Friday Of Leeds Festival
Article written by and photos by Elodie Hadfield
After attending Leeds Festival for the past three years, I knew it was time to take my camera and photograph my favourite festival. Leeds Festival always falls on the August Bank Holiday weekend and is known for bringing in an impressive list of headliners as well as supplying music for everyone. Whether rock n roll or hip-hop is your thing, or maybe you love all things pop, Leeds Festival will have you and your music taste covered.
This year Leeds Festival changed up their stages and layout. The most prominent change was the removal of the Main Stage West and the introduction of the Chevron Stage. The Aux Stage was also a new addition to the Leeds Festival map this year, which should have showcased some amazing guests such as The Useless Hotline (Max Balegde and George Clarke) and Antics With Ash (Ash Holme).
Leeds Festival had six stages this year. However, the British weather had different ideas, and due to the horrendous winds, three out of the six stages had to close on Friday 23rd August. This included the Aux Stage, BBC Radio 1 Stage, and the Chevron Stage. The Aux Stage and the BBC Radio 1 Stage remained closed throughout the duration of the festival.
However, the Leeds Festival team worked incredibly hard to ensure as many artists as possible who were scheduled to perform on Friday got to perform at other times throughout the rest of the weekend. Artists such as Seb Lowe, Ashnikko, and Skrillex were all able to perform on the Saturday of the festival, making many festivalgoers very happy!
After the Leeds Festival team gave everyone the all-clear, festival-goers were able to head into the arena around 2 pm on Friday 23rd August. The first artist of the day was Bru-C. Bru-C is a British rapper and is known for his drum and bass and rap music. After a long morning, Bru-C was the perfect artist to hype up the crowd ready for the rest of the day!
After Bru-C’s set, I headed over to the BBC Introducing Stage to catch the incredible Alessi Rose. Alessi Rose was a new name to myself but I came away from her set definitely a fan! Alessi creates the exact type of music I’d listen to and, as I’m writing this, I’m listening to my personal favourite song of hers “eat me alive” I also have to mention how much I LOVED Alessi’s outfit for her performance. The bloomers and little graphic vest were the perfect festival outfit!
After fuelling up on some cheesy chips, I headed back to the BBC Introducing Stage to watch something a bit different. The Rap Game UK is a British TV show which is hosted by DJ Target, Krept and Konan and follows their journey into finding the next big rap star. The BBC Introducing Stage was graced by the six incredible contestants from the show as they performed an energetic track they had written themselves. The whole set was recorded for the show and I can certainly say the crowd absolutely loved the contestant’s performance!
Later in the day, I saw music from both Venus Grrrls and Michael Aldag. Venus Grrrls are an alternative rock band and definitely brought loads of energy to their performance! Grace Kelly is the lead singer of the band and her vocals were incredible. Michael Aldag took to the stage shortly after Venus Grrrls. Being a lover of TikTok, I had of course seen Michael on social media already but I hadn’t heard his music before so I was super excited to see his set. It’s safe to say Michael didn’t disappoint. The crowd was singing along to every word and Michael performed with so much energy and he had an incredible stage presence!
Finally, the act I was most excited about seeing took to the Main Stage: Catfish and the Bottlemen. I have wanted to see Catfish live for years and wow they were amazing! They kicked off their set with “Longshot” and the crowd was ecstatic that the band were back where they belonged performing on the main stage at Leeds Festival after their break. The energy coming from the crowd was incredible as the whole of Bramham Park sang the words back at the band.
As the set progressed, Catfish played so many of my favourites including “Pacifier”, “Fallout” and “Homesick”. They concluded their amazing, energy-filled set with two crowd favourites “7” and “Cocoon”. After seeing Catfish and the Bottlemen at Leeds Festival I need to see them live again! They currently have two UK dates scheduled for 2025. If you’re interested click here to see where and when Catfish and the Bottleman are playing next.
Concluding the Friday of Leeds Festival was Liam Gallagher. Liam played the entirety of the Oasis album “Definitely Maybe” which the crowd absolutely loved! A couple of the crowd favourites were “Rock n Roll Star”, “Supersonic” and “Live forever”. Liam Gallagher was the perfect finish for Day 1 in Bramham Park.
