What’s the best thing about a festival? That as we say goodbye to day 1…we get to do it all again on day 2.
The second day of Leeds Festival 2024 saw a reshuffle of the line up to account for cancellations on day 1. The Festival organisers handled the situation really well and found a way to have as many acts as possible still go ahead by putting them on existing stages. Podcasts that were scheduled to be in the Aux tent were now on Chevron and acts like Jorja Smith, who was originally set to be on Radio 1, were bumped up to Main Stage.
Jorja Smith
Jorja Smith being on Main Stage felt right. She has incredible stage presence and looked ethereal with a full band and a metal mountain-like sculpture on stage. The duration of her performance felt very well thought out, with gorgeous instrumentals linking songs seamlessly.
A really enjoyable moment was when she highlighted her band with a percussion solo during Be Honest. Samples used on her tracks were bold and hyped the crowd up. This didn’t feel like a slot at a festival – this felt like a Jorja Smith headline show.
Ellur
Speaking of women in music, rightfully making the space their own, day 2 of Leeds Fest cannot be discussed without a mention to Ellur.
The Halifax-born singer-songwriter was sensational on the BBC Introducing stage. I am a huge fan of her track God Help Me Now, I think her talent shines through with every performance and see really big things in her future. Every piece of Ellur’s set is intentional and that’s the effort we love to see from artists.
There were Ellur balloons thrown out to the crowd, her outfit was made especially for the performance by herself and her mum, and she even had her signature red wellies on. I would highly recommend checking her out if you don’t have her on your radar already.
As much as I personally love live music and all that it encompasses, there are a lot of non music benefits to attending a festival like Leeds. When you walk around the site you will find a full amusement park of rides, with a giant ferris wheel that overlooks the whole grounds, bumper cars, giant swings and more.
There is a vast range of shops on site if you are in need of extra layers over the weekend or want to land a great vintage find. Festival partners Co-op have their own supermarket there and field after field occupied by food and drink vendors.
An insider tip if you haven’t explored it yet is to visit the Street Feast section of the Festival. Nestled in the woods, you will find a cosy spot with picnic benches, flags, fairy lights and music playing. I stopped off there yesterday afternoon to get a chocolate crepe and a coffee and chatted to some great people to see how they were enjoying the day.
Day 2 was jam-packed, with a mixture of incredible acts from dance, indie and rock. I will say that the Chevron stage really took the crown in terms of captivating an audience. Breakthrough dance music star Kenya Grace had an early evening slot which had everyone singing and dancing. The visuals alternated between enthusiastic crowd shots, to close ups of her live mixing samples.
The Prodigy
Headliners The Prodigy created a whole ecosystem within the netted lights over the Chevron stage with lasers, projections and pyrotechnics, elevating Leeds Festival to heights it’s never reached before.
When people talk about festivals it’s about escaping the mundane of day-to-day life. The Prodigy took us to another planet. Hearing the intro to Omen was wild and one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.
Day 3 is set to raise the bar even higher and finish the weekend in style with Raye, Bleachers, Lana Del Rey and Fred Again.
All photography by Mark Wheelwright. Main image: The Prodigy. More of Mark’s work coming up next, including Venus Grrrls.
