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Leeds Festival facing windy conditions for final day

Organisers were forced to shut the BBC Radio 1 and Aux stages on Friday for the entire weekend because Storm Lilian brought strong winds.

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People being buffeted by the wind

Leeds Festival will face windy conditions for its final day after Storm Lilian wrecked havoc at the beginning of the music event, forecasters have said.

Organisers were forced to shut the BBC Radio 1 and Aux stages on Friday for the entire weekend because the storm brought strong winds exceeding 70mph to northern parts of England and Wales.

After a less gusty day on Saturday, the festival is expected to see winds of about 30mph, as artists including Raye, Lana Del Rey and Fred Again take to the main stage.

People being buffeted by the wind
Windy conditions during the Leeds Festival 2024 (Danny Lawson/PA)

Forecasting the weather for Sunday, a Met Office spokesman said it will be “cloudy and quite windy” with “gusts of around about 30 mph and outbreaks of rain”.

He added: “It’s likely to stay cloudy for the rest of the day, with outbreaks of rain on and off through the afternoon and into the evening time. Temperatures (will be) cooler here at around about 16C to 17C.”

Its sister event, Reading Festival, will have a drier day than Saturday with temperatures around 18C to 19C in the afternoon, but it will still be “fairly breezy”.

“It should stay largely dry for the rest of the day here. There’s a chance of one or two showers passing through later on in the afternoon into the evening time,” the Met Office spokesman added.

“But it should largely be dry, but the breeze might just make it feel a bit chilly.”

Reading Festival will feature musical stars including Grammy-winning rapper 21 Savage, Welsh indie band Catfish And The Bottlemen and Manchester singer Liam Gallagher on the main stage for its final day.

Oasis fans will be keeping an eye on Gallagher’s headline set on Sunday, after he fuelled speculation that he could be reuniting with his brother Noel next year.

After reports that the brothers could be reuniting for a string of shows in 2025, Gallagher tweeted that he “never did like that word FORMER”.

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