{"id":703222,"date":"2026-07-21T10:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/703222\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T10:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:57:09","slug":"bbc-introducing-stage-axed-from-reading-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/703222\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Introducing stage axed from Reading Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

A stage at Reading Festival which previously hosted up-and-coming musicians including Ed Sheeran and Florence + the Machine has been axed.<\/p>\n

Organisers Festival Republic announced an overhaul of stages last week, telling IQ Magazine the changes would lead the Berkshire-based festival into its “next phase”, external<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As part of the plans, it said it would no longer host a BBC Introducing stage, despite the scheme having supported roughly 70% of all the UK artists on this year’s line-up.<\/p>\n

Tommy Longhurst, lead singer of Reading band Only the Poets, said the move was “sad news” for young musicians.<\/p>\n

He said the music industry is already “really hard” for those who are just starting out, with grassroots venues struggling to stay open.<\/p>\n

He said he believed the BBC Introducing stage “really does a lot for new artists”.<\/p>\n

Only the Poets have played several sets on the BBC Introducing stage at their home festival in previous years, most recently in 2025.<\/p>\n

Longhurst said: “We hold those memories so highly and it was such a poignant moment for us to get to play a festival that inspired us to start the band.<\/p>\n

“For me I think we’re taking a huge opportunity from up and coming artists.”<\/p>\n

Organisers Festival Republic said it had a “big focus on championing emerging artists” and its new Canopy stage was the home for new and breaking acts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A stage at Reading Festival which previously hosted up-and-coming musicians including Ed Sheeran and Florence + the Machine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[96,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-703222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}