Peppers add spice but region still heart of festival
Boss committed to ensuring three-day event provides a platform for region’s emerging musical talent
SINCE IT was first staged in 1999, the Leeds Festival has become a showcase for some of the biggest musical acts in the world.
This weekend’s event saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers take to the stage last night as the final act on the main stage with previous headliners through the years including Blur, Manic Street Preachers and The Killers.
But the man who has masterminded this year’s festival has maintained he remains committed to ensuring that Yorkshire’s emerging talent remains at the heart of future events.
Festival boss Melvin Benn said: “Yorkshire bands are always getting favoured status. And that’s really important to me.
“It was important to me from the very first day that I created the Leeds Festival.
“At that time Leeds was a smaller music market and people wondered whether it would work and whether there was room for a proper music festival in Yorkshire.
“Maybe because of my Yorkshire bias, I wouldn’t hear anything against it. I was certain we needed to give local bands an opportunity.
“For me it’s been a joy and it’s worked and there’s plenty of bands that have had that first start here at Leeds or Reading.”
This year’s festival, which attracted 85,000 music fans, featured hugely popular acts such as Biffy Clyro, Fall Out Boy, Foals and Disclosure.
But it underlined its burgeoning reputation as a springboard for new emerging talent from the region by showcasing lesser-known bands including The Wired, Fighting Caravans, Faux Pas, Liberty Ship and The Sherlocks.
More than 6,000 fans packed in front of the Festival Republic stage on Saturday to watch Sheffield indie stars The Sherlocks, who also performed at Reading the previous night.
I was certain we needed to give local bands an opportunity. Melvin Benn, boss of Festival Republic who organise Leeds Festival
And Leeds band Dusk – Nathan Francey, 21, Holly Matthews, 21, and Dominic Reed, 22 – played the BBC Introducing stage. Holly said: “It was such an amazing experience, with so many people coming who we didn’t know, as well as a lot of familiar faces. To have played Reading and then here, it was so nice to be home.”
Mr Benn, who is the managing director of Festival Republic, claimed that about five per cent of the bands who appeared at the weekend’s event were from the Yorkshire region.
He added: “There’s no reason for that not to increase. It’s not difficult to find them, there’s so much talent out there.
“If that figure gets up to 10 per cent I’d be delighted because the people of Yorkshire really respond to local bands here.”
This year’s event saw rain of biblical proportions create hugely testing conditions across the site at Bramham Park, but it did not dampen the spirits of festival-goers throughout the weekend.
Robert Kessen, 49, has been coming to Leeds for the past decade and claimed the eclectic mix of artists was one of the main attractions.
He said: “There’s something for everybody at Leeds. The three days offer a good range of bands and it’s something to look forward to each year.”
Work is already well underway for the 2017 spectacle – although Mr Benn was adamant that he is not revealing any of the headline acts at the moment.
He added: “It is non-stop. I have confirmed one headliner for next year, and have been working with the agent of that headliner for two months.
“I’ve done it for a long time now, but the passion is still there.
“There isn’t a day that goes by where I wished I was doing something else.”