Reading and Leeds Festival: a staple of the English music scene. An opportunity for you and your mates to enjoy some of the greatest music acts that the time has to offer. 2019 was no exception.
When I woke up on Saturday morning to make my way down to Leeds, It hadn’t really sunk in my head what exactly the day had in store for me. I was more worried about two things: drinking as much as I could in the car over (so I didn’t have to rely on the ungodly amount of money a pint costs at the festival), and putting some sun-cream on, to avoid the 28 degrees Celsius temperatures I would be exposed to for the day. Making our way through to the main arena, weaving our way through a wave of desperate festival go-ers, we emerged into the landscape of music, food and drinks, the three ingredients for any good time.
There were so many amazing acts I saw on Saturday at Leeds Fest, but I’ll just highlight my favourite: The 1975.
I'm not afraid to admit that I got emotional
As soon as the lights went low on the main stage, and the crowd started screaming for the imminent arrival of the band, I was hooked. Starting their performance with their new single ‘People’ (one of the more experimental songs on The 1975’s discography) encouraged the high energy from the crowd needed for their set. This energy carried on to high power songs such as ‘Give Yourself A Try’, ‘Love Me’ and ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’. However, the band proved their diversity when they blasted out slower, more melodic songs, such as ‘Sincerity Is Scary’, ‘Loving Someone’ and, my favourite song of theirs, ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’. I’m not afraid to admit that I got emotional at that last song; the blasting of white light from the stage, the unity of the crowd and the rhythmic strumming of Matty’s acoustic guitar got to me, and in that time I thought “This may be one of the best performances I’ve ever seen”
The final songs they performed, including ‘The Sound’, were massive crowd favourites, and Matty Healy’s encouragement to “fucking jump” left the crowd leaping around as a solid unit. When I was walking back to the car park after their performance, and reflecting on my previous plan to watch Dave the rapper instead, I couldn’t stop saying, “I can’t believe I was going to miss that”. I’ll have to save Dave for another day!
