Leeds Festival (Day Two): Prodigy & Blink 182 Shine on Storm-Ravaged Bill [Photos]

August Bank Holiday arrives, and the annual Reading & Leeds Festival weekend should mark an exciting end to the Summer. However, this year, Mother Nature, particularly Storm Lilian, made sure that the Leeds leg of the weekend would be talked about for many of the wrong reasons.

With storms, high winds and damage to the stages changing the plans hourly throughout the day, one due to be headlined by rock legend Liam Gallagher, the decision was made to call it a day and try again the following morning.

24 hours later, by the time V13 arrived on site, the weather had calmed down but not without casualties. X was awash with footage of tents being blown away. At the same time, two of the stages had suffered enough damage to have Health & Safety officials deem them unsafe to open for the weekend, meaning several acts had to be rescheduled or cancelled altogether. Thankfully, despite things changing as quickly as you think you handle it, organizers pulled all the stops out.

Our Saturday kicked off with the two-man punk carnage created by Big Special who woke us all up with their radio-friendly hit “Shithouse”. Following that, we had hopes for chance to chill into the festival but the colourful, chaotic trash punk of The Oozes made sure there was no time for chilling while our first venture to the freshly opened and completely new to the festival, Chevron Stage which saw LeoStayTrill bouncing about the large stage in front of a crowd who, in all honesty, looked like they’d not only been up all night throwing shapes but looked like they were here for the duration.

Sadly, with the loss of the BBC Radio 1 Stage for the weekend, came the loss of some big-hitters from the bill, including Flo, Teddy Swims and Confidence Man. Thankfully, all was not lost though, as headliner West Midlands singer-songwriter Jorja Smith got bumped up to main stage playing to a much more sizeable crowd and, on the evidence of her set, deservedly so.

What this did was throw up one of a few interesting line-up alternations. The first one being tech-metal juggernaut Spiritbox who found themselves sandwiched in between the aforementioned Jorja Smith and Northern Ireland indie rock chaps Two Door Cinema Club. Making light of the situation Spiritbox vocalist Courtney La Plante joked “we’re here to ruin your weekend,” as the band tore through an unstoppable set which had some of the main stage audience screaming along and some screaming for the hills.

While not to everybody’s musical taste, what the inclusion and reaction to Spiritbox did show us was how much a now incredibly diverse Reading & Leeds line-up craves bands who come with a bit more edge. Further evidence, if needed, was the sight of American metallic hardcore crew The Amity Affliction blazing through gutwrenching renditions of “Drag The Lake.” Following a short changeover, it was back to the tent where, for the second time that day, Welsh pop-punk lads Neck Deep played to a packed-out crowd. Now, while we all love a bit of Neck Deep, it did almost feel like a disservice to other acts who had been, through no fault of their own, bumped off the bill.

So, we head into the headliners of the night and what a clash that was. First up on the main stage was Blink 182 who hit the stage armed with a career full of puerile jokes, dumb banter and anthems like “Feeling This”, “The Rock Show” and many more. Unfortunately, though, they came up against The Prodigy, who laid waste to the festival. Opening up with “Breathe,” “Omen,” “Spitfire,” and “Firestarter,” the group took no prisoners with a brutal set. It was also the first time we’d really seen the impressive lighting canopy on the Chevron Stage, which, aside from a few moments during Skrillex’s set earlier that evening, had really shown none of its true potential.

Walking back to the car having survived day two of the festival, the sounds of “All The Small Things” and “Smack My Bitch Up” are both battling for supremacy across from each other and while, in our opinion, there was never any contest, it was nice to hear two great bands putting the previous twenty-fours out of the minds of weather weary fans and delivering truly headline level performances.

Reading & Leeds Festival returns on August 21-24th, 2025, and you can find out more details here for Leeds Festival and here for Reading Festival.

Leeds Festival (Day Two) @ Bramham Park (Leeds, UK) on August 24th, 2024

91 photos