00:00I'm as excited about 26 as I was about 1999 when I first started the festival.
00:07We brought new blood into the festival in terms of the talent buying,
00:12in terms of the design, in terms of the outlook, in terms of what it should be.
00:17And that's really paying dividends.
00:19We listened to what the fans were saying, and last year in particular they were saying
00:23that we were short of a couple of stages, which is why we've added a couple of stages.
00:27Last year they were certainly telling us that we needed a dance stage,
00:32and so we've definitely added the warehouse, which is not just a dance stage,
00:36it's going to be an incredible stage.
00:38The ballroom, for instance, it's moving out what was effectively a stage in a tent
00:46to moving that stage to be within an environment,
00:49to be within a feeling that you are in a special place.
00:52And that's what the new, the younger team that we've brought in,
00:56that's exactly what they've been pushing for,
00:58and that's the ideas that we wanted and needed in order to move us on in that,
01:03and to give us that feeling that it really is Leeds 2.0.
01:07It's the rebirth of Leeds Festival.
01:09We select artists that we think are the most relevant to the audience at the time,
01:14and the fact that they're all British and Irish,
01:16they're from homegrown territory in that sense, homegrown lands,
01:21but for us it's fantastic, and for me Fontaine's is a treat.
01:27I mean, 2022, 24, 26, 26 headlining.
01:33Yeah, the sort of, that feeling of growth that somebody like the Fontaine's are doing
01:42is just fantastic, really.
01:43We don't know what's happening with the weather,
01:46but, you know, I mean, it's, the weather is insane,
01:50and, you know, I would say the stronger our eco message
01:54and the stronger our eco response is,
01:56you know, the more likely we are to be able to get a control of the weather
02:00in the future in that sense.
02:01But if it's too hot, and, you know, it's not a usual problem for Leeds Festival,
02:07of it being too hot and dry, but if it is too hot and dry,
02:12you know, clearly we will, you know, we'll have plenty of sun cream there,
02:16we'll have plenty of water there,
02:17we'll have spray mist opportunities where people can go,
02:20and we're certainly putting in a lot more additional shade opportunity.
02:24Dave's played, you know, with the Foo Fighters at Leeds and Reading,
02:27you know, a number of times,
02:28and, you know, it's fantastic that, you know, Violet's coming through
02:31and doing what, you know, what she does.
02:34Liam's lad, you know, it's great that they're willing to take that challenge on as well,
02:41because they could just shy away from doing what they probably really, really want to do,
02:45but they're not, they're saying, well, all right, Dad did do it, but I can do it better.
02:49And that's what, that's really what we're looking forward to,
02:53is actually, you know, Liam's lad and Dave's daughter,
02:56you know, proving that actually they're better than Dave and Liam,
02:59which would be fantastic.
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