In just a few weeks, Brabham Park will once again play host to the Leeds Festival, the August Bank Holiday weekend blowout for Summer’s festival season. There are a lot of acts taking the various stages over the weekend, some of which risk getting lost in the noise. That’s why, in the run-up to the Fest, we’re putting together lists of who we think you should try to prioritise seeing on each day in between queuing for toilets and remembering which tent is yours when you stumble back to camp bladdered at 1am. We’ve already looked at Friday’s highlights, and today we’re bringing you Saturday’s stars! Let us know which acts you’re most excited to see on Facebook, Instagram, or the app that we are going to keep calling Twitter and there’s nothing Elon can do to change that.
Saturday
Foals
Main Stage West headliner
Last time I saw Foals, they were down to three members. Not that you could really tell because, in addition to being augmented with a trio of touring musicians (obviously), they were still mighty as ever. Whilst they put out good to great records (plus one we try not to talk about), I think it’s fair to say that Foals’ reputation as one of the UK’s best bands going was made on their powerful, riff-heavy, full-force live show. Just a stunningly locked-in band who smash through songs like they each may be the last we ever hear, with jams and tempos so energetic they blow the studio recordings out the water. And now, Walter Gervers is back on bass after departing post-What Went Down tour! What I’m saying is you’re always guaranteed a great time at a Foals show, and now you’re doubly-guaranteed a great time! Everybody wins!
D Double E
Radio 1Xtra Stage
Now here’s a treat. D Double E has been a mainstay of the British rap scene since shortly after I was born in the mid-90s, living through the jungle, garage, drum & bass, and grime movements to become your favourite British rapper’s favourite rapper. Both Skepta and Dizzee Rascal have credited him as a reason why they even started rapping, in case you want an idea of how foundational this man has been to our scene’s evolution. And though he’s not traditionally prolific for someone with three decades in the game under their belt, he’s an ultra-reliable guest feature capable of adding some stank-inducing sauce wherever he turns up; his verse on P Money’s “Wagwarn Mumsey” is cold as hell (“Just like SMS, bullet get sent”). A set from D should be extra special for hardcore rap fans.
ALT BLK ERA
BBC Music Introducing Stage headliner
If I’m being totally honest, what I’ve listened to of ALT BLK ERA hasn’t really been for me, but that’s a personal preference thing. The nu-metal revival/rehabilitation by and large hasn’t clicked for me, but I can still recognise quality musicianship and songwriting when I hear it. Sisters Nyrobi and Chaya, still teenagers at time of writing (19 and 16 respectively), have evident songwriting chops, bountiful stage presence, and a unique Black feminine Nottingham twinge to a genre that spent its halcyon days mostly defined by White masculine Americans. Much like Nova Twins, the other standout from this revival, I can objectively appreciate the band even if the music isn’t for my tastes. But you nu-metal faithful who also enjoy themselves some Pendulum should absolutely get over to the Introducing Stage for the headline set before they follow the Nova Twins path and blow the hell up.
Yard Act
Main Stage East
I mean, you gotta, right? Leeds’ own have been on a meteoric rise since first cropping up mid-pandemic with “The Trapper’s Pelts.” FIFA soundtrack appearances, UK #2 album, Mercury Prize nomination, Elton John collaboration, record-breaking five-night six-performance stand at Brudenell Social Club. With their acerbically funny and insightful lyrics about modern-day working-class Britain, serrated guitar lines, funky rhythm section, hooky songwriting, in-jokey visual language, and immensely fun live show, they’ve rocketed up in record time. And, with recent DFA-reminiscent single “The Trench Coat Museum,” that momentum doesn’t seem to have phased their confidence whatsoever. If anything, it feels like they’re being undervalued as Main Stage East openers, like they should be a few spots higher.
Frozemode
BBC Music Introducing Stage
If you like your post-punk inflected with a little more hip-hop, then you’re going to want to check out Frozemode. A London-based alternative rap trio who built up a tonne of buzz via multiple showcase gigs at this year’s Great Escape and AltEscape festivals, their released singles so far have many reference points – slowthai, Jamie T, a less bombastic Qemists – yet carry a snotty charm that’s all their own. You ever play Blur, the unfairly forgotten realistic kart racer from 2010? I can imagine them on the soundtrack of that and, no, my references are not too esoteric for anyone to get shut up.
Nessa Barrett
BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage
Over the last few years, two equally powerful forces have been shaping the course of pop music. The first is Friday night’s headliner Billie Eilish, whose 2019 debut WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? landed like an atom bomb and fostered a legion of young wannabes/kindred artistic spirits in the process. The second is TikTok, capable of making anybody a viral star off the back of one meme-worthy snippet that leads to fat record contracts seemingly overnight. Though she cites Lana Del Rey more than Eilish as an inspiration, Nessa Barrett’s rise is heavily down to these two factors. Fortunately, and unlike her fellow classmates, she also fully understands the intoxicating dramatics and cinematic songwriting which are so integral to Eilish and Del Rey’s cultdom, as evidenced on the surprisingly great hell is a teenage girl EP. On songs like “lie,” she manages to step outside those shadows with a stirring drivetime rock voice that stands her apart from the pack. Really excited to see if she can keep this momentum going.
Pinkshift
Festival Republic Stage
Anybody who’s been paying attention to the most recent wave/revival of emo-inflected pop-punk likely already knows about Pinkshift, the Baltimore-based three-piece about ready to jump to that next level. But for those of you who may be yet to check out last year’s debut full-length Love Me Forever or the viral “i’m gonna tell my therapist on you,” let me put it to you like this. If they ever manage to reboot the Warped Tour, hopefully sans all the predatory bullshit that brought it down the first time, Pinkshift had better be one of the first acts getting the call for a slot. The day a band like Pinkshift doesn’t get booked for Leeds Fest is the day we can officially call time of death on this festival’s culture.
ShaSimone
Radio 1Xtra Stage
ShaSimone’s rise is both old school – a rep made off the back of a torrent of searing freestyles – and extremely now – said freestyles mostly came about during COVID lockdown and were shared over Twitter rather than on cassettes or mislabelled MP3s on file servers. Take one listen to her aggressive, tricksy flow on “Played Out” or her spotlight turn on Kwengface’s “POP” and you can immediately register a rapper who holds the greats – Little Simz, Missy Elliott, Kano – in high regard. She’s tangibly still early in her career, but that’s more in the palpable hunger in her voice and exciting sense that Sha is tantalisingly close to fully figuring herself out. When she does, it might be all over for her competition. Make sure to check her out.
Soulecta
BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage
I’ve been on tenterhooks for close to a decade, forever ready for a UK garage revival to break through into the mainstream, yet being constantly edged when it never properly materialises. That’s not the music’s fault, at least. Soulecta has been mining a lot of quality bangers during that timeframe, both original and via remixing other artists, skilfully employing that Artful Dodger heyday trick of crosspollinating garage with accessible radio-friendly pop/house choruses in a way that works equally as well on the dancefloor or blaring out your car radio on the drive home. Little wonder he’s racked up airtime on Radio 1, 1Xtra, and Kiss FM as well as co-signs from Skream and Jaguar.
BICEP
Main Stage West
It’s BICEP doing a live set. If you’re a dance music fan and you aren’t plotting strategic bathroom break plans with your festival party to ensure the best possible space in the crowd just from that six-word sentence, then I’m not really sure what else I can say to convince you. Did you see their Other Stage headline set at Glastonbury last year? That Printworks show from 2018? Have you relistened to “Glue,” “JUST,” “Meli (II),” “Saku,” or “Apricots” recently? Modern dance music rarely gets better than this, is all I’m saying. Even in truncated second-from-headline form, this should rule.
Next week, we’ll close out by telling you who’s worth copping on Sunday.
Words: Callie Petch
Callie Petch is doing this for the thrill of it, killing it. You can read more of their work over at callumpetch.com.
