By Claire Schofield
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The Live At Leeds line-up continues to grow as 50 a further acts have been announced. The latest editions to the line-up include Bipolar Sunshine, The Neighbourhood, The Sunshine Underground and George Ezra.
The annual Leeds music festival, now in its eighth year, will run from 2 to 5 May and with over 200 bands due to perform it is set to be a weekend that musical lovers will not want to miss.
Bands will perform across the weekend in over 20 venues around the city, including The Cockpit, O2 Academy, the Hi-Fi Club and, new for this year, Leeds Town Hall.
The festival celebrates the best local up and coming musical talent alongside more established artists, including Clean Bandit, who scored a UK number one with their single ‘Rather Be’, Strokes guitarist Albert Hammond Jr., I like Trains, ¡Forward Russia! and local rockers The Mexanines and Pulled Apart By Horses.
Festival promoter Ben Lewis said: “I am very happy with the line-up. It has good breadth. It has a good mix of pop stuff and rock stuff. I’m really proud. It’s the strongest line-up to date.”
Live At Leeds is well known for selecting the most exciting new artists that promise to be the next big sensation, such as Ed Sheeran, Mumford & Sons and Jake Bugg who have all previously graced the festival stages before going on to massively successful.
Mr Lewis added: “the festival really does have the potential to make people’s careers.”
The main event will take place on Saturday 3 May where over 100 bands will play a host of venues all across the city.
Separate ticketed events will also see Blood Red Shoes play The Cockpit, Melt Yourself Down and Grammy winners Snarky Puppy will take to the stage at the Brundell Social Club on Friday 2nd May, whilst Kodaline will perform at the O2 Academy and Neurosis will play at Leeds Metropolitan University on Sunday 4 May. All other artists will perform at the main event on the Saturday at a variety of venues across the city.
Bass Guitarist in local Leeds band The Pigeon Detectives, Dave Best, who is a regular Live At Leeds performer, praised the musical festival, stating: “it is a really good festival to be a part of and is a good opportunity to promote new and up-coming bands.”
Music aside, Live At Leeds will also see the return of The Unconference – an event featuring talks from a host of guest speakers and panels from the music industry – to be held at Leeds College of Music on Friday 2 May.
With an exciting line-up of the best new talent and the opportunity to see some the future’s potential biggest musical stars, Live At Leeds promises to be an event not to miss.
Visit www.liveatleeds.com for more information about the event, including the full listings and festival wristbands for £25.
All images supplied by Live At Leeds