The Leeds and Reading festivals are held annually in Leeds and Reading, England by Festival Republic. The events centre around the August bank holiday weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). Up until 2007 the festivals were known as the Carling Weekend" before changing its name when they parted ways with main sponsor Carlsberg. Due to amassing popularity, 1999 saw the inclusion of the Leeds Festival when it was clear that the Reading site was far too small to deal with the demand brought upon it. An ingenious system where the line up of the Reading Festival play at the Leeds Festival the following day, with the bands from the Leeds Festival's opening day playing the final day at the Reading Festival, soon developed. 2008 will see the Leeds Festival celebrate its 10th anniversary and this year's starting line-up definitely reflects that with over 150 bands playing to an average of 150,000 people. This year's headliners include: Rage Against the Machine Metallica Tenacious D Slipknot Queens of the Stone Age The Killers Bloc Party Plus many more acts to be announced! A steady increase in the popularity of music festivals in general led to the Reading festival selling out faster and faster each year. Unfortunately the Leeds leg wasn't as successful as it was constantly plagued by riots and violence which obviously led to increased difficulties in keeping it's festival licence. As a result, security has been increased at both sites and problems seem to have dispersed. However, this then lead to an increase in ticket demand. The long-awaited announcement of the line-up and ticket release for the 2006 Reading and Leeds festival saw weekend tickets sell out in less than two hours, setting a brand new world record, and emphasising the growing desire for live music because of the "rock revival" of the past few years, and the fact that the Glastonbury Festival was not taking place. Further Weekend tickets went on sale again soon after and sold out in under 26 minutes.
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