Leeds and Reading festivals are probably two of the biggest music events in the UK, time and time again they bring in the biggest and brightest acts of the year as well as legendary performances from bands that have stood the test of time and this year was no exception.
Friday was by far the best day with Foo Fighters headlining the Main Stage, they gave an outstanding performance that lasted two and a half hours playing songs like Everlong, Best of You and Monkey Wrench. It felt like almost everyone at the festival turned up to watch them and though fireworks mark the end of the show they definitely didn't mark the end of the night.
The complete high that everyone felt after the first nights headlining act meant that Saturdays headliners were a bit of a disappointment. Though the day and was packed with quality bands such as; Bombay Bicycle Club, Hadouken!, Paramore, Proxies and The Hives, The Cure just seemed like a bit of a let down in comparison to the Foo Fighters, their set dragged on longer than it should have, half the crowd had left after the first hour to see what else was going on, and as they finished with that one song that everybody knew (Boys Don’t Cry) it was almost like the band was as glad as the people watching that their set had finished.
Sunday was yet another day with quality bands to enjoy, in particular we loved indie-pop band Los Campesinos!, Billy Talent, The Shins, and NME Stage Headliners, At the Drive In. On top of this there was tonnes of great comedy to chill out and watch, we really enjoyed Jason Byrne and Jimmy McGhie.
Highlights for us this year were, Anti Flag, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, the crowd surfing cereal boxes and Foo Fighters, but we couldn't help feeling like Leeds played second fiddle to Reading all weekend. Green Day played a surprise set at Reading on Friday, which much to our disappointment, was not repeated at Leeds and having the Foo Fighters play on the first night instead of the last like they did at Reading, meant the festival didn’t really end on a high, the way it would if they had been the ones to close the festival.
Nevertheless, the line-up was still great and the venues really work well together, the only thing we felt Leeds lacked was a bit of character, its all about the music at Leeds and we cant fault them for that but a few more quirky smaller venues definitely wouldn't hurt.