'I was at Leeds Festival 2025 – but it wasn't Hozier who took me to church'

Leeds Festival is over for another year and as always, I’m already missing it. This year, Hozier, Bring Me The Horizon andTravis Scott headlined the festival and although I didn’t attend on Friday, this weekend didn’t disappoint me.

I come to Leedswith friends every year, regardless of the astonishing hotel prices (I refuse to camp) but I never regret it. Walking into Bramham Park on Saturday, I instantly heard The Kooks and I felt like I was a teenager again.

Seeing Rudimentalon the Chevron Stage under hundreds of thousands of LED lights was certainly an experience. Although there were a lot of “children” (probably around 18, but still, children), they had everybody going wild for their biggest hits, as well as playing legendary songs.

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But I decided to take it easy until Chappell Roan was due to perform. Last year, I was slightly confused as to why Chappell was performing despite only having one album, now though, I completely retract that. Hearing Pink Pony Club and My Kink Is Karma live was certainly an out of body experience.

I can’t lie, I listened to her a lot in the lead up to get to grips with her music and I think it’s safe to say, I’ll be a fan for a while now. However, Hozier – wow. Just wow. The Irish musician used his platform to stand in solidarity with Palestine and urged people to use their voices, around 80,000 screams of support echoed around the park and I felt truly blown away by how he managed to do this.

Although there were whispers that the BBC cut his performance off, it was later confirmed that he decided not to allow the corporation to air his set. While Hozier might like his whiskey neat, I can confirm, no whiskey was consumed during his performance, although it was to be expected, Take Me To Church went down an absolute treat.

It was weird hearing the word church blasted around Bramham Park but I don’t know how it worked, but it just did. The decision to have Hozier close Saturday was arguably one of the best.

Soft Play also used their performance to raise awareness of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, after there had been a famine declared in Gaza, claiming that Israel is “committing genocide.”

And while most festivals would instantly halt a set like this, it just shows how much Reading and Leeds care about causes, they allowed the performance to continue. But… to Sunday… Bilmuri, an American band I’d never heard of until my friend said “Let’s go watch Bilmuri,” and I’m now a fan.

Johnny Franck, frontman of the band really opened up to us (the crowd), during their performance, he explained how just nine years ago, he was in a low mental health state and the fans saved him. I hadn’t expected to be filled with such emotion but it just proves how incredible the power of music is.

Onto Bring Me The Horizon, the main set, although I wasn’t born in Sheffield, it was my home from 2017 until just last year, and I also spent most weekends in my teens travelling there so Bring Me holds a special place in my heart.

Oli Sykes is quite literally, the best frontman a band could ever have. The talent is off the scales and his personality just adds to it. Back in Sheff, he has a vegan restaurant and bar, Church Temple of Fun and weirdly, it felt as though I was in there.

The visuals on stage were almost a complete replica of the stained glass windows at Temple of Fun and let me tell you, it felt very strange thinking I’d been transported to my favourite restaurant.

Oli brought a female fan on stage for their 2013 track Antivist and although she looked like a teenager, let me tell you, she had the most incredible presence on stage and could have given a lot of the performers a run for their money.

While most festivals often see drama on and off stage, there’s just something about Leeds that doesn’t have the same levels. If there’s trouble in the crowd, it’s sorted very quickly, the security and medical teams are top notch, something which they deserve more praise for.

I was lucky enough to the be in the backstage guest area, where I was fortunate enough to bump into Red Rum Club (the best band from Merseyside, check them out if you haven’t heard of them), and then my favourite podcast host, Jack Dean, known online as JaackMaate.

A lot of people give podcast hosts, YouTubers etc flack, but he was genuinely one of the nicest chaps I’ve ever met and was so happy when I was chatting to him (perhaps a bit too much) about how great his podcast, Jack’s Happy Hour is as he’s never afraid to push the boundaries and break the taboo around certain subjects. We chatted about his episode with Rebecca Goodwin and how great it was to give her a platform to discuss the incredible work she’s done since joining an adult content site, including buying houses to rent at very low prices for women in need.

Overall, I have to say that this year at Leeds was fantastic and I can’t wait for next year, maybe I’ll try Reading but that is to be decided.

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