Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn, the main promoter of Reading & Leeds festival among others, has teased details of next year’s edition of the hugely popular festival. Speaking to NME regarding the 2024 version of Reading & Leeds, Benn revealed that changes are coming to the festival’s stages, along with teasing possible headliners, ruling out others in the process.
Benn, in referencing the stage changes, told NME, “There are always changes in the artists, but there will be to the stages as well. It’s a mix of all sorts of things, really. I’m not quite ready to announce it yet, but I’m really very excited about it.”
As for the possible headliners for next year’s Reading & Leeds festival, Benn was quick to rule out the likes of Yungblud, Paramore, Dua Lipa, Drake and Queens Of The Stone Age, lightheartedly replying, “You’ve lost a lot of money” in response to the interviewer’s claim of betting on the aforementioned acts to perform at next year’s event.
Others, though, may be well in the mix, including Central Cee, whom Benn has said of, “The trajectory of Central Cee is just incredible. He played Wireless Festival last year and it was an explosion in that sense with a really big crowd compared to what he’d been having. He’s really worked it since then. He’s getting breakthroughs in the US and working with some really important artists, and it just feels like he’s got a great future. I’m not going to say he’s going to be a future headliner because I don’t want to give anyone that burden. I felt like it was a burden I’d given to Foals. They came through with it, but I don’t want to do that again.”
Lewis Calpaldi, who unfortunately had to pull out of this year’s festival, and who was ultimately replaced by The 1975, is always welcome back to perform a headline show at Reading & Leeds, with Benn stating, “I think there will always be an open offer, but at the same time the only thing that needs to be thought about is Lewis’ health. We certainly wouldn’t be having a discussion prior to Lewis’ health being right.”
Rage Against The Machine, however, are a band that are unlikely to feature after cancelling last year, as Benn spoke about their potential return, “It’s not an agenda item at the moment, let’s put it that way. Rage are a US-based act and would very rarely do one-off shows, so it would need to fit in to a lot more scheduling.”
Additionally, Benn has also confirmed that a headliner has in fact been chosen for 2024 already, stating, “We have one of the headliners confirmed, and have had them confirmed for a little while actually. They’ve headlined in the past so we know their strength with it and we’re pleased with that.”
