Review: Live At Leeds in the Park at Temple Newsam

Following a catalogue of music events across the past week at Temple Newsham, Live at Leeds in the Park brings it to a close with a combination of pop, indie, alt rock bands and artists across 4 stages. With a capacity of multiple thousands, the venue is a stunning back drop for a large gathering to celebrate the ‘Jubileeds’ weekend.

Revellers will have been hoping for the same sunny weather which we’ve enjoyed across the weekend so far, however, the dark clouds arrived in haste for a fairly overcast greeting when arriving on site. With 34 bands on the line-up, Live at Leeds in the Park is excellent value for money.

It’s relatively convenient to travel to and there’s plenty of catering available on site. Oddly there didn’t seem to be any ‘merch’ based stalls, which is quite unusual at an outdoor festival, unless I bypassed these on the way in.

The days kicks off with performances from, Tom A Smith on the Dork Presents stage. The stage is split into two, left and right, quite a genius idea for quick turnaround continuous music.

Lauren Hibberd opens the main stage with a nice pop performance for the ever-growing crowd.

Popular Southern-based indie pop band Dream Wife bring a bolshy performance to the tented second stage. Their mixture of post punk and indie pop has the crowd jumping around from the offset, a much need vibrance to really start the days elongated spread of artists.

Alfie Templeman and Holly Humberstone successively entertain the main stage across the mid-afternoon, but the DIY stage on the hill seems to be where all the action is at.

Australian electro indie pop band, Confidence Man smash the second stage with an outstanding and well choreographed set. Their brand of electric pop really goes down a storm, and having seen them play a few times across venues in Leeds, their rise to bigger stage will come very quick.

Manchester based indie rock band, The Blinders take to the Hill Top stage with a cantankerous set, raucous, loud and very stentorian.

Exciting sets from The Snuts, Arlo Parks, Coach Party, Kid Kapachi and L’Objectif solidify the early evenings carnivorous combination of indie pop and alt rock.

Personally I would have liked to have seen the line-up increase in stature from thereon but the headliners and supports are slightly subdued. Although penultimate act The Vaccines and top-of-the-bill Bombay Bicycle Club are popular and well liked, I think the festival needed artists just that little bit more experienced as headliners.

All in all, though, a pretty good start to a hopefully extended succession of ‘In the Parks’ from the Live at Leeds team.