Preview: Reading & Leeds Festival 2016

Celebrating its 45th year, the almighty Reading & Leeds Festivals play host to possibly their most diverse line up yet. 2016 sees 5 headliners join the bill, including 2 joint headline slots. While this year’s bill does take a turn towards more dance and rock bands, for a biased fan of indie like myself, the festival more than delivers.

For the first time in its history, Reading & Leeds holds 5 headliners across the weekend with indie titans Foals, dance duo Disclosure, veterans Red Hot Chili Peppers, pop-punk outfit Fall Out Boy, and Scotland’s very own Biffy Clyro all taking to the legendary Main Stages.

All is not lost when the music’s over however, as courtesy of Propaganda and various other artists including Hinds, there’ll be DJ sets/discos going on at the Alternative Stages every night. As well as this, a selection of films will be shown until the early hours – the party never really ends at Reading & Leeds.

Other acts across the weekend include South African rap pairing Die Antwoord, indie-electro gems Crystal Castles, and an eclectic mix of emo and punk bands dotted about the 8 stages featuring Modern Baseball, Milk Teeth, Creeper, and Lower Than Atlantis.

Bands taking their place on the NME Stage comprise of the heavily missed and highly regarded Two Door Cinema Club, with a well-deserved headline position, Jack U, and Twenty One Pilots. A quartet of ground-breaking artists occupy the NME stage on the Sunday (Reading) and Friday (Leeds) in the form of Rat Boy, Cage The Elephant, The Wombats and The 1975.

This year’s festivals also see a lot more rap and dance acts come to play including the grime pioneers Boy Better Know, A$AP Rocky, and a UK festival exclusive appearance from Nas. Sadboys chief Yung Lean will also be playing a rare UK set on the BBC 1xtra Stage.

The BBC Introducing stage also returns with a line-up of ones to watch for the future, hosting acts including High Tyde, and Strong Asian Mums. This stage in particular has a strong history of catching the bands that move onto the larger stages like the Festival Republic tent, or even the Main Stage in the case of Sundara Karma, and is definitely a stage you’ll want to check out over the course of the weekend.

2015 most definitely had a more indie/pop appeal to it, with the Sunday (Reading), Friday (Leeds) being overcome with indie giants like The Cribs, Jamie T, The Maccabees, and The Libertines, while this year sees a manifold line-up with a larger focus on the often neglected genres of dance, rap, and emo.

Tickets for the Reading site have officially sold out, though day tickets for the Friday and Sunday are still available here.

Leeds Festival weekend and day tickets can be bought here.

Words by Jasmin Robinson, image courtesy of Gregory Nolan