Leeds Festival

Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, Kaiser Chiefs, Justice, (Fri); The Cure, Paramore, Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club (Sat); Kasabian, Florence and The Machine, The Vaccines, At The Drive-In (Sun). This long-lived festival fave, which takes place in both Reading and Leeds over the August bank holiday remains one of the most popular and music-focused rock festivals in the country. Lacking any of the more cutesy elements of modern fests (gourmet cuisine, immersive theatre experiences etc), rawk is always the order of the day, though the festival's dance tents (on Saturday at Reading and Sunday at Leeds) have blossomed in recent years. 2012's counts Metronomy, Katy B, Azealia Banks – making Leeds/Reading one of only two UK festival appearances for her this year – and Zinc among its people, while elsewhere there's the usual punk antics on The Lock Up stage and indie-tastic names in NME/Radio 1's big tent.