A first timer’s guide to Leeds Festival

Whatever you do, don’t bring an expensive chair

3 years ago

If you’ve got tickets for Leeds Festival this summer, we’ve got you! From sweaty raves in the forest to paying a fiver for a bottle of water, here’s a compilation of our best tips for Leeds Fest.

Covid-19 Entry Requirements

Leeds Festival will ask ALL ticket holders aged 11+ to demonstrate their Covid-19 status before entering Bramham Park by providing either:

• Proof of full vaccination – both doses received (second must be 14 days or more prior to arrival)

• Proof of a negative NHS Lateral Flow Test taken prior to travel on the day of arrival at the festival (attendees have been advised to bring a box of lateral flow tests with them as a new one will be required on the day of re-entry if you leave the festival site at any point).

• Proof of natural immunity based upon a positive PCR test within 6 months of attending the festival

You will be able to show your status easily using the NHS app, with more information available here.

Travelling to Bramham Park

There are various ways you can get to the festival site. These include: shuttle bus, Big Green Coach, Uber, train, car, taxi or private coaches.

The shuttle bus will operate in the same manner as previous years, departing from outside Leeds Train Station on Sovereign Street. It will begin at 9:30AM on 25/8, with the last bus at 1am daily. The shuttle takes about 45 minutes and tickets can be purchased via the First Bus app. More information is available here.

Parking at Leeds is free (included in ticket price), but roads will be extremely busy so it is advised to leave plenty of time for your journey.

What a pretty sunset

Pack the essentials

You’ll definitely need:

• Your ticket (if you booked with Ticketmaster this will be a digital ticket on the app, otherwise you should expect to find it in the post).

• Warm clothes and bedding: it gets FREEZING at night, so make sure to bring a warm sleeping bag, joggers and a hoodie if you need to dash to the loos at 5am.

• Comfy shoes: trainers, walking boots, wellies. We don’t judge. Just make sure they can withstand thousands of steps each day, and make sure they offer a bit of protection from the elements.

• Sun cream, dry shampoo, baby wipes, socks, water bottle: pretty self explanatory if we’re honest.

Plan ahead with friends

It’s bound to happen. One minute you’ll all be in a mosh pit together, the next, you’re on your own and have no idea where anyone is. Fear not, if you’ve implemented a lost friend plan, this is about to kick into action.

We recommend agreeing a location to meet up within the arena if you become lost. In the event this happens, everyone should head back there, as it is likely you won’t have signal with thousands trying to connect to the same cell towers.

Leeds Festival App

Make sure to download the Leeds Festival App. The app provides many useful tools for you during your time at Bramham Park including: set times, information, maps, news, merch, tickets, social media, the lineup and what’s on.

You’re able to save your favourite artists and their set times on a separate tab, making it easy to know where you want to be and when.

Campsites

Contrary to belief, you don’t have to select which campsite you want to stay at. You literally just find a spot, set up your tents and then get the bevs flowing.

It’s ideal to know exactly where you are camping, so bring something visible like a flag, as it will be even harder to find your tent in the dark. Take note of any landmarks within your vicinity (fire towers, trees, lights, paths).

The principal for camping at Leeds Festival is: the closer the site to the Arena, the more lively the camp (Yellow, Red and Blue are WILD), with Orange and Purple having a bit of both. Green and Brown are a bit more chill for those of you who like to get your eight hours of rest.

The 2019 site map from the Leeds Festival website

Tips for pitching

If there’s two of you staying in a tent, buy a three man tent. You want room to manoeuvre and will appreciate it when trying to give yourself a baby wipe shower in the mornings. Bring MANY tent pegs. People will steal them, and then you’ll have a tent half collapsed.

Someone will definitely fall on your tent at 5am, or trip over the guy ropes and wake you up.

Don’t pitch your tent near the toilets (they’ll stink), the perimeter fences (people will piss on your tents), the fire lanes/paths (someone will jump on your tent or you’ll find it in the moshpit of Relentless), under a fire tower (you will get no sleep with how bright the lights are), or at the bottom of a hill (because we all know who’s going to get a soggy sleep).

Don’t lock your tent – this will just advertise you as having something to hide inside.

Put your chairs inside your tents (people will steal them otherwise and there is nothing worse than coming back to your tent and having to sit on the floor).

Don’t be deceived. Do NOT pitch near the paths or at the bottom of the hill (especially Orange hill).

Toilets

Let’s not sugar coat this. They’re absolutely disgusting. Some are literally like metal cages with holes in the ground, others are normal portaloos. You will probably walk into a toilet with sh*t all over the floor or up the walls, or with toilet roll overflowing.

And, please, if you drop your phone in the toilet, alert a staff member or just accept it’s a goner. Don’t be the new poo girl (she dropped her handbag in the toilet and went in after it. Safe to say she didn’t make it out the same way she went in). SEVEN fire fighters had to come and rescue her.

Keep yourself fed and watered

It’s crucial to keep yourself hydrated during the festival, no matter the weather. There are many water refill points across the site, all of which have been tested for water quality to make sure it is safe for you to drink. You can also purchase bottles of drink from the various vendors on site, but be warned. Last time I went a bottle of water was £4.

Whatever cuisine you fancy, there will be somewhere on site to find it. The food is expensive, (roughly £10-£15 for a meal), but it will keep you energised and fill you up, so you can carry on moshing.

Take snacks/dry foods with you that you can use to snack on in the day. Cereal bars, biscuits, crisps, nuts, chocolate. These will all give you an energy boost and definitely help with the early morning hangover.

Bring a portable charger, or hire one there

Since most tickets are digital now (including the shuttle bus tickets), having some phone charge is kind of an essential. We suggest bringing a portable charger, to keep you alive during the week.

If you don’t have one or don’t want to buy one, the festival offers Charge Candy, where you can get a fully charged portable charger each day which you swap out. You can find more information about this here.

Keep your valuables on you

Whilst 99 per cent of people at Leeds are good people, there’s always the odd bunch in a crowd. We recommend taking a bum bag or something similar with you, and keeping your valuables on you at all times.

Also, when you sleep at night, put them at the bottom of your sleeping bag just to be extra safe, and don’t ever leave any on show or in your tent when you aren’t there.

Bring ID for drinks

Notoriously expensive drinks are always at Leeds, but good luck trying to get one without an ID. If you are worried about losing your ID, you can get an over 18s wristband from one of the marquees in the arena, and then you can hide your ID away for safekeeping.

Bring drinks in with you

You can bring “alcohol for personal consumption” into the campsite, with no specifics about the amount or quantity this includes. However, you cannot bring any alcohol into the arena and glass isn’t permitted in the campsites either, so remember to decanter it into plastic bottles.

Also remember that if you cannot prove your age, any alcohol you bring in will be confiscated.

Have a sick time

Well, that’s all from us at The Tab! We hope to see you at the festival! Have a great time!

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