition now to put on a festival like Reading once was, yet they still share the same for half the product. 
 

Fair f**ks if they can still get people to turn up and pay 3-400 quid for it and scrape together a daily program people are happy to spend 120 quid before travel accom and booze etc.  
 

I fear there will be diminishing returns when they have to start rotating the level of acts they can now attract, when people realise they can see them on tour for half the price and not have to stand outside in the rain

[jonnyisRFC]

On 18/05/2026 at 17:03, korokband said:

Even the festival itself barely seems to be alive looking at social media etc, especially in comparison to Download who really seem to have hit a home run this year.

 

That being said, Reading looks like its selling alright, and anything that isn't day tickets for the Florence / Chase & Status day will probably sell out. Leeds on the other hand seems very flat, so I really think it might be time to question whether or not there will even be a Leeds next year.

Careful, I mentioned them potentially getting rid of Leeds on here once and I got slaughtered 😂

[jonnyisRFC]

Agree with pretty much everything that’s been said above. Charging the same as Glastonbury is bonkers, Glastonbury offers 100x more than R/L in terms of music and general entertainment. Readings stumbling block with the modern day festival goer is the 11pm curfew, they used to get away with it when they had 6/7 packed out stages, but now they’ve cut all that in half it leaves a lot to be desired. 

[wghennessy]

6 hours ago, jonnyisRFC said:

Careful, I mentioned them potentially getting rid of Leeds on here once and I got slaughtered 😂

I think it probably will and should happen. I love close by and I don't know anyone who's going or who's remotely arsed. 10 years ago it was anything but. The festivals on its arse.