A couple who went to Leeds Festival have revealed that the lack of house music on offer after a stage was closed meant that they booked an 80 mile Uber journey to Creamfields instead.
Aiden Warhurst and his partner were at Leeds Festival over the past weekend, but put out a plea for some last minute Creamfields tickets after a number of dance performances were cancelled at the site.
At both Reading and Leeds, multiple dance music sets in the new Warehouse stage were cancelled due to safety concerns.
On Saturday and Sunday (August 29 and 30), the new dance-focused stages at each site were shut due to concerns of overcrowding, with the official app regularly telling punters that The Warehouse was closed.
In Leeds, Julian Fijma had his performance on Saturday cut short as there were “too many people” inside the tent, and later that day Skepta had his back-to-back with East End Dubs called off too due to “crowd safety concerns”.
Leeds Festival shuts major stage The Warehouse again on final day – ‘won’t be opening’ https://t.co/geeBiyr7Us
— Yorkshire Evening Post (@LeedsNews) August 30, 2026
In Reading, Skepta had his back-to-back DJ set with Prospa cancelled due to crowd concerns, and other dance acts who had their performances cancelled across both sites included Riordan, Omar+, Locky, Alisha and Silva Bumpa.
Disappointed by the increasing lack of house music on offer at the event, Warhurst and his partner put a message out on the community page for Creamfields festival, taking place over the same weekend in Cheshire, asking if anyone had any spare tickets.
“All the house music at Leeds Fest has been shut down,” he wrote, adding that they were both “getting an Uber to Creamfields now” and would “take ANY ticket” as they “just need some oonts oonts.”
When the post started to get traction, Warhurst wrote in the replies that he was willing to pay “whatever it takes” to get to the festival.
He later added that he eventually got some last minute tickets for £300 each. Revealing how much the Uber alone cost, he shared: “Probably another £300 on this taxi meter… It’s all for a good cause.”
The new layout of Reading & Leeds came as organisers announced the “biggest staging and arena overhaul” ever ahead of the 2026 edition kicking off.
The Warehouse was announced last month and described as a brand-new purpose-built home specifically for dance music. At Reading, there was also The Yard stage, which hosted dance and electronic artists and was designed to “bring the industrial edge of alternative club culture”.
Reading & Leeds 2026 was headlined by Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C., Dave, RAYE, Charli XCX and Chase & Status, and other names on the line-up included Sombr, Role Model, JADE, Kneecap, Geese, Skye Newman, Holly Humberstone, Gurriers, Westside Cowboy, Declan McKenna, Maisie Peters, Paris Paloma, Overpass and Duke Dumont. Check out NME’s top moments from the festival here.
Artists on the Creamfields 2026 bill included Eric Prydz, Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, Alesso, Martin Garrix, Tiësto and Disclosure.
