Reading & Leeds Festival opens today across its two sites — Richfield Avenue in Reading and Bramham Park in Leeds — for a bank holiday weekend built around the first all-British and Irish headline lineup the festival has fielded in roughly 25 years. Charli xcx, Chase & Status, Dave, Florence and the Machine, Fontaines D.C. and RAYE top the bill through Sunday, according to the lineup NME confirmed when the festival announced its 2026 edition.
Charli xcx is playing her only scheduled UK festival date of the year at the two sites, arriving off the sustained cultural run of her album "Brat." Florence and the Machine returns to the festival circuit following the release of the band's sixth studio album and recent headline turns at Glastonbury and BST Hyde Park. Fontaines D.C. will make their first live appearance since wrapping the touring cycle behind their Mercury Prize-nominated record, a show Time Out's festival guide flagged as one of the weekend's most anticipated sets.
New Stages, New Rhythm
Organizers have paired the headline announcement with the festival's biggest structural overhaul in years. Both sites have added new stage areas — including the Grid, the Gallery and the Warehouse at Reading — and Leeds is hosting Main Stage performances on a Thursday for the first time in the festival's history, with Kasabian opening that slot ahead of the weekend's four other headline nights.
The rest of the bill runs deep beyond the headliners, with sets Billboard highlighted among the weekend's must-see acts including Skepta, Sombr, Role Model, JADE, Kneecap, Kettama and Geese, rounding out a lineup that spans grime, pop, punk and dance music across the extended weekend. Weather forecasts point to thunderstorms and periods of heavy rain at both sites through Sunday, a familiar variable for an event that has run on the August bank holiday for decades.
For RAYE, whose rise from a major-label exit to a Brit Award-sweeping solo career has been one of British pop's defining stories of the past two years, the booking carries its own resonance.
I had a dream, and look at me now, it's all possible.
RAYE, on her Reading & Leeds 2026 booking
Single-day tickets remained available through Ticketmaster as the festival opened, with camping passes for both sites sold out in advance.
