Live At Leeds 2024 review: The Kooks, Declan McKenna, Circa Waves and more bring early festival fun to Yorkshire

And with a bill that could rival weekender festivals, it was bound to be a day of unrivalled songs and atmosphere at Live at Leeds 2024.

The festival itself is located on the outskirts of Leeds and had a very efficient and effective layout ensuring sounds of different stages didn’t clash while also making sure it wasn’t a trek between acts on separate platforms.

Within the park were five stages and ranked in order of size, these were: The Cockpit (Main Stage), Clash Big Top, The Temple, DIY Stage, and The DORK HYPE Stage.

With gates opening at 12, many music fans came early and despite the grey clouds above their heads, the weather was intended to remain dry for most of the day.

Launching the day of music ahead into action were Scottish indie-rock band Vistas who pulled in a relatively large crowd despite being placed first on the main stage.

The Edinburgh based band rocked through a compilation of their very best which included electronic tracks such as Retrospect and Stranger.

Following on from Vistas was another rising Scottish talent Dylan John Thomas andwith a notable and passionate fan following, the songs were belted back to the rising star.

Fans of his could be spotted in wigs copying the star’s catching hairstyle, as catchy songs such as Jenna and Feel The Fire - songs that were practically crafted for festival days - caught like a wildfire, as the easily memorable lyrics burnt into the minds of those that were able to catch his set early.

It was then over to The Temple to catch the North’s next biggest name in music Andrew Cushin. The rising star had recently toured and accompanied Doncaster’s own Louis Tomlinson on his last tour and is establishing quite the following.

The Geordie kicked off the set with the addictive and sure to be festival favourite You Don’t Belong - a song accompanied by riffs that’d make any music goer race with adrenaline was a surefire way to launch his set.

Passionately racing through his setlist, it was difficult to tell the artist had just been on a headline tour across America and had only returned the day before, yet his northern charisma shined through as he finished on a high with Wor Flags, a song about the love for his hometown Newcastle.

The DIY Stage was next in line, as the festival was hand tailored to ensure all the up-and-coming indie artists were in one place, as another name sure to be known by more Nieve Ella took to the stage to a large group of fans that turned up to witness her.

With notable support slots for stars such as Dylan, Inhaler and common festival headliners The Courteeners, its easy to see why the youthful musician’s artistry is getting noticed by big names.

A personal favourite of mine Matilda Mann was next, the Londoner was picked out for the DORK HYPE Stage!, a relatively small tent that was packed out in full to be melodically soothed by her gentle lyrics and calming sound.

She started her set with the serenely beautiful Papier Mache World which had the tent gently swaying along to her sweetly written tune. Carrying on through the set, Mann spoke behind the meanings of each song and was softly down-to-earth while speaking to the audience.

With some of her songs being possibly unfamiliar to a majority of the crowd that turned out to see her, she debuted her cover, of which another artist on the bill had brought back into fashion with their own individual cover, Slipping Through My Fingers.

The ABBA track has seen a resurgence ever since Declan McKenna’s cover did the rounds and her sweetly-sounding version did justice to the original. She finished her set on the summery sounding Bloom, a flowery track of sunny sounds and relationships - it had the tent moving along to what was a bittersweet yet upbeat song to end her set.

After Matilda, it was a light jog over to The Temple stage to catch Irish act The Academic in action.

The band, recently coming off their Sitting Pretty album tour across the UK, styled out their set in charisma and their track list of indie favourites, the band had no hesitation to release that festival feeling as Why Cant We Be Friends? was their opening track to the Leeds audience.

With some wacky onstage antics from frontman Craig Fitzgerald, the Killucan band kept that festival energy high and even found time to debut their latest single Easy on the Eyes, a track sure to cement its way into their setlist and which was received well by the Northern audience.

The driven and energetic Emerald Isle band saw their way out in style as they rocked through set closer Bear Claws and announced they’d be back in the studio soon so they can do all this again.

With a light clash with other indie favourites Sea Girls, it was another sprint back over to The Cockpit, to catch the lively Manchester band, passionately perform their songs of growth and heartbreak.

The band have made quite a name for themselves on the festival scene, with a dedicated fan following its clear as day to see why, as the catchy choruses drenched in lyrics of hardship weathered a storm of grey clouds above to create that sorely missed festival feeling. The band closed their set on the chantable modern-day classic All I Want To Hear You Say.

Keeping the indie-heads happy was raucous Londoner Declan McKenna who was next to perform on the main stage.

Shifting his set into action, the star drove through set opener Why Do You Feel So Down, with an unrivalled energy of passion and craze.

The southerner then declared his excitement to be back in the confines of Leeds, as he shifted gear once more to play next in line Sympathy, a song poised with a catchy chorus that’s sure to get stuck in your head.

Rocketing into outer space was next for the prince of the indie-rock scene as he played the lead single from his sophomore album Zeros, the otherworldly sounding anthem, with electric guitars orbiting around the festival grounds, The Key to Life on Earth’s transmission was well received by the control centre that was the Yorkshire crowd.

Groovy, while also being a harmonious hymn, Mulholland’s Dinner and Wine was up next, the addictive nature/hooks of the track had the crowd dancing along to the lyrics of golfcarts and cosmic paper cuts.

Festival season is truly incomplete if one song doesn’t make the festival rounds, that song being the sunny anthem Brazil, the song that delves into the corrupt corporate nature of football spangled with some jangly guitars and a chorus that catches like a fever - it sure felt like the initiation of the festival season.

Even if Brazil could be classed as the perfect set closer, McKenna had one more song up his sleeve, the powerfully political anthem that is British Bombs, that spawned large mosh pits of craze, rounded off what was an action-packed set of hits.

With the weather taking a turn for the worse, many rushed over to The Temple stage for one last time as the Liverpudlian band Circa Waves took to the stage.

The Scouse band started their upbeat set with the namesake of their most recent album Never Going Under, a track that felt like a perfect representation of the large crowd that turned out to see them, as they braved the storm that was the harsh downpour of rain.

Led by energetic frontman Kieran Shudall, the band thrashed through their indie hits such as Movies and be Your Drug, which in return saw the most hectic mosh pits of the night as the mix of weather and mud had those involved crash into one another more furiously.

They then played a few lighter tracks that were more danceable – these were the atmospheric Sad Happy and the dreamy Move to San Francisco.

Shudall made mention of the rain as he had the crowd chant “f*** the rain!” over and over again, and even changing last part of the sentence to everyone’s favourite political party….

The band have certainly grown with festival audiences and making their Live At Leeds debut certainly set a precedent for keeping the party mood high even against the bad weather.

Speaking of weather, ironically their next anthem was in relation to warmer days ahead, as T-Shirt Weather called in the largest mosh pits of the day as the pit spread to the entire size of the stage, Shudall commanded the audience with authority as the sun-enthused track was contrasted with the torrential downpour, but the weather didn’t destroy the party atmosphere that Circa Waves was able to bring.

It was now back over to The Cockpit once again to see the festival headliners The Kooks

The Brighton based band braved the weather and so did their large turn out of fans as they curated a setlist filled with their earlier stuff, while still being able to blend their most recent releases as well.

With two and a half decades under their belt, the band knew how to rock the northern audience and even the onslaught of weather couldn’t deter the crowd from having a good time, as the they displayed the catchy classic that is She Moves In Her Own Way.

Other old favourites of the band saw them play only their very best hits with Seaside and Naïve, making a perfect pick as the closer to this year’s showcase of brilliant upcoming acts mixed in with a band of this status.

The one day festival that was Live at Leeds in the Park, was a testament to that Yorkshire audiences do it best, when given a bill consisting of so many great acts.