Huge crowd watch Eminem close Leeds Festival weekend

The third and final day of the Leeds Festival was all about one act.
Joe Lycett crowd surfing at the end of his show on The Alternative Stage. Picture: Ian HarberJoe Lycett crowd surfing at the end of his show on The Alternative Stage. Picture: Ian Harber
Joe Lycett crowd surfing at the end of his show on The Alternative Stage. Picture: Ian Harber

Love him or hate him, Eminem is still a big draw as evidenced by possibly the biggest crowd in the event’s history being drawn to his main stage Sunday night closing set.

Delivering a one-and-a-half hour set with all his big songs, the crowd pleasing show appeared to leave fans happy, although there was perhaps not much in the way of surprises and a lack of original singers on his various duets.

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There will be a lack of pictorial evidence of his appearance as well after photographers were prevented from taking any shots of his stage show.

He hardly needs the publicity, though it has fuelled rumours there may have been some miming to parts of the show, even if this has been hotly disputed.

What the presence of Eminem did do is make sure the other stages suffered attendance-wise and the much of the rest of the bill on the last day was weak in comparison to the rap star.

Thrills were in short supply, but there was a big crowd to see Major Lazer take their brand of dance music show to the main stage and earlier Korn proved a big contrast with their nu-metal sound so typical of Leeds and Reading Festivals, but oddly out of place on this day.

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The Pretty Reckless, fronted by The Grinch and Gossip Girl actress turned rock star Taylor Momsen, were given an early main stage slot and proved a big draw with another female-fronted band, PVRIS, were also well received.

On the subject of female rock singers, Marmozets, with Yorkshire’s own Becca McIntyre out front, announced their return to the music scene with a short, but energetic set on the NME/ Radio One Stage where Flume, Glass Animals and Everything Everything appeared later.

There was another “secret” set to start the day with Wolf Alice adding their rock touch to proceedings before a main stage appearance no doubt next year.

The Festival Republic Stage had a good run of bands with The View followed by Japandroids and Black Lips, while over at The Pit the surprise of the day was provided by Japanese band One OK Rock, who made their Leeds festival debut a memorable one with a power pop show that had main stage in the future written all over it. In Takahiro Moriuchi they have a hugely charismatic and talented frontman.

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Away from the rock stuff, after the highs of the previous day the dance stages were a little less populated and big names harder to come by.

But there was no shortage of big comedy names on the Alternative Stage with Tape Face’s comedy mime act involving members of the audience pulling the day’s first full tent.

It was packed too for Jo Lycett, who finished his terrific show by crowd surfing all the way to the back of the tent and back to the stage.

Headline act here was Bill Bailey, back for the third time in four years and still every bit as popular a draw with his observations, political stand-up and brilliant musical interludes going down a storm.

In a blink, it seems, the Leeds Festival is over for another year and shows no sign of losing steam.

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