What happened to Leeds Festival?

The annual twin festivals Reading and Leeds are a cultural rite of passage for many British teenagers, notorious for camping chaos, young indie-rock-lovers’ dream lineups, and stellar performances. But in 2025, campsites at the Leeds site, Bramham Park, were reportedly empty, the festival itself was - on some days - a “ghost town”, LS23 was a disappointment, and there were just half-full audiences to many acts.

What happened? A few reviews criticise the performances given, rather praising the eclectic line-up’s enthusiasm and the audiences’ energy. Something in the festival’s organisation, then, seems flawed. While Reading’s Friday tickets sold out, the same lineup’s Saturday at Leeds did not. This pales in comparison to previous years’ sales, when the entire weekend often completely sold out: 2021 was an incredible year for ticket sales across both festivals, with only some day tickets for Leeds’ Sunday remaining, Reading sold out of every ticket in 2019, while Leeds weekend tickets sold out just last year.

The most obvious factor is the incredible price hike the festival has seen. Ticket prices for weekend passes have quadrupled in 25 years, and day ticket prices have doubled in 8 years (to £125 a ticket in 2025). The initial expense has shot up, as have the prices of food and drink within the festival, with alcoholic drinks at the bars starting from £6.75, and a can of Smirnoff Ice (costing £1.20 a can from a Tesco multipack) being surcharged to £8.50 a can in the festival. 'Outside' drinks, including from the campsite and it’s Co-Op, are heavily restricted and cannot be brought in unless non-alcoholic, sealed, and under 500ml. The festival is becoming less accessible to young people based on the sheer cost of the festival itself, let alone getting there, booking a hotel or buying camping necessities, and other ‘hidden’ costs of attending, like taxis to and from the festival site, or paying for eye-watering on-site phone charging.

Reading and Leeds have also changed vastly since their conception and their rise to prominence in the 2000s, with line-ups originally focused on rock and indie music, with the rising popularity of festivals in the UK ensuring a turnout of like-minded music fans. Incredible acts and renowned sets included Blur in 1999, Oasis, Pulp, and Primal Scream in 2000, and The Strokes in 2002. The festival’s strong musical identity attracted crowds for the whole weekend, as each day appealed to fans of similar genres. In 2025, though, after years of the festival losing its musical identity, a decision was seemingly made to split the days into genres: one day was focused on “Rock & Metal Fans”, speaking to the festivals’ roots, one was headlined by pop and indie artists popular with young people, and the other was - well - a mix of hip hop, DJs, rock, and folk, perhaps the ‘left over’ day. This haphazard lineup might sell day tickets - Chappel Roan attracted the weekend’s biggest crowd - but weekend tickets may only have sold for the festival experience, not the music itself.

Changes for 2025 also placed heavier restrictions on day ticket holders; no wristbands were given out, as attendees could not leave the Arena and re-enter; day ticket holders were allowed to stay until 3am, attending the silent disco if pre-booked, but were not allowed to go through the campsites to LS23 or Piccadilly for late-night DJ sets. Particularly after booking acts like Sammy Virji, you’d expect festival organisers to anticipate interest in attending these sets, and to rule them off limits this year specifically is a strange choice. On the other hand, though, changes to the campsites' organisation have been well received by weekend ticket holders, as now different campsites are geared towards like-minded festival goers, ensuring everyone has a better camping experience.

Anecdotally, attendees have long noted the crowd getting younger and younger year on year, but the festival now certainly has a cemented reputation as a GCSE results day celebration, or post A-Level weekend with friends before uni. But as campsites become more and more chaotic, year on year, with fires set in the campsites and violence breaking out, the festival’s identity has been tarnished, with the blame on young people. But the behaviour outside the stages is not the only problem; this year, the acts drew out a younger audience, and while these crowds brought energy for acts like Wallows and Suki Waterhouse, the crowd’s silence for so-called “Festival Icons” like Bloc Party cements the image of the festival as a coming-of-age party weekend rather than a music-first event.

Ultimately, Reading and Leeds are still great festivals, booking incredible acts year on year. Unfortunately, though, with price increases and a changing culture, they are not the festivals they once were - and organisers’ attempts to bring back the rock festival feel have been implemented unsuccessfully.