Cover Photo by Emily Marcovecchio
Officially starting early on Thursday, August 21, Leeds Festival was kicked off with high hopes and an incredible lineup. The crowds varied each day, taken over by pink cowboy hats on the Saturday in preparation for Chappell Roan‘s co-headline set before Hozier closing off the night. This year, the lineup exceeded expectations, and it showed greatly through the fan response, the main stage being completely packed out every night, and the excitement was buzzing off everyone throughout the entire weekend.
Here are some of the acts I went to, with reviews of each show and point and shoot pictures from the crowd:
Friday:
Waterparks
Waterparks performed on the main stage on the Friday, upping the energy with moshpits as singer Awsten Knight, guitarist Geoff Wigington, and drummer Otto Wood performed a hell of a show. They performed their newest song “RED GUITAR” as their opening track, debuting the live version for us here at Leeds Festival. For the rest of their set, they played songs mainly from their most popular album FANDOM, with other songs from INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, Double Dare, and Greatest Hits.
Fans went crazy as Waterparks teased new music, for the first time ever performing “IF LYRICS WERE CONFIDENTIAL,” with Awsten Knight sitting at the start of the catwalk and staring out into the crowd. Since the festival, the band has been teasing the song more and more all over social media, releasing it on the September 19 at midnight and announcing their new album is 80% done!
The fans absolutely loved it – even though the area wasn’t as busy as usual due to how early into the morning it was. Moshpits and running and jumping about carried on throughout the performance, quite frequently during fan favourite “Turbulent.” If you listened closely to what Knight was saying, he hinted at returning to the U.K. for a tour next spring with the band. No further comment has been made about this news since, but I suggest keeping an eye out for them over social media and hopefully a U.K. tour will be announced very soon!
The Dare
Later on in the day, The Dare played at the Festival Republic stage, completely packing it to the brim. The whole performance felt like a club night, people singing along, dancing and enjoying the music.
The setlist consisted mainly of The Dare‘s hit album What’s Wrong With New York?, including newer release “Cheeky,” and a snippet of Chari XCX‘s song “Guess” remixed live, playing fan favourite “Girls” to finish off Leeds. The energy never faltered; singer Harrison Smith jumped around stage, switching between singing into the microphone to playing on his keyboard and prancing around the stage with confidence.
Not being into the hip-hop and rap genre of music, therefore not watching any more shows that night, The Dare felt like the perfect ending to the day for me. I really enjoyed his set without even knowing all of the songs played – I was able to dance and sing along to lots of the catchy lyrics.
Saturday:
Alessi Rose
Alessi Rose took over main stage early on the Saturday, bringing in a crowd of Chappell Roan fans with a sea of pink cowboy hats. Even with most people there being Chappell fans, Alessi Rose‘s lyrics were being sung by most people from the crowd!
You can find a full published review of Alessi Rose‘s Leeds set here!
Sofia Isella
Having great success over various social media platforms, Sofia Isella put on one hell of a show on the Festival Republic stage. In my opinion, one of the most unique acts from the whole weekend performance wise, and I believe most would agree with me on this. Playing the violin since only three years of age, she incorporates the instrument in loads of her writing, performing with it multiple times per show.
Hit song “Hot Gum” opened Leeds Festival, getting the crowd warmed up for the rest of the set. Isella‘s audience proved to be one of the most dedicated during the day, singing along to every single lyric and knowing exactly when to record for the best clips we all see of her over social media. We had the opportunity to chat to Sofia Isella after her show, full video interview can be found here and typed up versions here. She mentioned to us that her favourite song to perform live was “Muse,” which she added as the second song in her setlist.
Many songs written by Sofia Isella have topics of feminism and talk about how women are treated by men. Two of the most well known examples of this are “The Doll People,” which blew up on TikTok when it was released, and “Everybody Supports Women,” which she used to finish off her set.
Wallows
As someone who didn’t know much about Wallows, I was pleasantly surprised by their performance. There weren’t a lot of people in the crowd from where I was stood, but the dedicated fans were easy to spot, as they sung their hearts out to all of their songs.
Most of their songs performed were from albums Nothing Happens and Models, of course performing their most well known songs “Are You Bored Yet?” and “Remember When.” Their set was really fun to watch, albeit not my kind of music, the atmosphere created was great!
Chappell Roan
The queen herself, Chappell Roan, was absolutely brilliant. The stage set-up was incredibly intricate, looking like a scene right out of a fairy-tale and matching with Chappell Roan‘s equally intricate and constantly changing outfits. This was possibly the most hype I saw the crowd at Leeds during the weekend; wherever you looked, you saw pink cowboy hats all through the packed crowd.
Most of Roan‘s setlist consisted of songs off of her hit album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, playing new song “The Subway,” and exclaiming that we were “The loudest crowd for ‘The Subway’ so far.” She opened with the song “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl” before transitioning into popular song “Femininomenon,” which really got the crowd going. Of course the whole crowd was moving from the front row all the way to the groups in the back, dancing along with the band during “HOT TO GO!,” doing the well-rehearsed dance commonly seen all over TikTok and Instagram Reels, before finishing off with what I would call “the most iconic Chappell Roan song”: “Pink Pony Club.” This was my first time ever seeing Chappell Roan live and I think it was an absolutely amazing performance— I would highly recommend it to anyone.
Sunday:
Conan Gray
Just over a week after Conan Gray released his latest album Wishbone, he performed at Reading and Leeds, playing songs predominantly from this album to promote it. I have been a fan of Conan Gray through a few eras of his music, and I really enjoy seeing the different vibes he goes through for each album. Last album Found Heaven was very rockstar vibes, Wishbone being more a sailor or pirate vibe—matching his pirate outfit at Leeds.
As well as his new album, a lot of the songs played were from most popular album, Kid Krow, such as “Heather,” “Maniac,” “The Cut That Always Bleeds,” and “Wish You Were Sober.” In addition, two songs from Superache were played— “Memories” and “People Watching“— which big fans appreciated, as it added back in the sadder songs to the set. In a way, the setlist choice surprised me at first. I had hoped for more of his sad songs, but upon reflection, this really was the ideal choice for a festival this big, as newer fans or people who have never heard of him can listen to his recently released music and some classics without being pushed too far in the deep end and lowering the mood with songs such as “Family Line.”
The show he put on was brilliant, and I, among hundreds of people, really enjoyed it. Conan Gray mentioned how it felt scarier performing on the “Rock/Metal day,” but I think he managed it with ease and confidence, definitely not fitting in with the other acts of the day, but standing out very positively from the rest.
Limp Bizkit
Photos of Limp Bizkit by Ruby Boland and Sophie Ditchfield
My absolute favourite show of the weekend was Limp Bizkit, ending off the acts I watched during the weekend at Leeds Festival. Limp Bizkit are one of the most iconic nu-metal bands in all of history, shaping the genre over the last 25+ years of them making music together, and collaborating with other big Nu-Metal artists such as Korn. Lead singer Fred Durst, guitarist Wes Borland, dummer John Otto, bassist Sam Rivers, guitarist Rob Waters, and DJ Lethal have kept the original lineup of band members throughout the years, only having one small switch before going back to it.
They took a different approach to this show, choosing to open with “Show Me What You Got” instead of their usual “Break Stuff,” surprising fans and those who maybe didn’t know this song. They quickly got into their top hits, playing most of their popular songs, with moshpits breaking out multiple times every song, creating massive dust clouds. The other songs in their setlist included “Hot Dog,” “My Generation,” “My Way,” “Rollin’ (Air Raid Vehicle),” “Nookie,” “Faith,” “Take A Look Around,” and “Full Nelson,” where Fred Durst chose a fan to bring on stage to perform the song with them. They ended the show on their most iconic song, “Break Stuff,” as they always do; a perfect way to end their set and to say goodbye to their fans for the time being.
Safe to say everyone left with a cough from all the screaming and dust they inhaled during the show – very much worth it, and a perfect end to the festival for myself!!
Overall, Leeds Festival 2025 was an absolute blast!!! The acts were all amazing and put on great performances, the fans all seemed to love the whole weekend, and I cannot wait for next year’s lineup to be announced.
For more pictures like these, make sure to check out the collaborative posts on Instagram either on my page here, or The Concert Chronicles official Instagram here. You can find point and shoot pictures, as well as edited video interviews, on Instagram, so make sure to give these a watch!!
For written up interviews of the acts we managed to sit down with, you can find the links here:
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