New stage announced for Reading & Leeds 2024, with The Aux for “pioneering digital creators”
With less than 100 days until Reading & Leeds 2024, the festival has announced a new stage called The Aux.
Announced today (May 21), the new venue will be introduced for this year’s instalment of the dual-event, and is the first of its kind.
According to a new press release, The Aux is designed with the aim of showcasing “pioneering digital creators” and will, for the first time in R&L history, present a line-up of content creators in a bid to highlight “some of today’s most popular and culturally relevant personalities and providing a new platform in the live sector”.
It will allow festival-goers to attend live podcasts, interactive talks and livestreams, as well as tune into the current media landscape.
To celebrate the announcement of the new stage, several acts have been announced as the first to play on the platform later this year.
These include The Useless Hotline – a podcast hosted by Max Balegde and George Clarke that sees listeners send in their queries and dilemmas – as well as another podcast called Antics With Ash, hosted by Ash Holmes.
Manchester’s top podcast The M1 has also joined the line-up, hosted by Mordz, SK and BillyTheGoat, as has Ayamé Ponder, who gained notoriety on TikTok and Instagram for her reactions to ‘satisfying’ videos.
Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, said of the new stage: “The relevance and impact that this new generation of creators has on our culture and audience is undeniable. The Aux stage is a platform to move their brilliant and innovative work onto a live stage.
“Music and digital innovation have always gone hand in hand, and this is a new and exciting moment where the online world can connect with the offline, and our audiences can get a bit closer to the faces and voices they know and love.”
Benn added: “We have supported and championed musicians from emerging talent to headliners and we hope The Aux will play a part in doing just that for those who are transforming entertainment too.”
The introduction of The Aux comes after Benn spoke to NME last year and teased that “stage changes” were on the way.
It also comes just months after Reading & Leeds announced another new stage for the 2024 edition called The Chevron – which will bring the festival’s two main stage format to an end.
The Chevron will boast the world’s first outdoor floating LED video sky canopy, and has been created especially to host dance music, pop and hip-hop acts. The venue this year will be headlined by The Prodigy, Sonny Fodera and Skrillex, as well as seeing performances from the likes of Nia Archives, Denzel Curry, Barry Can’t Swim and Kenny Beats.
The world’s biggest silent disco will also return to R&L for 2024 too, but in its new home of The Chevron.
“We can present different genres very comfortably, and dance, hip-hop, pop and UK grime needs that home. The Chevron can do that,” Benn told NME in February.
“The headliners on all stages always create their own show. We facilitate that but don’t direct or interfere. It’s not a demand from us, but it’s a particular desire that headliners always bring. Effectively, we have a video mesh roof that will be all-encompassing and give the artist an opportunity to create in a way that they haven’t done in the past – and not just the headliners.”
The 2024 edition of R&L will take place between August 21 and August 25, and will be headlined by Liam Gallagher, Lana Del Rey, Blink-182, Fred Again.., Gerry Cinnamon and Catfish & The Bottlemen.
Denzel Curry, Kenny Beats, Beabadoobee, Kenya Grace, Nia Archives, Two Door Cinema Club, Neck Deep, The Wombats, Ashnikko, David Kushner, Rachel Cinouriri, Hak Baker, The Last Dinner Party, Sonny Fodera and more were also announced as the first wave of artists.
Later, it was confirmed that 21 Savage, Jorja Smith and The Prodigy, were new additions to the bill, and after that, an announcement came that Fontaines D.C., Reneé Rapp, Pendulum and more had joined the bill too. Visit here for remaining tickets.
The post New stage announced for Reading & Leeds 2024, with The Aux for “pioneering digital creators” appeared first on NME.
Liberty Dunworth
NME
