Brit Beat: Reading & Leeds Boss Melvin Benn on the Festival’s Winds of Change (Both Literal and Metaphorical)
variety.comMark Sutherland Reading and Leeds Festivals always deliver one of the U.K.’s wildest weekends, but this year’s event was even more full of incident than usual.
The set by Lana Del Rey (pictured above) was cut short by organizers, who later apologized; Reneé Rapp walked off stage after being drenched when accumulated rainwater was blown off the stage roof (again prompting an apology); and there was the small matter of the Oasis reunion effectively being announced at the end of Liam Gallagher’s set.
But if things were pretty tempestuous on stage, they were even stormier off it — literally. Storm Lilian hit on the Friday morning of the festival (Aug.
23), meaning the Leeds leg had to scrap its BBC Radio 1 and Aux stages for the duration of the event, while the new Chevron stage also closed temporarily at the northern site.
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