Charli XCX, RAYE and Florence and the Machine are among the six headliners for Reading & Leeds Festival 2026.
The dual site English festival – held concurrently in Reading’s Richfield Avenue and Leeds’ Bramham Park – will also be headlined by Fontaines D.C., Dave and dance duo Chase & Status. The event will take place across the Bank Holiday weekend on Aug. 27-30.
SOMBR, Skepta and Geese are also among the names to join the lineup’s first announcement, with Kasabian set to be Leeds’ festival’s first ever Thursday headliner with a slot on the main stage. In recent years, two headline acts per day have taken to the stage across the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Also appearing on the bill will be Role Model, JADE, Josh Baker, Kneecap, Kettama, Chris Stussy (Reading only), Geese, Skye Newman, Adéla and Keo. More names will be announced in due course.
A PayPal presale for the event is live now (Dec. 1) with a second presale taking place tomorrow (Dec. 2) before a general sale on Wednesday (Dec. 3).
Florence and The Machine and Dave have both headlined the festival previously, the former in 2012 and the latter in 2022. All other headliners have appeared a number of times throughout the festival in recent years.
Its the first show announced for Fontaines D.C. following the conclusion of their Romance tour in August 2025 and is billed as their only U.K. festival appearance in 2026. Charli XCX will also return to the stage for her sole U.K. festival performance and will follow the release of her upcoming Wuthering Heights soundtrack LP in February 2026.
Speaking to Billboard U.K. earlier this summer, festival boss Melvin Benn reflected on why he was keen to give upcoming stars the opportunity to headline over legacy acts. 2025’s event was headlined by Chappell Roan, Travis Scott, Bring Me The Horizon, and Hozier.
“I think it’s a pointer to all festivals to not be afraid and to be bold with their bookings,” Benn says of Roan’s headline slot in 2025. “To say that you were there when Chappell criticised Donald Trump from the Reading Festival stage, for example, or when Hozier stood up and said, ‘Free Palestine’… only a certain number of people can be there at that moment and actually experience it.”
