Festival organisers have issued an update
Stages at Leeds Festival have been shut for the day and performances cancelled as extreme winds batter the site.
The hugely popular music event is taking place this weekend, but festival-goers have been battling 60mph gusts as Storm Lilian hit Bramham Park.
The winds were so strong that festival organisers delayed the planned opening of the arena at 11:00, advised people to “stay in their tents” and confirmed that two stages would be out of action for the entire day on Friday.
Both the Radio 1 stage and the Aux stage will not be hosting any performances on the first day of the festival.
In a post on X, Reading and Leeds Festival organisers said they could see an “end in sight” to the winds and would open the arena “as soon as possible”.
The post reads: “We can see an end in sight to the high winds. We definitely won’t be opening the arena at 11am, but we are targeting as soon as possible after that and we will update you further.
“However, we have definitely lost the BBC Radio 1 stage today, and there will be no performances on it. We have also lost the Aux stage today, and there will be no performances on it.
“We remain hopeful that everything else will continue as planned and that we will still have an amazing weekend. Please await further information.”
People have been sharing footage from the festival site on social media, showing the havoc the winds have caused.
In an update earlier on Friday, organisers urged festival-goers to stay in their tents or cars and “look out for each other” as safety was the “number one priority”.
The Met Office had issued a yellow wind warning for the area until 11:00am on Friday. The forecaster said disruption to travel, dangerous conditions on roads and power cuts were possible because of Storm Lilian.
The storm is expected to ease off this afternoon.
Some 90,000 people are expected to descend on Bramham Park over the bank holiday weekend for Leeds Festival.
Headliners over the weekend include Liam Gallagher, Blink 182 and Fred Again.
