Thousands of people descended onto the grounds of Temple Newsam in Leeds over the weekend to listen to their favourite 80s artists.
Let's Rock Leeds - the retro festival hosted everyone's favourite artists from the 80s on Saturday (June 26) at Temple Newsam in Leeds, where thousands gathered together in fancy dress to celebrate their favourite music decade.
After my mum brought me up listening to 80s music on repeat I couldn't wait to hear some of my most-loved songs performed live.
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I got dressed in my best festival gear and headed to Temple Newsam, which was easy to find and the event car parking was well sign posted - better yet there was no queue to gain entry.
Bad Manners led the day being the first to perform promptly around 12pm. With my £6.50 pint of lager in hand I danced in the sunshine amongst the sea of people funkily dressed. I think my highlight of the day was seeing some of these brilliant costumes - of course I had to snap a selfie with some of them.
The line up consisted of: Billy Ocean, Wet Wet Wet, Tom Bailey, Nick Heyward, Bad Manners, Nik Kershaw, Joboxers, Johnny Hates Jazz, Tiffany, Belinda Carlisle, Scritti Politti, Angie Brown, Sydney Youngblood, Tenpole Tudor, Sonique, Urban Cookie Collective, Ottawan.
But for me it was Belinda Carlisle who stole the show, she was brilliant. Belinda started her set with a short speech about how she hadn't been in the UK for three years, ending it with the words "f*** Covid," the crowd cheered in agreement before she performed her show-stopper set.
Artists performed their top hits which got the crowd going wild. If there had been a roof it would have been lifted when Tiffany sang I Think We're Alone Now.
The host, Dave, knew exactly how to keep the audience entertained in-between performers, as he summoned the crowd to "make it better than Glastonbury here in Leeds," I think we almost did.
Of course the music was the reason we were there but, not only were the artists great, so was the set up itself. Let's Rock had put on a great atmosphere that appeared to work a lot better than many other festivals I've been to in the past. For one, there was hardly a queue at the multiple bars.
There was a huge array of food trucks from the standard burger van to Indian, Thai, Italian and even Greek. I had to sample the mixed Greek gyros from OZ Catering of course - which tasted so good I couldn't quite believe I was eating it in a field at a festival.
I'm obligated to moan about the £6.50 pints of lager because isn't that what we do at music venues? Moan about the price of drinks - they were expensive - but it's kind of expected.
Overall I had the best day, but my highlight had to be the people. Not only were their fancy dress costumes great, but they made for a fantastic atmosphere, they were just there to have fun - there was no chaos like you see and festivals today. People were either sitting on their fold-out picnic chairs or dancing the day away in the sunshine - even the showers of rain wasn't enough to put the festival goers off.
Better yet, they had 'posh loos' - best festival toilets I've ever experienced. My only negative comment from the day would have to be about the sound quality. From the top of the hill (where a lot of people were sitting) it was extremely quiet although it didn't ruin the atmosphere.
There are still a few dates for the Lets Rock festival across the country, you can get tickets here.
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