Arctic Monkeys, Bring Me The Horizon, Halsey, Dave, Megan Thee Stallion, and Rage Against The Machine have all been confirmed as headliners for Reading & Leeds 2022.
Following a triumphant return from a pandemic hiatus this summer with headline sets from Liam Gallagher, Post Malone, Stormzy, Disclosure, Biffy Clyro, and Catfish + The Bottlemen, as well as Slowthai, Wolf Alice, Sigrid, Baebadoobee, Yungblud, AJ Tracey, Girl In Red, and many more, R+L has announced a massive billing for the twin-site festival at Little John’
Fans can expect the same thing this year, after the two main stages were used for the first time last year, with six headliners revealed today. Arctic Monkeys will be among those returning to the hallowed grounds of Reading and Leeds over the August Bank Holiday Weekend (August 26-28). After gradually announcing European tour dates and world festival appearances in recent weeks, the Sheffield indie icons will now headline R+L for the third time – with their highly anticipated follow-up to 2018 album ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ tipped to arrive next year.
They’ll co-headline the Saturday in Reading and the Sunday in Leeds with fellow Yorkshiremen Bring Me The Horizon, who will be topping the bill for the first time.
Following the huge success of his acclaimed second album ‘We’re All Alone In This Together Now’ and his biggest shows to date on his 2022 arena tour, Dave will headline the main stage on the Friday of Reading and the Saturday of Leeds. He’ll be sharing the bill with multi-Grammy-winning US rap megastar and previous NME cover star Megan Thee Stallion that day, with the ‘WAP’ chart-topper expected to return with more new material next year following her recent run of massive freestyle and archive releases.
Meanwhile, Rage Against The Machine will make their long-awaited return on Sunday in Reading and Friday in Leeds. The rock legends have a long and illustrious history with the festival, with their most recent politically charged headline set in 2008 going down in history. After having their last scheduled appearance in 2020 canceled due to the pandemic, the reunited RATM will be back in August to make more headlines with another night to remember.
They’ll be sharing the bill with recent cover star Halsey, who was also announced last month as the recipient of the Innovation Award at the upcoming BandLab NME Awards in 2022. The prize will be presented to the New Jersey-born singer, who released her fourth album, ‘If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power,’ this summer, at a ceremony on March 2 at the O2 Academy Brixton in London.
Polo G, Little Simz, Circa Waves, Griff, Fever 333, Wolf Alice, Fontaines D.C., Jack Harlow, Enter Shikari, Madison Beer, Run The Jewels, Mneskin, and Bastille are among the other big names on the bill. Check out the full poster and the full lineup so far below.
“With so many amazing acts set to play, Reading & Leeds is set to return as the ultimate festival weekend of the summer: defining the sounds of modern ground breaking music,” said Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic. “I can hardly wait!”
The Reading & Leeds Festival 2022 will be held on August 26-28, 2022. Tickets go on sale at 9 a.m. on Friday, December 10, and can be found here for the Reading Festival and here for the Leeds Festival.