Leeds Festival shuts two stages as Storm Lilian hits

Two stages at Leeds Festival have closed for the day due to high winds caused by Storm Lilian.

Liam Gallagher is due to headline the music festival in Bramham Park on Friday evening, as Reading and Leeds Festivals get underway for three days of music over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Strong winds of up to 80mph are forecast in northern parts of England and Wales on Friday – with travel disruption, flooding, power cuts, and dangerous conditions near coastal areas likely.

On X, organisers announced that both the BBC Radio 1 Stage and Aux Stage had been “lost” at the West Yorkshire festival, and added they “remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned”.

The post said: “We can see an end in sight to the high winds.

“We definitely won’t be opening the arena at 11am, but we are targeting as soon as possible after that and we will update you further.

“However, we have definitely lost the BBC Radio 1 stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We have also lost the Aux stage today, and there will be no performances on it.

“We remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned and that we will still have an amazing weekend. Please await further information.”

A yellow wind warning issued by the Met Office was in place across northern England and north Wales until 11am on Friday, with the storm bringing gusts of around 50-60mph in the region.

Earlier on Friday morning, Reading and Leeds Festivals encouraged revellers based in Leeds to stay in their tents while the site was hit by strong winds.

An attendee said she was experiencing the “worst day ever” as her tent had been destroyed and her group had been asked to leave their area because of the windy conditions.

Carrie Gill, 19, told the PA news agency that she was waiting in a McDonald’s and will likely be waiting there “for a while”.

She said: “All the rain came in (to the tent) because the poles pulled so hard from the wind the fabric ripped open and leaked the whole tent with the rain. We even put those rock plastic pegs in the bottom and they have snapped.

“All the stores have blown over, the urinal walls are gone and lads are just pissing against fences, people’s tents are in the sky, the store shops are all over the floor and shirts and things from stores are gone. It’s honestly really bad here.”

Another festival-goer, Dylan Maggs, 26, told PA that he saw the perimeter wall fall on empty tents and smash a van window.

His group was “right next” to the perimeter fence when it came down, saying: “It looks worse than it was for sure – no-one was inside of the tents when it came down. A fence also took out a van’s window.

“We’re just laughing through it, not much else we can do really, it’s annoying but it is what it is. We’ve seen a lot of people ditch tents and leave.”

Elsewhere Declan Donnelly, an an engineering production operator from Manchester, told PA his group “had to hold onto our tent for about one to two hours as well as double peg it as when the gusts hit it was nearly flying off”.

The 20-year-old added: “It seems to have calmed down now but there’s lots of tents ripped, collapsed and destroyed, with a fair few tents left by people who have chosen to go home.”

Acts including indie singer Beabadoobee and US star Ashnikko were due to play the BBC Radio 1 Stage at Leeds on Friday evening, while podcasts Antics With Ash and The Useless Hotline were billed for the Aux Stage.

Blink 182 are headlining Reading Festival on the Friday night while acts including Gerry Cinnamon, Two Door Cinema Club and The Prodigy will also take to the stage.

According to the Met Office weather forecast for Reading, festival-goers can expect “long sunny spells” by midday and a maximum temperature of 24C.