John Moriarty heads to Leeds Festival in the U.K. to witness two very different headliners… and discovers a shared conviction and a shared audience, who could care less about musical genres.
All Aboard
6:50 AM flight. A woman in the row opposite has the same t-shirt as me. We’re clearly among a dedicated few travelling from Belfast to the Leeds Festival, for a unique Saturday main stage double-header: Fontaines DC and Charli XCX.
Fontaines have been among my staples since their debut Dogrel. Layered soundscapes and lyrical nuance reward repeat listening. But they’re not the reason I’ve boarded this propeller plane. For that, there’s a three-word explanation: Music, Fashion, Film.
The new Charli XCX album got a grip of me in late July and wouldn’t let go. The Brat phenomenon mostly passed me by. Interesting record, some instant classics, and I delight in any LP creating a cultural moment – it just wasn’t my moment.
By her own telling, Music, Fashion, Film is Charli’s reaction to Brat: sonically distinct; lyrics contemplate life after being last season’s phenomenon. Its crunching guitar sound palate is as convincing as it is unexpected. The opening and closing words seem to conjoin into a manifesto: nothing lasts forever, so I make things with my friends.
Watch: Charli XCX performs No One Lasts Forever at the BBC
Not everybody understands the live music bug. Why go to the hassle? For me, it’s about sharing a passion, communing with whomever desires to scream out the same songs together, or move about to them, or whatever combination works. Leeds/Reading were Charli’s only 2026 UK or Irish dates. And paired with Fontaines? Don’t think. Just click.
High Noon
Frying oil, drying grass – an unmistakable aromatic blend. One constant across years of outdoor gigs. Faces get younger, fashions come, headliners go. But these outings all smell alike
Fashion-wise, both headliners have captured aesthetic as well as musical imaginations. The most popular item is the blue and pink ‘Bohemians X Fontaines DC Football Shirt’. The Charli kit is more DIY: less uniform, more about dressing for a big night out. Wrap-around sunglasses, ‘brat green’ splashes optional. Thigh-high shorts, loud jeans, deafening jewellery, recommended.
“Leeds is always a young crowd.” Helen is here with her sister and her fifteen-year-old daughter.
So, who are they here to see?
“Charli and Fontaines,” sister Kaylie says, like it’s a double-act.
I can’t contain my curiosity. Festival line-ups once resembled the Guitar Hero catalogue. How did we reach the point where fans go from bopping to ‘Von Dutch’ one minute to singing ‘Boys in the Better Land’?
“It’s just good music, right?” says Helen. “People don’t mind if something’s dance or rock or country, so long as it’s good.”
Pit
Here we go. As Skepta raps his set, I brace for the pit queue. A thousand bodies, shuffling to be admitted fifty at a time. This ‘system’ isn’t for the claustrophobic. Some lose hope, retreat towards higher ground. But persistence pays, and soon I’m twenty rows from the stage, in amongst the committed. The dream.
Then, suddenly, we’re on. The chopped opening chord loop from ‘Rock Music’, heavy bursts of thrashing guitar, blasts of fire.
‘Me and my friends…’
Charli XCX performs at Outside Lands in San Francisco (Pic: Getty)
Charli’s friends ascend into view on a rising platform for the opening volley of tunes, then descend, leaving her to steward the Brat reprisal. Overall, the crowd quietens during the newer material, while ‘Club classics’, ‘Apple’ et al. draw wild responses. It’s a proper show throughout, full of movement, composure, conviction and infectious tunes. As with the album, the set ends with ‘No One Lasts Forever’, booming out while the main camera zooms slowly back, from an artist still at her peak.
Conviction. Move at your pace, let the audience meet you where you are. Both let the music do the talking, feeling little compulsion to chat at length between songs.
There’s some turnover in the pit: some head out, perhaps for a comfort break, perhaps to dance on elsewhere. Most stay. I compare notes with Jacob and Livinia from Sheffield – he’s a Fontaines fan, though glad of his partner’s encouragement to come see Charli up close. “I’m definitely a guitars guy, but it’s good seeing different genres mixing.”
How would he classify Fontaines D.C., who don’t have traditional guitar sounds or licks? “They’re very vocals oriented. But the vocals are so unique, there isn’t really anyone else like them.” (Mention Whipping Boy? Maybe another time.)
Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. performs at Electric Picnic 2026
Soon enough, his boys are on, bouncing from the Dogrel end of catalogue all the way forwards to new single ‘Marianne’. Once a bundle of nervous energy, 2026 Grian Chatten strides up the middle platform, no more intimidated by the crowd than Charli before him.
Sure, his movement is less rehearsed, his crowdwork more immediate than with the camera. But kinships between the two acts quickly appear.
Conviction. Move at your pace, let the audience meet you where you are. Both let the music do the talking, feeling little compulsion to chat at length between songs. But words do matter: whether you’re singing about underwear colour schemes, or whose mammy or daddy was Fine Gael or Fianna Fáil, audiences respond to specificity and originality, and happily belt those words back from the nearest available set of shoulders.
It’s clear that Fontaines, and those who advise them, are timing things to perfection, always that step ahead. A trio of new songs goes over well, ‘Six Shot Morning’ the standout, heralding yet more innovation. They’ve honed the craft of putting on a show on their own terms. Yes, they commit to an aesthetic, let the designers and stylists earn their corn. And yes, they rely on Chatten’s ability to lead from the front and keep the crowd on a string. But the collective responsibility of the five is clear: write songs, make them great, play them well.
Watch: Fontaines D.C. perform In The Modern World at Reading Festival 2026
The Leeds main stage, The Grid, is a big wide natural amphitheatre – not unlike a certain mansion on the River Boyne where 160,000 Fontaines fans will gather next June. Wandering to a more distant vantage point, I’m relieved to find no dip in energy or engagement. It’s carrying well, and as ‘Favourite’ rings out, fans nearer the bar use the additional elbow room to swing themselves about a bit. Even back here, they know all the words.
This weekend of consecutive headliners marks a huge milestone; album five Dopamine Chamber will be appointment listening. But the peak still looms in the distance – even Slane won’t be the extent of the group’s ambition.
Momentary blissness? Not for these lads.
Exit
Queuing for the exit, a last thought. Here: this is where the crossover happens, where genres melt and fuse. Two mates compare pictures from the day, chat to another group about who else they’ve saw. Geese, Declan McKenna, Skye Newman, Adéla all get a mention. Music labels can hire as many producers, designers as they can afford, but music isn’t chemistry. It’s a people game.
Write your tune, with conviction. Commit. Make it good. Play it with your friends. If someone hears it, shares it, goes out of their way to hear it again, then all the better.
Chari XCX plays the 3Arena Dublin on 13th February 2027, while Fontaines D.C. play Slane Castle on June 26th and 27th 2027