Reading & Leeds boss Melvin Benn has spoken to NME about the festival’s “biggest staging and arena overhaul” ever for this year’s edition, while pointing to the “strength of UK and Irish music” on the line-up. Find all the details below, along with the full interview.

This year’s dual event – dubbed the start of ‘Reading & Leeds 2.0’ – is set to take place at Little John’s Farm in Reading, and Bramham Park in Leeds between August 27 and 30. Florence + The Machine, Charli XCX, Fontaines D.C., Dave, Raye and Chase & Status will all top the bill.

Kasabian are due to open proceedings up in Leeds, serving as the northern site’s first-ever Thursday night headliners. There’ll be various acts exclusive to each location, too, including Blossoms (Leeds), Loyle Carner (Reading), Jamie Webster (Leeds), Men I Trust (Reading), The K’s (Leeds) and Gunna (Reading).

After sharing details of new dance venue The Warehouse – hosting the likes of Hybrid Minds and Skepta – organisers have revealed plans for a massive, wider arena overhaul for R&L ’26.

“The whole stage change and the presentation of the way we’re making those stage changes, it’s made me as excited about Reading & Leeds as I’ve ever been,” Benn told NME. “I’m as excited about Reading & Leeds from when I started Leeds, in fact, in 1999. This really is the next phase of Reading & Leeds festivals.”

As part of these major improvements, the festival’s main stage has been revamped as The Grid – which will feature the aforementioned headliners along with Sombr, Role Model, Loyle Carner, Blossoms, Declan McKenna, Jade, Maisie Peters and Keo.

Elsewhere, The Gallery is scheduled to welcome hot names in Geese and Kneecap, as well as Holly Humberstone, Gunna (Reading only), Jamie Webster (Leeds only), The K’s (Leeds only), Viagra Boys (Reading only) and Rose Gray (Leeds only). Another fresh addition, The Ballroom will boast “unique chandeliers and draping”, hosting acts who are defining and dominating 2026, including Florence Road, Paris Paloma, Westside Cowboy and Chloe Qisha.

The Canopy, meanwhile, is slated to “usher in a new chapter for new music” at R&L. The venue is “dedicated to festival fans’ next favourite artists”, such as Violet Grohl, Villanelle, December 10, Cruz Beckham & The Breakers, Camille Blackman, Kibo and Finessekid.

Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn. CREDIT: Ben Bentley for NME

As for how else ‘Reading & Leeds 2.0’ will differ from what ticketholders are used to, Benn teased “a new, fresher look” throughout both sites, having enlisted a team of “three new people to lead on that vision”.

“James Ponnusam is heading it up, and he’s an incredible promoter – probably, for me, the second best promoter in Britain,” continued Benn, who is the managing director of Festival Republic. “He’s got young Max Kafka and Jojo Mathiszig-Lee working with him; Jojo doing the dance, Max doing much of the other stuff. It’s their vision that’s coming through, and it’s their vision that will take it into the next phase.”

Read on for the rest of our interview with Benn, who also spoke about what Charli XCX will bring to her headline slot, the “strength of UK and Irish music” at the top of the bill, and “testing that appetite” for a potential four days of music, while revealing the fate of Wireless Festival.

The Yard of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press


NME: Hi, Melvin. How has the main stage been revamped again? Those massive screens were already pretty impressive…

Melvin Benn: “The main stage has got minor changes rather than major changes, but with the thrust that we’re anticipating putting in… much of the main stage activity, in fact, will be behind the scenes, and making it bigger [so] we can accommodate the additional production. The six-stroke-seven headliners – seven including Kasabian at Leeds – they all are bringing incredible levels of production, which is great for the fans. It’s great for everybody. It’s harder for the team to make it work in that sense.

“So not huge changes to the main stage, except we are looking at it from a different perspective, which is that we’re calling it The Grid rather than the main stage, because we want to spread that feeling that every stage is the main stage, really. That’s the essence of that change.”

The Grid of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press

Are there any mad production plans in the works? Fontaines have hinted at their next era and new music…

“Well, I mean that that’s up to them to disclose in that sense. What I do know is that across the six-seven headliners we have, there isn’t a single one of them cutting back on anything. They’re all intending to present incredible shows, and I am literally having to make the stage bigger behind the scenes to accommodate all that they’re bringing, and being able to do that rapid changeover between the penultimate and final acts.”

Geese and Kneecap are leading the way on The Gallery, which sounds like an evolution of the recent Chevron stage. What can we expect?

“Well, I don’t know that it’s an evolution. I think it’s a change, really. The Chevron was intended to bridge live music, DJs and dance music. In some ways, it was intended to be a second stage primarily about DJs, but we ended up doing quite a lot of live acts on it. It became a bit of a hybrid, and it didn’t really work.

“What the fans were telling me in particular was that the need for a dance stage was paramount. The strength of dance music is total again at the moment. It’s absolutely brilliant. So I wanted to go back from what was a hybrid with The Chevron of live and dance to The Gallery, the second stage.

“The Gallery is incredibly well presented, and The Warehouse – old school rave vibe, DJ in the middle of the audience, dance platforms, etc. I wanted to separate them as opposed to hybrid them with what we had with The Chevron.

“The Gallery is about presenting live music in its best form. Kneecap’s sold-out show at Crystal Palace two weeks ago was incredible… so we’re in a good place with those two stages.”

The Canopy of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press

The Ballroom sounds like a classy, more traditional-looking and theatre-style venue for a festival setting. Is that correct?

“It is. The Ballroom is effectively replacing the Festival Republic Stage. The traditional way of presenting secondary stages is to put them in a big top, put the stage in, put some sound and lights, and maybe a screen, and that’s it. What James, Max and Jojo are really wanting to do is present them in an environment, present them in a unique environment that both the artists and the fans remember.

“So it’s about presenting for the future. It’s about making them a better space to watch music and listen to music in. That’s what the younger, new, and the next phase of audiences [want]. They want to feel that they can take photographs of the space, and those photographs will stand up on TikTok and Instagram, etc, in a way the old tired look was no longer doing.”

You’ve got acts exclusive to each Reading & Leeds site this year – is this an attempt to give both locations their own identity, on top of these visual changes?

“It is. Since ’99, when I started the [Leeds] festival, I’d hung on to the principle that they both had to be exactly the same. We know from ticket sales of tours, theatre tours, arena tours, etc, that some acts are stronger in the north than they are in the south, and some acts are stronger in the south than the north. And although I’d hung on to it passionately in the past, James, Max and JoJo [said], ‘Let’s make them different, Melvin’.

“They are the same weekend, they are the same festival, but let’s give them that individuality as well. And so we’re doing that. Leeds has had that individuality, that separation from Reading, for a long time anyway; the late-night programming that we’re able to do at Leeds Festival around LS23 and Piccadilly Party, for instance. Reading has the amazing late-night silent disco. We’ve had those changes for some time, but what we’re doing is really enhancing those changes and that individuality.”

The Ballroom of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press

It’ll create a conversation between the north and south, too. People talking about what’s happening at each site…

“It creates that conversation, which is great. Yeah.”

Kasabian are the first-ever Thursday night headliners in Leeds. Is this perhaps testing the appetite for a full four-day event in the future?

“You’ve hit it on the nail – it’s testing that appetite. We’re intensely proud that we’re presenting, across Reading & Leeds, six major headliners across the three nights. But in Leeds, it’s seven, and that seventh headliner with Kasabian couldn’t be better. I saw them at Finsbury on Saturday. It was incredible, it was an amazing show. Couldn’t have been happier with it.”

There’s a focus on first-time UK and Ireland headliners this year. Was this a conscious choice, or just how it happened?

“Well, it’s a bit of both, really. It’s how it’s coming through, and I think it’s testament to festivals like Reading & Leeds – in particular Reading & Leeds – that have been an opportunity for a lot of these acts to cut their teeth, to garner new audiences. Those headliners have very much developed their skills, craft and songwriting in front of audiences that weren’t necessarily their own, and I think that’s what Reading & Leeds does for emerging acts.

“We happen to have found ourselves this year in a position where we have six-seven headliners that wanted to play Reading & Leeds that are all UK and Ireland-based. When you add people like Kneecap, for instance – who headlined their own show just two weeks ago down in Crystal Palace, with 25,000 people at it – it shows the strength of UK and Irish music. I do think festivals like Reading & Leeds have played their part in developing that.”

The Gallery of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press

Charli XCX has jumped up from closing Glastonbury’s Other Stage in 2025. What will she bring to the table at R&L?

“She went from more than the headline set at the Other Stage at Glastonbury. She went from stealing the show at Glastonbury. There was not space for a single additional person in the field. It was huge!

“She is absolutely at the top of the game. She’s one of the voices of the generation in the same way that Fontaines, Raye and Dave are. What does she bring? She brings that generational love. She brings that statement of how young women are emerging in the music industry more and more, as you see with Raye and Olivia Dean, etc.”

Wolf Alice stepped up to headline Finsbury Park last weekend, and there seems to be a pattern of artists playing there and then going on to headline R&L the following year. Will we see them in 2027?

“I mean, you’re putting one and one together there, and I hope you’re getting two. Of course, the artists plan their careers, and we work closely with the artists to develop their careers. One can never guarantee the next step, but after such an incredible sold-out show for Wolf Alice on Sunday… it was such a delight to be in the audience. We have hopes for them, and I’m sure they have hopes. But one can never see quite what’s ’round the corner…”

Wireless Festival was meant to be on this weekend, but was cancelled after headliner Kanye West was banned from the UK. What lessons have been learned in terms of booking acts?

“Timing, I think, is an important lesson. I  would hope that other people learn the lesson of forgiveness, because forgiveness is an important part of being a decent human being, in my view. So I do think that is a lesson, but that’s not my lesson.

“I think timing is an important one, but Wireless will return. We’re very confident about that.”

The Warehouse of the revamped Reading & Leeds 2026 site. Credit: Press

How was the feedback on the revamped campsites introduced last year?

“The feedback was huge, absolutely monstrous. It’s all about the continuity – presenting the next phase of what Reading & Leeds will be. Vista, the over-21s campsite, belies the belief that Reading & Leeds is just about 16 and 17-year-olds. It’s not. It’s proving incredibly popular already with the registration, and it does give that older fan of 30-35-years-old – who doesn’t want to be camping next to a 16-year-old, who wants to stay up all night – the opportunity to come to the festival for the weekend inexpensively.”

There’s been a real demographic shift over the last few years, with a broader mix of ages…

“It’s broadening, isn’t it? And I think the music policy is broadening… it’s very wide and very broad, and I think, therefore, the fan base is going to be broad.”

Is there anything you hope to bring to R&L in the next few years, that you perhaps couldn’t pull off as part of this initial overhaul? How is the future looking?

“Gosh, we’re constantly thinking, but no decisions on the future in terms of [more] additions. But what I do know is that James, Max and Jojo really are buzzing with ideas for the future, and it puts Reading & Leeds in great stead.”

Reading & Leeds 2026 takes place between August 27 and 30. Find any remaining tickets here. 

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