Leeds Festival 2024: Stage shutdowns confirmed to be in force all weekend
Leeds Festival has announced in the face of extreme weather conditions that they will not be opening the BBC Radio 1 Tent and Stage and the Aux stage, confirming both will be closed for the entire weekend.
The update follows multiple stage closures, cancelled sets, and delayed artist appearances that plagued the festival all day due to Storm Lilian. Festival goers were left holding on to their tents as high winds blew pegs out of the ground and stopped the arena from opening on time due to safety concerns.
“Unfortunately the health and safety team have now confirmed we will not be able use the BBC Radio 1 tent & stage tomorrow or Sunday,” the festival wrote in a social media post. “We are devastated for you and of course the artists that were eager to play. That is the same for the Aux stage too. Mother Nature has played her part.”
The festival remains optimistic that some slots will go ahead and certain stages will be able to operate as usual. They continued in their social media post, “On the positive side, we can be reasonably sure the Chevron will be fit to play tomorrow and will be opened by the Useless Hotline at midday.”
This is a different message from that shared by the festival earlier on in the day, who, in the face of high winds, hoped that things would get underway as usual within a couple of hours. In a post this morning, they said, “We can see an end in sight to the high winds. We definitely won’t be opening the arena at 11am, but we are targeting as soon as possible after that and we will update you further.”
This is disappointing news for music lovers in the north, as this year’s line-up was star-studded with a variety of big names from multiple genres. Acts included Blink-182, 21 Savage, Catfish & The Bottlemen, and Liam Gallagher. How many of these acts will actually get to perform over the weekend remains to be seen.
Jungle artist and Mercury Award nominee Nia Archives had her set cancelled today and shared a statement on social media expressing her disappointment. “So gutted to announce that my stage has been shut due to the storm,” she wrote, “Was supa looking forward to this one as I grew up in Leeds n my lil bros were gonna watch me play…”
This is a developing story; further updates will follow on Leeds Festival as the weekend progresses.
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