> Festival Guides > Leeds

Guide by Rob.

The Leeds Festival's history can be traced back to the late 1990's when the V Festival was held on the old Temple Newsam site on the Eastern Edge of Leeds. When this festival was moved to Staffordshire in 1999, the Mean Fiddler organisation decided to hold a sister festival to their long running Reading festival on the same site. Things stayed the same until 2002 when after serious rioting at Temple Newsam, the festival was refused a licence for the following year. The Bramham Estate intervened and a deal was signed to hold the festival at this new site where it has remained ever since. Officially the event is known as the Carling Weekend and the bands who play Leeds one day move onto Reading the next. There is also a more minor event staged in Glasgow which some of the bands play at too.

Bramham caters for around 50000 punters each day and usually sells out, though some day tickets may be available for certain days. The crowd is a mix of metalheads, skaters and indie kids. Although there is a dance tent the festival clashed with Creamfields so no real hardcore dance fans attend. The vibe is good during the day though can turn more sinister after dark on the campsite, usually a case of too young too much substance abuse and there are several arrests each year. Having said that tent crime is low and I have never had any problems. The main activity especially on the last night is exploding gas canisters and starting fires, which got famously out of hand in 2002. In 2005 tents were set alight with people still in them resulting in no serious injury but a reported good kicking for the perpetrators!

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Most of the music takes place in 4 areas, the Main Stage, the Radio One Tent, The Carling Tent and the Dance Tent. Of these only the Main Stage is open air, so there is plenty of places to hang out if the weather is bad. Unlike some festivals, Leeds is quite compact and a walk from one stage to another only takes 10 minutes or so. In 2005 a new bands stage was used, largely for unsigned bands to promote themselves and was by all accounts a big success.

Friday at Leeds is known as heavy metal day.That is not to say the day is purely metal or indeed there is no metal on the other days, but the main headliner is usually from that genre and the support especially on the main stage is of a similar ilk. The organisers commendably try to vary the bill by putting indie and dance stuff on in the other tents and a good cross section of music can be had for those prepared to move around between stages. Saturday sees a more mainstream day on the main stage, a current 'hot' act usually doing the headlining honours. Sunday sees the arrival of the Concrete Jungle stage to appease the punk and skate elements of the crowd, this usually replaces the comedy tent. The festival always closes with an established act on the main stage. Leeds has an excellent reputation as a place to see a lot of breaking bands and over the past few years the likes of Franz Ferdinand, the Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs have all played early on on the smallest (Carling) stage.

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On site - The festival is noted for quite a few freaks

The site is not really in Leeds at all but in a lovely country estate about 10 miles out of the city. The main access is along the A64 York road on which you can only access the festival site if you travel in an easterly direction, that is out of Leeds. A kind of one way system operates if you are coming north on the M1, taking you into and then out of Leeds. However I find the best way to get there is to head West on the A64, from junction 45 of the AIM and do a u turn at the pub about 2 miles along this road. this then puts you only a mile or so from the entrance. Traffic can be heavy on the A64 out of Leeds, especially on the Thursday night between 4pm and 7pm. The best time to arrive seems to be early afternoon on the Thursday. For day trippers, expect some queues late morning. When approaching the site beware, as the first turn off to the festival is for drop offs only, the main car park entrance is only about 200 yards from the junction with the A1M. Security numpties at the first entrance may direct you into that first one but go past unless you are dropping off, or would like a tour of the Bramham woodland. At the end of each day getting out is quite easy by car, the only problem is the final day (Monday) when delays can be expected. It really is worth making the effort to get up and away early to avoid queueing. The tracks off the main road into the festival are just dirt roads and can get boggy after a bit of rain.

The main way to get to the festival is by car due to its location. Forget the train as there is no station nearby. However regular bus services operate from Leeds City centre and the site even has its own bus station. A taxi from Leeds will cost about £15 at least.

The main car parks are spacious and easy to navigate around. Be prepared for a fairly long walk from the car parks to the campsite though you may drop lucky and get parked near one of the main gates. A couple of trips to the car for supplies is usually the order of the day. Expect to get your stuff searched at the gates, they are looking mainly for glass and excessive amounts of alcohol.

Again its quite a long walk from the campsite to the arena, allow half an hour or so to walk in each day, so you don't miss the band you want to see. There is something of a culture amongst some at Leeds to not actually see any bands at all, and just hang at the campsite drinking. Very strange if you ask me. Entry to the main site is by the tried and tested wristband system, the exchange area is close to the main entrance. The staff there are usually efficient and little or no queuing can be expected. Searches of bags at the main gates can mean delays getting in at peak times, a good tip here is to walk over to the farthest side where it is less crowded.

As mentioned, once inside the site is compact and getting around is fine. The site is rarely crowded and there is no need to rush things. The Carling, Dance, and Radio One stages are all a stone's throw from each other, the Main Stage a little further away across the market area. As usual it is best to get a neck guide and an accurate watch if you want to get the most from the music.

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The campsite is arrange in a sort of half moon shape around the car parking area. There are not many entrances from the car park so be prepared to queue to get into the site. The camping is arranged into several colours, red and amber being nearer to the festival entrance, green being furthest away but closest to the cars. The main concern with the campsite is the favorite Leeds Festival pastime of rioting. Since the move to the new site this has quietened down somewhat. However on the last night, Sunday there is a fair amount of blowing up gas bottles and lighting fires, with mobs forming intent on causing mayhem. There are some arrests made each year. This usually tends to occur in the areas closest to the main festival entrance, the red and amber fields. Green by comparison is a lot quieter but can still have its moments. Like all festival campsites don't expect any peace and quiet as there will be people up all night drinking and playing music. The quietest time is usually 7am through to 10am.

To get a decent pitch it is best to arrive on the Thursday by early afternoon for the bits nearest the entrance. The green field fills up last and a pitch can be had easily up to around 7pm or so. After that its pretty crowded though nowhere near Glasto proportions. The rows of coloured lights along the road make good markers for finding your tent and also the posts are helpful too. (Assuming they don't get pulled down by the mob). There are few facilities on site only toilets and a few burger vans. These are pretty useless on the last night because of course all their gas bottles will have been stolen by nutters intent on blowing them up. As far as campsites go at festivals I always rate this one bottom, its location doesn't help and there is always the undercurrent of menace kicking around. To be fair its loved by the kids though.

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On the campsite there are not many toilet blocks, possibly only one per field. As a consequence of the blowing up of the Portaloo type toilets at the old site the only toilets available are the steel trough variety known as the 'Long drop loos'. As these are open air there is not as much of a smell problem but as all the waste collects in a pit, by Sunday they can be a bit fresh and not very pleasant. I'm still waiting a major outbreak of Hepatitis or Cholera at a UK festival. There are hand washing facilities in the form of liquid soap but this never lasts for long. Thankfully water taps are close by.

In the main site there are a mix of urinals and portaloos. They are reasonably plentiful and in decent order. They obviously get very busy as the day (and beer) goes on but queues are manageable.

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Firstly of course the drink. Well as its the Carling Weekend you get the usual lager, Strongbow mix at £3 a pint. It would be nice to have a Guiness tent to break the monotony up a bit. There are a few bars in the arena, but the best in terms of queues is the one to the right of the main stage. This only gets really busy when a big act is on stage and usually you can walk straight up and get a pint. Alcohol is allowed into the campsite and one nice touch is the cold beer amnesty, where you can hand in a warm can and get a chilled one in return. I didn't use it but its almost definitely going to be Carling. Oh well, at least its not Fosters.

In the campsite the order of the day when eating is barbeques or the ubiquitous Pot Noodle. Over the years though several posh camping recipes have developed, and the Cheese, Pate and olives with wine evening is always a winner on the opening night. In the the main site there is a large choice with most of the food vans a familiar sight for those who do the circuit. Vegetarians are well catered for and I know quite a few who opt to become veggies for the weekend to try to avoid any nasty bugs. One particular favourite is the Potato Moon stall which does fantastic veggie Mexican food, and even veggie pie and peas. Perhaps you would like to visit the Forums and mention your favourite.

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In the main site the focus is very much on the music. However there is a comedy tent on site for the first 2 days that is always worth a visit. Like the music it tends to feature up and coming talents. The market area is quite large and is sandwiches between the Main Stage and the Radio One tent. Lots of clothes, sunglasses, jewelry and the like are on show. A large supermarket tent is situated just outside the main entrance, and close by is a record fair, mainly CD based.

There are 2 areas for the funfair,one is close by the main road to the main site from the campsite, the other is at the back of the Main Stage field. Both are pretty small. Sadly there is no amusement arcade. Cash points and mobile recharge points are available but unless you want to spend most of your weekend in a queue they are best avoided.

After the bands have finished there are movies shown in the dance tent,some quite big films and one or two cult b movies too. Last year there was a large open air club close to the main entrance which went on late for the first 3 nights but packed in the midnight on the Sunday. Guess which night I opted for. Aside from this everything shuts up shop early and punters are largely left to make their own entertainment. Is there a link between this policy and the trouble? You decide.

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