For most in West Yorkshire, Live at Leeds: In the Park flags the undisputed beginning of summer. As the key to igniting festival season in the region, the one-dayer has quite the task on its hands to deliver a whopping line-up and good times all round. But, of course, 2025’s instalment hit the mark with flying colours.

Not only that, the event returned brandishing new-and-improved fab features, including a better-than-ever VIP area with exclusive look and feel, seating and epic food and drink vendors (hello, Big Mouth Gyoza and pizza slices from Poco!). Headline acts were split across two main stages this year, while the smaller stages were still in full swing. It seemed as though they’d utilised more of the field space as well, and we were handed Rockstar energy drink freebies on our way down from the shuttle buses*. Divine.

One of the first things that struck us was the real mix of ages, though you could tell Bloc Party will have been the ultimate pull. With more than 20 years of stage presence and a back catalogue of iconic indie bangers in their locker, they were possibly the biggest headliner coup for the park-held stint of the festival so far. 

With getting from A to B through the sea of people, we only managed to catch the final moments of ‘Barcelona Girl’ from Corella. It’s always a skill in itself, navigating the twists and turns of the layout to see as many acts as you can.

We got ourselves well-positioned for Sports Team, though — a band I was all too giddy to watch again, a couple of years on. They started with a walk-on of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Glory Days’ then immediately plunged into ‘Bang Bang Bang’, one of their latest offerings from their just-released third album, ‘Boys These Days’. An old 2022 fave, ‘The Drop’, was next, which I recall the crowd roaring along to at Truck Festival three years ago.

I’ve had ‘Sensible’ in my head for weeks now and it was really brought to life with the hammering of keys, though the token clacking and jangling of tambourines really energised their instrumental arsenal throughout. ‘M5’ and ‘Here’s The Thing’ sandwiched the human pyramid request from buoyant frontman Alex Rice, and before we knew it, they were playing themselves out with ‘Maybe When We’re 30’. Another from the new record, it seemed fittingly slow and thought-provoking, having not long since joined the 30s club myself. 

Serving up a healthy dollop of high-energy eccentricity, Fat Dog were described to me as “Flat Moon on steroids” up at the DIY tent. Fair. The crowd was popping off immediately, and the band retained excellent interaction and involvement with the room from the get-go.

Back at Main Stage North, Natasha Bedingfield sprang into gear. As she’s a bit of a noughties pop sensation, I’m not sure everyone expected the oomph of her guitarist and drummer, but they peppered the performance with a fantastic, complementary heaviness. Everyone was waiting for ‘Unwritten’, obviously, and as she quickly removed this uber-chic khaki Mac she arrived in, we were reminded that ‘Pocketful of Sunshine’ was actually a mega-hit as well. Natasha had this outstanding, killer vocal clarity, and people were mad for it — I didn’t realise she was such a household name still, but her resurgence was apparently thanks to TikTok. The kids’ choice, eh? And there was something apt about her brief Kate Bush ‘Running Up That Hill’ cover, given the revival connotations. 

Aside from Bloc Party, The Amazons were the crucial draw for us. We’ve both been to many, many gigs of theirs, and regular readers might also remember I met them at Jumbo Records when they did a signing in 2022. An unrivalled experience. Seeing Matt now, though, he’s clearly in his ‘70s era, and totally nailing it. The band has this composed, literary essence to them now, too, as though they’re a bunch of revered poets rather than modern-day rock kings. How profoundly cool! Naturally, Ella McRobb joined them, and they’d adapted their older tunes to incorporate her ethereal tones as the backing vocals. Smart.

‘In My Mind’ kicked things off, though I was expecting ‘Living A Lie’. They didn’t even play that. The depth of sound from the three guitars on stage gave that some serious welly, and we were quickly on to the bombastic ‘Night After Night’. They had no qualms dipping in and out of classics and new thrillers (from ‘21st Century Fiction’), journeying from the souped-up ‘Doubt It’ and ‘Mother’ to recent gems, ‘Pitch Black’ and ‘Wake Me Up’. 

The highlight? I couldn’t believe my wish for them to play ‘Joe Bought A Gun’ had come true (thank god). I just knew it would be a blistering belter live, and I wasn’t wrong. People couldn’t help but mosh and the band realised how up for it the crowd was.

So they stirred everyone up further and really let loose themselves — especially on ‘Black Magic’. They’d elongated it and it was just jaw-dropping, completely evidencing what Matt bellowed; “There is a place for rock music in 2025”. Couldn’t agree more. And to the man who darted last-minute into the mosh pit at the end: you heard the call of that feeling we all had surging through us and didn’t hold back. Props to you. And props to The Amazons for being an unstoppable force of nature, making heavy music truly bloody great again. See you again soon, probably, because we can’t resist.

While there was a place for the blazing amps of The Amazons, the same could be said for Psychedelic Porn Crumpets. Ferociously scuzzy, daftly pacy, outrageously riffy and a little bit fuzzy too, they possibly held all the adjectival cards of the day. Talk about big-tent energy. Very “hell yeah, man” throughout, and the Aussie rockers’ storming set also starkly reminded us to sort ourselves out and listen to their new album. Homework mission: accepted. 

Understandably, Yard Act received a very warm Leeds welcome. Dappled with trumpet tooting and shakers, the band made good on their promise to “take [us] into the night-time” and gifted us romping tracks like ‘Petroleum’ and ‘Payday’ early evening. The crowd went nuts for the local post-punks’ wit and charisma. 

The Pigeon Detectives and Sigrid (there’s some footage of her on our Instagram reel) were also both met with incredibly welcoming receptions and had all their most popular hits up their sleeves.

‘Deep Diving’ was the track we walked up to when The Snuts were on. I haven’t seen them perform since their last dalliance in the park here, and they’ve been striding ahead since then. ‘The Rodeo’ had everyone bouncing, jumping and generally embracing the festival feel; after all, they needed to keep the mood up as one of the penultimate acts before Bloc Party. Their setlist comprised — as all the best ones do — a fusion of old and new, traversing a landscape of catchiness through ‘Knuckles’, ‘Seasons’, ‘Elephants’, and the ultra-poppy ‘Dreams’. But by this point, we really couldn’t wait for Bloc Party…

Fizzing down the field, we made our way to wait with bated breath for the majestic Bloc Party, the OG indie band I called a favourite. Poignantly, ‘So Here We Are’ was their opening gambit. Triggering a memory of a time when everything was about to change in my childhood, it felt bittersweet to hear this live. Throat-lump clearing, I focused instead on how surreal it was to finally be witnessing the four-piece for the very first time and, all of a sudden, we were met with the romping ‘Mercury’ and wall-to-wall fun commenced.

There was elation during ‘Hunting For Witches’,  and while they darted in and out of their album history, I couldn’t help but stand in awe of how tight they were. Kele’s vocals were crisp and the mirror scratchplate on his Telecaster was capturing all the bright lights of the stage kaleidoscopically. And as the drums were so perfectly thumped, the snaps of the snare somehow felt extra-impressive. Each riff and plucked string loud, proud and spot on, too. We couldn’t believe it was their first UK show in a while; what a well-rehearsed unit. 

As ‘Banquet’, ‘Price of Gasoline’, ‘Helicopter’ and ‘Flux’ gave us all yet more to shout and cheer about, the 90 minutes of sheer indie joy was almost up. Kele announced, “we have one more rocket left in our pocket”, and we were soon clapping, whooping and praising them for ending with ‘Ratchet’ and generously putting on such an unbeatable show. Another one off the bucket list. No (more) words. 

*With massive thanks to Hanglands for the press access tickets and photo pass.

Phone pics are Imogen’s as standard, but follow InthemomentJC on Instagram for professional shots, collabs and job enquiries.