FESTIVAL HISTORY
Taken from a BBC article
The first festival, at a site in the grounds of Temple Newsam, including Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Blur was in 1999.
The event is 'twinned' with the Reading Festival so that the same line-up appearing at both venues over three days.
The Reading festival dates back to 1971 as a National Jazz and Blues Festival.
For 2011 Muse, My Chemical Romance and The Strokes have been confirmed as the headliners.
A weekend ticket would have cost you £80 for that initial 1999 Leeds event.
Unfortunately, the early years of the festival in Leeds were often as notable for controversy as for the musical fireworks.
For instance in 2001, with Eminem's appearance taking most of the musical headlines, police were pelted with stones and other missiles when violence erupted at the end of the festival.
A group went on a rampage of what the police called "mindless violence and damage" in the campsite.
A group went on a rampage of what the police called "mindless violence and damage" in the campsite.
More trouble followed next year, Kate Skelton (then a student in Leeds) said "a nasty combination of alcohol-fuelled mob mentality and a few cigarette lighters led to the burning of toilet blocks and vandalism on a massive scale."
So it was under a bit of a cloud that Leeds Festival moved to its current home, in Bramham Park, for the 2003 event. Acts appearing that year included Metallica, Linkin Park, and White Stripes.
Melvin Benn, managing director of promoter Mean Fiddler, tried to reassure local residents over the switch.
Fresh start
He said: "Moving to Bramham has given us an opportunity to have a fresh start and has given us an opportunity to try new things.
"It was the right time to move."
The new site of the festival was originally opposed by the Parish Council of nearby Thorner.
However, despite a few teething problems and heavy traffic volumes on the nearby A1 and A64, the festival has seemed to find a calmer home and the extra income generated by the event has been a boon for the Bramham estate.
Speaking in 2009 Nick Lane Fox, the estate's owner (who admitted that he had never actually been to a festival before one moved to his home) told Look North.
"The estate was just about breaking even when the festival came along and gave us an extra income. We could actually then plan in a formal way."
The first improvement was to turn arable land around the estate back into grassland, buildings have been restored, culverts dug and an urn replacement project is planned!
BBC Leeds website has been at every Leeds Festival and Layla Painter has been the website's reporter for six of those years. What have been her festival highlights?
Layla says: "In 2006, the first time Kaiser Chiefs headlined the main stage to roars of 'Leeds, Leeds, Leeds', it was the local lads made really good and the crowd loved it.
"And also I remember watching the action on the first ever unsigned stage when the Raw Talent show was able to highlight the great unsigned bands in Yorkshire.
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