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Writer's pictureJames Keane

Live at Leeds in the Park 2024

All photos: James Keane - @jameskeanephoto


Live at Leeds returned to Temple Newsam Park in Leeds on Saturday for its third edition of "In The Park", The single-day festival hosted the Likes of The Kooks, The Cribs, Declan McKenna, and Future Islands across the site's five stages for an action-packed day of live music.


The festival boasts the line, "The Ultimate All-Dayer", and it's not wrong! Live at Leeds in the Park provides everything you'd ever want from a festival, without most of the hassle of your average weekend-long event. An impressive lineup covering everything from well-established Indie Legends, to the best-emerging talent available; an amazing array of food and drink options, including independent breweries and food vendors; and an array of other activities, including a pop up record shop from Crash Records, including meet and greets, and record signings to name just a few of the many pluses.


My day at this years festival started at The Clash Big Top to see Sprints. The Dublin based punk band took to the stage with force for such an early set in the day, and set a great precedent for things to come throughout the day.   



The Clash Big Top saw not only Sprints perform, but the likes of Wakefield heavy weights, The Cribs, Baxter Dury, Future Islands, Billy Nomates, and many more!


Saturday was my first time getting to see Billy Nomates perform live, but defiantly wont be the last, I became familiar through the 2021 collaboration with Sleaford Mods, and have been somewhat obsessed ever since, especially with latest album CACTI.  Billy Nomates returns to Leeds this November for a very intimate acoustic show at Hyde Park Book Club.



A quick trip down the hill from The Clash Stage took me to “The Cockpit” Main stage, (aptly named after iconic Leeds music venue ran by festival organisers Futuresound that closed its doors in 2014) to catch Leeds local Corrine Bailey Rae perform her Black Rainbows set.  Corrine returns to Leeds later this year for two hotly anticipated and very intimate performances at The Wardrobe.


Once again, I found myself returning to the Big Top stage for Baxter Dury, a booking that may seem out of place at a festival headlined by The Kooks, but it fit well, and was very well received by everyone in attendance.  A Jam Packed, high energy performance filled with all the Baxter Classics, and a rendition of the collaboration with Fred Again to end what ended up being one of my favourite moments of the day!



Good Neighbours were next on the list, a band I saw only a week previously at Sheffields Get Together Festival.  Even without being to familiar with the band, chances are you’ve already heard their insanely viral hit, Home, amassing over 190,000,000 Spotify plays and counting, largely due to its explosion on TikTok over recent weeks, but the Duo are far from a one hit wonder, and definitely worth keeping an eye on.  With fears their set might be cut short due to a late start, the band where luckily given word that they where allowed to play their full set, to the delight of the huge crowd that had formed at one of the festivals smaller stages.  It won’t be long until Oli, and Scott, will be deservingly headlining the much bigger festival stages.



A quick bounce between stages allowed me to catch The Academic, swiftly followed by my most anticipated set of the day, Future Islands.   Not only for their huge catalogue of hits, but as someone into music photography, their immense stage presence and mesmerising performance’s, they failed to disappoint in either way.  The group performed a set strongly dominated by tracks from the latest Album, “People Who Aren’t There Anymore” with all the classics sprinkled in for good measure.



Following Future Islands was obviously, The Cribs.  A band synonymous with Leeds.  The Wakefield trio of brothers have previously headlined the likes of Leeds Arena, Millennium Square, Various O2 Academy Gigs, and of course the many legendary sets at Brudenell Social Club over the years.  The Cribs also played Temple Newsam only two years ago while supporting “The Music” for their reunion gig.


The Jarman brothers took stage to a jam packed tent which only got busier throughout their set, partly due to the first arrival of rain of the day, but mainly due to their reputation among Leeds music fans.  An impressive hour long set filled with all the Cribs Classics, with the band even stopping to take a fan request towards the end.



The rain continued on for the rest of the night, but didn’t stop many in their efforts to see festival headliners, The Kooks.  A band who I’m not overly familiar with in all honesty, apart from the obvious hits such as “Naive” and “She Moves In Her Own Way”, but that in no means effected my enjoyment of the headliners.  A great set with filled with both new and old, and a very responsive crowd made for a brilliant end to a brilliant festival.


Live at Leeds returns with their “In The City” edition late in the year, a festival focused more on new and emerging talent, but with some exceptional headliners to round of the night. Acts such as Everything Everything, Alfie Templeman, The K's, CASisDEAD, English Teacher, The Royston Club, and STONE will take to the stage across multiple venues in and around the city centre on Saturday 16th November 2024! Tickets are available now: HERE



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