LEEDS FESTIVAL 2022 // WEEKEND PREVIEW

Leeds Festival 2022 // Friday 26th – Sunday 28th

Moshmag Preview by Stanley D Kippax

The stages are up, the line ups have been released, the whole weekend is a sell-out and the good people at the Met Office tell us that the weather is looking good(ish). Its time for Reading and Leeds Ladies and Gentlemen, and as line ups go this years is an eclectic bunch. There’ll be nay-sayers, we all know them, they pick a couple of artists and before you know it they’ve modelled their entire personality around it, but a music festival is no place for this kind of silliness!

Here at MoshMag we know our audience, so you’ll know that our reviews include terrible puns and the finest photography that money can’t buy, even if every guitar band to tune up was to put their hands into their pockets. You all know that Moshmag will keep you across the action… as soon as plectrum touches E String, you’ll be the first to hear about it.

Festivals are an opportunity to listen to something new, to see an act you wouldn’t normally listen to. After all, you wouldn’t go to an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet and stick with sweet and sour pork! Why not throw a little chow mein on that plate, or try the king prawn… you get the idea.

The Ks, Daisy Brain, and the DMAs are Friday’s guitar based fayre. With Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes bringing his own take on audience participation to the Main Stage on Saturday lunchtime. Along with the Witch Fever and Fever 333, Saturday wont be short of options. Putting aside the obvious (we’ll get to them) The Sherlocks, the Lathums and NME’s Best Band in the World 2022 Fontaines D.C. help to close the weekends festivities on Sunday.

But as promised, away from the plectrum spectrum we’ll bring you a taste of some of the acts that wouldn’t usually grace these pages. The Dance Tent has some really interesting acts including Police Car Collective, Bakar and Pinkpantheress. Dance act Hybrid Minds headline the Friday night, perhaps offering a more up tempo alternative to the Main Stage Headliners?

Speaking of the Main Stage, Run the Jewels, fresh from their US Tour with Rage Against the Machine, take to the Main Stage on Friday to give us all a taste of their post-drake era hip hop.  Another name that leaps off the page is the infamous Megan Thee Stallion, sharing headlining duties with Dave on Saturday night. 

Everyone will have their favourite acts but we can’t see past the BMTH & Arctic Monkeys sets on the Sunday night as the festivals real stand out acts. Bring Me The Horizon will be making their first appearance at RandL Festival (well second if you include Reading on Saturday – which we don’t because it’s our magazine so we make up the rules) since 2018 and are sure to whip the crowd into a frenetic feisty finale! And If the Arctic Monkeys tour set lists so far are anything to go by we’re in for a real treat, there may even be a few surprises thrown in.

Now I’ll admit, I started this preview with comments on the weather which does seem terribly British, but after a summer of absurd temperatures and the southern half of the nation being placed in drought conditions its perhaps no surprise the festival is looking to play their part. This year RandL have signed up to the Music Declares Emergency campaign No Music on a Dead Planet https://musicdeclares.net/gb/campaigns/no-music-on-a-dead-planet-2 which will feature prominently on the festival branding! There are plenty of ways for you and I to get involved, check out the festivals Info page for more details!

https://www.leedsfestival.com/news/nomusiconadeadplanet/

Stay Hydrated, look after each other, and let’s sign off the 2022 festival season with a fucking bang!