Leeds Festival has been thrown into chaos as England is battered by gusts of up to 80mph, with Storm Lilian sparking yellow warnings across the country. On Friday (23 August), organisers behind the annual festival announced a delayed start and the closure of several stages due to severe weather conditions. According to a statement shared from the festival’s social media accounts, the BBC Radio 1 and Aux stages will not host any performances today.
Despite the disruptions, organisers said they remain optimistic that the rest of the festival will continue as scheduled and have promised guests an “amazing weekend”. In the meantime, revellers have been advised to secure their tents and stay inside their cars, as videos showed camping gear sent flying around the festival site. “We can see an end in sight to the high winds,” an update shared at 9.
30am on Friday said. “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.” They added: “We remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned and that we will still have an amazing weekend.
Please await further information.” One clip showed a festival-goer, Ellie, sitting inside her tent while a friend attempts to fix it to the ground as they are bombarded by heavy gusts of wind. “Go to Leeds fest they said, it’ll be fun they said,” she joked in the caption on X/Twitter.
A separate clip from Leeds shows a tent go sailing ov.