Leeds Festival – Thursday
Bramham Park
27th August 2026
Leeds Festival launches it’s new Pepsi sponsored Leeds 2.0 look amid dire weather warnings
The summer of 2026 has been dominated by severe weather warnings, culminating in a national alert about fire risks. It’s almost inevitable Leeds Festival’s party will be a wash out given the UK’s reputation. Despite warnings about thunderstorms and very unhelpful rain predictions the first Main Stage headline slot on a Thursday is mercifully spared. A few muddy walkways resulting from earlier downpours apart, the indie heavy opening night ‘gets away with it’.
An all indie line-up takes to the new Grid stage and the main arena fills up nicely with hardy campers. The new stage sits in the same position as the old Main Stage so festival regulars are able to sit in their favourite spot on the sweeping hills. It’s a huge natural space but not being right down the front is fine. The stage has super high tech curved screens either side that could probably be seen from space if it wasn’t for the clouds. It all looks very polished and the coverage on the screens gives great band close-ups throughout the sets. There is a nod to the past with a pediment displaying the Pepsi Presents Leeds atop the huge lighting rigs.
Thursday is the new Friday
This the first year the largest stage at the festival has been used on a Thursday. Fittingly, a previous headliner return with a banging three band indie line-up: Arkayla kick-off the entertainment with a guitar-led opening set. The Manchester band draw on the recent Back To Belle Vue material and establish an anthemic mood with the youthful crowd. Plenty of brave revellers take to friend’s shoulders during the set as earlier warnings about thunderstorms around this time fail to materialise.
The Lathums provid a step-up with their melodic burst of indie rock. Frontman Alex Moore delivers big choruses from beneath a ten gallon hat that doesn’t feel a single drop of rain. His full-throated delivery and the band’s big choruses translate naturally to sing-alongs across the field. They serve as a perfect bridge between Arkayla’s opening slot and Kasabian’s headline scale production.
Headlining Leeds Festival is not unfamiliar territory for Kasabian and they take to the stage with the assurance of a band that knows how to make Bramham Park feel like its own vast, unruly living room. Serge Pizzorno is relentlessly animated and doesn’t wait for the countdown to finish before he takes to the long runway and unleashes Club Foot. It’s a classic moment and has the crowd from the opening second of their set. The career spanning set that follows focuses on their classics.
The response from the crowd is emphatic. This feels like the way forward for keeping the early arrivals entertained before the full festival opens up. This legends-like slot feels more like an event than a warm-up.
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Neil Chapman is a photographer and occasional writer based in Leeds. His assorted works can be found at his Unholy Racket site as well as Instagram, and Facebook
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