Live at Leeds in the City 2024, Leeds • Festivals • DIY Magazine

It’s a long-established fact that Yorkshire is one of the UK’s most fertile musical breeding grounds, but there’s been something in the Harrogate water supply of late that’s made the Leeds scene particularly thrive. Walking around the city today, there’s a tangible buzz in the air: the pavements are packed; queues are forming outside venues long before their doors open; and the sun is doing its level best to provide festival-appropriate weather.

Because, of course, it’s Live at Leeds in the City - the longer-standing sister event to Summer’s Temple Newsam knees-up - which, on this basis, could well claim the crown for the country’s best multi-venue city festival.

Kicking off DIY’s stage in the main room of Leeds Beckett Student Union, Marika Hackman is every inch the festival pro. Integrating cuts from her intricate fourth album ‘Big Sigh’ with older favourites, she steers the swelling crowd expertly through harmonic beauty (‘Blood’), lip-biting lust (‘Slime), and moving vulnerability: “That was the peak miserable part of the set,” she jokes, “there’s no party like a Marika Hackman party.”

Taking over The Key Club for a riotous thirty-minute set, meanwhile, are London three-piece Alien Chicks, who, having just headlined Brixton’s Windmill last night, are mere hours away from supporting Maruja in Birmingham this evening. The punk outfit are as playful and frenetic as ever: the crawling opening bassline of ‘Steve Buscemi’ earns hollers from the nodding crowd, while temperamental closer ‘27 Stitches’ is yet more proof that they’re doing what they love - and doing it very well.

Back at Beckett SU, New York’s Infinity Song offer something refreshingly different to almost anything else we see today. Having initially drawn online attention for their beautifully shot snippets of addictive harmonies and catchy hooks, the group - fronted by four siblings - pushed through sound issues with their heads held high. Opening with an extended rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’, they deliver a compelling performance before closing with deep cut ‘Slow Burn’, seeing the show out with a huge dual guitar solo of which funk maestro James Brown would be proud. Despite some unfortunate soundcheck struggles, it’s clear the quartet have their pitch-perfect, impeccably choreographed show down to a fine art.

Filing out via the SU’s second room, you can’t help but be captivated by the angelic sound of Essence Martins, charming her relaxed audience with a combination of sweet three-piece harmonies and endearing musings on life and love. Over at Belgrave Music Hall, Blossom Calderone is delivering on a similar brief. Having spent much of the year as the fifth live member of English Teacher, she’s now gearing up for the next chapter of her self-titled solo project. At times intensely moving, at others wryly funny, Blossom’s set marries confessional, candid lyricism and stunning vocal runs with stand-up worthy between-song patter: ‘I Gave You The Universe’ - a beautiful, heart-wrenching account of romantic devastation - was written, she tells the crowd, “about somebody that works in e-commerce”. On this evidence, it’s very much his loss.

Bringing a second Fleetwood Mac reworking of the day, Manchester wordsmith and MC OneDa turns the dial up to 11 in Beckett’s room two, giving a seemingly effortless example of just why she’s at the forefront of rap’s own “pussy power” wave. Her sampling of ‘The Chain’ is, we presume, a canny nod to her recently released debut LP ‘Formula OneDa’ (given the track’s famed use in the titles of the BBC’s F1 programming), and there’s no doubting she has all the stage presence and swagger required to carry off such a gambit.

Though today boasts some undeniably big-hitting names, there’s a pervading sense that the Live at Leeds lineup is, at its heart, a celebration of tomorrow’s breakout stars. And back at Belgrave, this hypothesis is being proved in real time. London grassroots stalwarts Human Interest are irresistibly cool, flying through fan favourites like ‘Shapeshifting’ and ‘Cool Cats’ before the band’s Cat Harrison comes forward to lie in the middle of the crowd, very much living his words as he gives into the exasperated sigh of the set’s closing lines: “I’m just floating by…”

Next up, Fuzz Lightyear might be new to cult label Nice Swan, but they’re well known and well-loved around this city. Somewhere in the middle of their delirious full-send of industrial post-punk, frontman Ben Parry sweetly asks the crowd to wish his mum a happy birthday; having dutifully waited until we’ve responded in kind, he then wastes no time in diving straight back into their feverish display.

It’s Manchester outfit Westside Cowboy who are the new name on everybody’s lips today, following the recent release of their charming debut single ‘I’ve never met anyone i thought i could really love (until i met you)’. Shouldering the weight of vocal duties between them, stretching and altering their vowels in a way that scratches your brain and breaks your heart one sentence at a time (namely, the vulnerable mumble of “[I’ve] done enough in my life to deserve the air I breathe”), their set is an undeniable standout - an impressive, refreshing addition to a sometimes-homogenous musical landscape.

If there’s one band whose Live at Leeds 2024 performance is anticipated perhaps more than any other, it’s English Teacher - the hometown heroes who made history this year as the first non-London act to win the Mercury Prize in a decade with debut album ‘This Could Be Texas’, thanking their adopted city and its scene in their acceptance speech. It’s clear they - quite literally - wear their hearts on their sleeves too; as the festival app notifies us the DIY stage is now at one-in, one-out capacity, bassist Nick Eden can be seen repping local record shop Jumbo, while guitarist Lewis Whiting is sporting Fuzz Lightyear merch.

As individuals and as a unit, their confidence has grown exponentially over the past twelve months, and watching them now is nothing short of a joy: whether whipping up a storm for breakout hit ‘R&B’ and ‘Nearly Daffodils’; calming the chaos for Lily Fontaine’s extraordinary, pin-drop vocals on ‘Blister My Paint’; or airing older gems from debut EP ‘Polyawkward’, English Teacher are utterly in control, and utterly deserving of the crowd’s open-armed adoration.

Punters are spoiled for choice when it comes to rounding out the day, with Everything Everything and Lime Garden both packing out Beckett SU and The Wardrobe respectively, but in Leeds, all roads eventually lead to the Brudenell. In tonight’s final stretch, it’s over to the iconic venue for London outfit Ebbb, who have been winning over audiences with their mix of beautiful choral vocals and brutal electronic instrumentation since their first shows last year. Having quickly signed to Ninja Tune and now being booked to play all over – including an upcoming support slot for Yannis & The Yaw at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire – the trio’s experimental blending of opposites makes for an entrancing watch every time.

Closing the show in style, then, are New York guitar hopes Slow Fiction - the hotly-tipped So Young signees who’ve already made waves this side of the Atlantic via support slots with the likes of English Teacher (yep, them again) and Sprints. Stepping onstage at the Brude for what frontwoman Julia Vassallo reveals to be their last set of the year, the band are near faultless, with latest cut ‘Brother’ sitting seamlessly alongside May’s ‘Crush’ EP.

A hotbed of established favourites, exciting new propositions and genuine music lovers - and free from the snobbery or industry over-saturation some showcase festivals can be prone to - Live at Leeds in the City leaves us with one overarching thought: thank god there’s a Summer edition to tide us over until next November.