Leeds Festival axes BBC Introducing stage as organisers reveal replacement
The BBC Introducing stage has been axed from this year’s Leeds Festival
Organisers behind Leeds Festival have confirmed that the BBC Introducing stage will be axed from this year's festival.
The stage was first introduced at Leeds Festival and its sister event, Reading, in 2008 and has previously championed roughly 70 per cent of the UK artists on this year's line-up.
Four of this year's headliners – Charli XCX, Raye, Dave and Florence + the Machine – all previously played the BBC Introducing stage at the festival in their early days.
The BBC confirmed that organiser Festival Republic has decided not to bring back the BBC Introducing stage at Leeds and Reading this year.
It comes after Festival Republic last week announced a major arena overhaul, with a series of new stages set to debut over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Speaking at the festival's official launch earlier this month, Leeds Festival boss Melvin Benn revealed that one of the new additions, The Canopy, will replace BBC Introducing.
"The Canopy is effectively our new band stage, our emerging artist stage," he told the YEP. "In the past, we've had BBC Introducing; we're elevating that into becoming The Canopy.
“The artists will be a little bit bigger than the Introducing artists were, but it's fundamentally about acts that will come through and will, hopefully, be headlining the festival in years to come."
A BBC spokesperson said the corporation continues to explore how it can work with the festival in the future.
They added: “Throughout the summer BBC Introducing will be hosting stages at festivals across the UK including Boardmasters, Latitude, Isle of Wight festival, Y Not Festival, Truck Festival and Green Man Festival, with line-ups including some fantastic up-and-coming artists.”
Leeds Festival takes place at Bramham Park from August 27 to 30.
Festival Republic has been contacted for comment.