Kasabian became the first act to headline Leeds Festival on a Thursday, opening the 2026 northern edition of Reading & Leeds with a full-scale, hit-heavy performance. The set also inaugurated the festival’s newly redesigned main stage, The Grid, and served as a prominent warm-up for the band’s delayed ninth album, ‘Act III’, due on 4 September.

Frontman Serge Pizzorno described the occasion as historic and thanked the Yorkshire audience for its long-standing support, while the forecast thunderstorms held off after earlier heavy rain. Kasabian opened with ‘Club Foot’ and ended their three-song encore with ‘Fire’, mixing favourites including ‘Empire’, ‘Shoot The Runner’ and ‘Vlad The Impaler’ with snippets and reinterpretations of dance tracks; Arkayla and The Lathums supported.