Festival review: Leeds Festival 2025, Day Three

After two days of predominantly grey-white skies punctured by smears of blue nestled between the cloud cover, Leeds Festival’s final morning not only welcomes open sunlight above the throng but also increased temperatures throughout them. In rarefied Bank Holiday tradition, the weather has come to play ball for this last hurrah – and across the site, day three proves to be a halcyon throwback for long-term devotees drawn to the heavier side of the road.

If hip-hop and pop functionally reigned supreme at the top of the tree for Friday and Saturday, Sunday returns Reading and Leeds to its hard-edged rock roots, delivering a host of Marshall stacks, ripped leather and denim patches to accompany its frequent mosh pits and its six-string squall; a gleefully pugilistic mishmash that spans multiple generations of guitar music and offers profound proof there is life in the old dog yet.

Certainly, there’s no shortage of variety in the spectrum; transatlantic dream-pop outfit Sunday (1994) bring shades of grunge to their shimmering confections, while fellow Anglo-American duo Voila dabble with primary-coloured power-chords during their half-hour slot on the Main Stage. Though well received, they are somewhat overshadowed by Brighton racket-rousers Lambrini Girls, whose politically charged howl blows off the cobwebs for the early birds present.

The third wave resurgence of pop-punk continues to draw fresh life across all tiers at Bramham Park too, veering from the easycore thrills of Washington D.C.’s Origami Angel to the stocked crunchiness that underpins Oxford four-piece South Arcade.

That said, the hooky propulsion of Pale Waves, found mid-afternoon on the Chevron Stage and then again a few hours later with a secret gig on the BBC Introducing Stage, pulls back from noughties revivalism with a return to their glossy, jangle-friendly roots; veteran hip-house mainstay Example meanwhile proves to be the nostalgia outlier of the bunch, drawing a mass of delighted old-school ravers.

Lest chart-friendly hooks fly beneath the radar, there are a slew of others that cater towards the TikTok generation, not least Good Neighbours and their winning brand of alternative indie melodies. They draw plenty of young fans, as does viral crossover favourite Conan Gray who appears decked out as a ruffle-tousled pirate, or perhaps the human Shrek from Shrek 2. Best may be underground K-poppers Balming Tiger, whose eclectic urbanism is giddily limber stuff.

Those hungry for superlative live spectacle face a tough choice as the evening draws in, forced to pick between fast-rising Cornish stars Wunderhorse or veteran electronicore heroes Enter Shikari. Both offer compelling vocalists in Jacob Slater and Rou Reynolds; both pack arms-aloft bangers by the bucketload that boil with emotional feeling.

Conversely, nu-metal legends Limp Bizkit prove more of a comic party pull; amid a sea of red baseball caps, their quarter-century shred-rap singalongs are a tad too stop-start, though frontman Fred Durst, replete with dadcore beard, deliver plenty of bro-down banter.

It falls to Bring Me the Horizon to close out the weekend, three years since they shared the top spot with fellow South Yorkshiremen Arctic Monkeys. Now, Sheffield’s pop-metal heavyweights stand alone - and at this quasi-homecoming headline show, they sign off from their Post Human: Nex Gen era with a pyro-packed showstopper that pulls word-perfect scream-alongs to modern monolithic classics like Happy Song, Lost and Drown.

Singer Oli Sykes doubles the cheesiness with a hardcore riff on Oasis anthem Wonderwall halfway through, and the whole band seem to be visibly overcome after they sign off with a raging Throne. For Leeds, it is a near-flawless way to end on a high-note; local boys done good, for the grandest night of all.