Friday at Leeds Fest 2024 was a nightmare. Here’s everything that went down, and how the team at Leeds Fest managed to save things at the last minute.
Overnight, Storm Lillian hit Leeds with a bang, sending tents up into the air and stages crashing down. There were reports of trees crushing portaloos, and many campers left the festival before it truly began.
At 8:45am on Friday, Leeds Festival sent out an urgent weather alert. They urged campers to “stay in your tents if you are onsite and feel safe to do so”, and stated that they expected the heavy winds to ease up by 10am.
However, by 9:32am, both the BBC Radio 1 stage and the all-new Aux stage were “lost” in the damage, and the arena was not set to open on time. Beabadoobee, who’s third album has just reached No. 1 in the charts, was due to perform that morning and was cancelled last minute.
Buses from central Leeds to the festival were heavily delayed and largely cancelled, with queues of hundreds of festival-goers in the centre of Leeds. Leeds Festival announced: “It’s been a tough morning but we are aiming to open the arena between 1:45pm and 2pm, with the first live act, Reneé Rapp, on the main stage at 3:10pm as per the schedule. The BBC Radio 1 & Aux stage will remain closed for today, and the BBC Introducing stage will continue as normal from around 3pm.”
This wasn’t able to happen. The damage from the storm cancelled the Aux & BBC Radio 1 Stage for the entire weekend, causing rearrangements and cancellations.
Despite the chaos, the team at Leeds Festival were able to rearrange Jorja Smith, The Useless Hotline, Ashnikko, Skrillex, David Kushner, Seb Lowe and more.
Performers on the Main Stage on Friday were Bru-C, Pendulum, 21 Savage, Catfish and the Bottlemen and Liam Gallagher.
