Well, Britain’s infamous Reading & Leeds Festival has not gone to plan.

The fuss around the festival began how it does every year: the lineups get announced, some fans are disappointed, but things move forward. This year it seems; however, that things have snowballed beyond disappointed concertgoers. The festival underwent a few changes in its lineup and now faces ticket buyers clamouring for refunds and vocalizing their disappointment all over the Twittersphere and beyond.

The first, and arguably the most drastic, major lineup change came with rap-rock powerhouses

Rage Against the Machine dropped out of the festival and were quickly replaced with Manchester’s musical equivalent of Marmite The 1975. Reading & Leeds announced the change in a tweet, stating “We heard you… The 1975 will now be headlining…” ending their tweet with a sassy, “Don’t say we never treat you”.

This, of course, led to a mix of responses. Following the announcement of a tour, it makes sense that The 1975 would jump at the opportunity to play one of England’s biggest and most-loved festivals. It will serve as another homecoming for the band, who have frequented the line-up for years. Frustrations about the change largely centred around Rage Against the Machine’s absence. The politically and socially charged household name recently returned after an eight-year hiatus and significant touring delays due to the pandemic. Since the band was finally back on the road, fans were let down to know that one of their chances to see them after almost a decade was thwarted.

Some fans or casual festival-goers potentially lacked the context for the sudden drop-out. The band had been forced to pull out of the festival and their entire UK tour due to health advisories regarding lead singer Zack De La Rocha’s health. There has been no indication that Rage Against the Machine will come back for the 2023 festival thus far. In their statement, the band had promised to “rage again soon” with their UK fans; however, the timetable for when that will occur is sure to be clarified after De La Rocha makes a recovery.

It’s safe to say many fans of Rage Against The Machine fans who were in attendance of The 1975’s set at Leeds yesterday will have been angry to hear the frontman go off on a tangent about the rock band, saying, “And I’m sorry we’re not Rage Against The Machine but who’s Rage Against The Machine?” and, “Being literally in Rage Against The Machine and having a gammy leg is quite funny though. We’re The 1975 so we’re just going to be The 1975 as much as we can.” Hmm…

More controversy came in the shape of another lineup change on the 20th of August. Italian rockers turned worldwide phenoms Måneskin and American rapper Jack Harlow dropped out of the festival in favour of playing the MTV Video Music Awards. Their replacements were announced on the heels of their departure; Cambridge’s hyper-pop master Charli XCX and West London rapper AJ Tracey will be taking the stage instead. Facing similar challenges as the previous lineup change, fans are angry due to these changes taking place less than a week out from the festival.

After initially being told by ticketing web service Ticketmaster that refunds and/or transfers wouldn’t be an option for festival attendees, several fans have now received refunds for their purchases. Likely due to the consistent changes in the lineup, it appears the ticketing giant amended its policy to honour those upset by the dropouts.

Regardless of the several challenges facing the festival this year, Reading and Leeds has gone underway to a degree of success, albeit with a few of the star-studded names removed. Many hard hitters such as Halsey, Arctic Monkeys (their first UK show in four years), Bring Me the Horizon, Run the Jewels, Wolf Alice, Glass Animals and more will be shaking up the multiple stages and giving festival-goers a week to remember. While some acts have changed, for some, the rest of what the festival has to offer might just be one of the best of the year.

At the time of publishing, no other changes have been announced and all acts have seemingly appeared as scheduled.