Last days of an epic summer? Check. Standing in a field, arms around the shoulders of your best mates? Check. The most influential indie band of this generation currently performing, live, right before your eyes? Check!

There was only one crescendo on this festival could possibly end, and it’s with the Arctic Monkeys.

So much has been written about this band over their almost two-decade-long reign, that there is not much more that can be said. ‘R U Mine?’ was stunningly dark and sultry; ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ was silky and introspective, and, of course, ‘I Bet That You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ was rowdy and brought complete and utter carnage to the mosh pits. Throbbing lights cast shafts of colour high into the inky black night air, as the enthralled crowd swelled and retreated like waves on the ocean at the band’s every command. Nobody wanted this epic grand finale to end, clinging to the barriers and to each other as the screens flashed and the music absorbed them for one last dance, one last shout-along, one last celebration of the summer, and what it means to be young and in love with music in all its glory.

There is no other way to end such a stellar weekend of the best rock, pop, dance, rap, and alternative music the world has to offer. Leeds 2022, you’ve been a blast!

Just when you thought all superlatives had been exhausted on this mega weekend of live music, along comes a band whose performance is nothing short of biblical.

That band are, of course, the incomparable Bring Me the Horizon. Plummeting into life with the blazing ‘Can You Feel My Heart’, the entire crowd was instantly electrified, jumping and screaming along to every beat as one pulsating entity. Much of the set was dominated by the band’s newer material, which finds them spin-kicking more squarely in the pop sphere than ever before.

But does that mean Bring Me have gone soft in their maturity? Absolutely not!

While tracks like ‘Teardrops’ definitely make the most of pop structure, they are far from lullabies, with Oli Sykes’ characteristic screams lacing every line with a palpable venom. Completely unhinged is the ferocious ‘Dear Diary’, which burns with a completely uncontainable, frenetic energy that sizzles on the air, and even the usually sobering verses of ‘Drown’ got a thumping makeover so that the energy hardly dropped for a single second!

The biggest accolade, however, has to go to the band’s creative team, who designed some of the most stunning production I have ever seen during a festival headline slot. Backing dancers dressed in intricate costumes; storytelling elements that flashed across the screens with haunting pre-recorded voices; pyro that blasted the eyebrows off anybody in a fifty foot radius; plumes of smoke that fired out across the crowd, flooding the air; and, an image that will remain forever burned onto the memories of the crowd – Oli standing centre stage, backlit in a burning red light, holding a flare aloft – a god amongst men in that moment. Congratulations Bring Me the Horizon, for pulling off a set that nobody in attendance will ever, ever forget.

Over the last decade, the arena of bold, stunning alternative rock music has been dominated by Wolf Alice. In that time, they have penned countless magnetic, fiery choruses that speak to the universal experience of being a young person, in particular a young woman, growing up in the 21st century- of joy, sadness, despair, and most importantly, hope.

All of this is brought to life in the sultry vocal talents of frontwoman Ellie Rowsell, whose huge rock voice brings with it both enough subtlety to linger on the delicate moments of fragility, and then explode with a fire that carries itself across to the crowd on the brisk night air. Accompanying her are, as ever, Wolf Alice’s signature cool, grazing harmonies; groove-infused basslines that pop and flow in the undertow; paired with drums that tick along like a metronome, all melding together into a slick stadium rock swagger.

This is a band totally at ease with their own musical prowess and ability to bend a crowd instantly to their will.

Many bands over the course of this weekend have attempted a fusion of pop-infused hardcore, and only a few have succeeded in doing it extremely ell. However, when it comes to Cassyette, she has managed to pull those two opposite genres together to absolute perfection.

Need an example? Look no further than the wonderfully named ‘Dear Goth’. It perfectly showcases the incredible range of Cassyette’s voice – from deep, sultry crooning to flickering screams, and powerful high notes worthy of acts like P!nk, she is simply incomparable vocally. Backed up by samples that growl away in the background, and a bassline that trembles through the ground like warning of an approaching tsunami, she stalked across the stage, commanding the crowd like she owned every inch of it. A sensational performance from a hugely talented artist, and one you shouldn’t turn your back on for long!

It says a lot about the monumental power that a band like Enter Shikari wield that they can apparently change the weather completely on its head! After a full weekend of blistering heat, the cold winds of change began to blow fiercely across the festival site as the power rockers took to the Main Stage West, stirring up huge flurries of dust in their wake.

In fact, it soon became nigh-on impossible to see anything at all, when the band exhausted their confetti budget completely, firing white flakes into the air within the opening seconds, followed by a flurry of rainbow shards during the powerfully affecting ‘Meteors’, and a final storm of colour unleashed in the dying seconds of ‘Live Outside’! However, all the tiny paper shapes will undoubtedly degrade very quickly, as the band made clear their stance on environmental conservation. After technical difficulties interrupted his speech yesterday, condemning the polluting of our rivers and oceans by private water companies, frontman Rou Reynolds managed to deliver his impassioned sermon in full this time, to thunderous applause filled with genuine emotion from the crowd. Indeed, Enter Shikari’s entire set was filled with a palpable sense of unity – both on stage, when the band welcomed their friends in thrash rock outfit Wargasm to join them on vocals for ‘The Void Stares Back’, and off it, during the reverberating claps that adorned the band’s first smash-hit, ‘Sorry, You’re Not a Winner’. No matter how many times you’ve seen this band, they hit it out of the park each and every time, and it simply has to be seen to be believed.

He might be a relatively unknown entity to many, but those of us who have seen the Texan genre-blending titan before – and those with the good sense to stop by the Main Stage West to experience his set – were treated to an absolute masterclass in making pop songs with a genuine heart behind them.

Blending electronic swagger with gritty guitar tones and growling, punk-rock influenced basslines, every movement he made across the stage was dripping in swaggering stage presence. Yet, when addressing the crowd directly, he became incredibly sweet and humble, instantly endearing himself to the slowly amassing crowds.

Highlights of the set included the pumping chorus filled with bouncing pop sensibilities on ‘DIE OUT HERE’, which were overtured with De’Wayne’s impassioned delivery, as well as the straining ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, which showcased perfectly this brilliant artist’s ability to fuse the smooth, almost jazz-feeling pop of acts like The Weeknd with his own fierce vocal talents worthy of the meanest punk frontman.

So, if that’s convinced you, then get to know De’Wayne- you won’t regret it!

If anyone else still had any last-day-of-a-festival fog clouding their vision, there could be only one band with the blazing fury to slice through it – Manchester thrash rockers Static Dress. Transforming the Festival Republic Stage into an unyielding cacophony of noise from the very first moment, it felt akin to being blasted in the face with a blowtorch this early in the afternoon – and the crowd appeared to be loving every second of it!

The flickering, white-hot screams from vocalist Ollie Appleyard rent the muggy summer air, as pulsating strobes made it feel as though you were being pulled into a paralysing fever dream. Yet, there is also a heart and melody at the core of these tracks that elevate them beyond being simply a crazed explosion of sound. Most notable in this regard was the rousing, melodic ‘push rope’, with its soaring chorus line that hints at a softer centre to this band, lurking behind the fierce, gritty exterior. This is a band who have taken all the best elements of the thriving Manchester metalcore scene from which they were birthed, and paired it with a stark artistry that makes them an infinitely intriguing prospect – with some great big punishing breakdowns thrown in there to boot, of course!

For many people, the trip to Leeds Festival is the equivalent of a summer holiday- however, for local lads The Sherlocks, they are pretty much playing in their own backyard! And they certainly got the reception to go with it – despite it being barely ten minutes into the afternoon, the Main Stage West was packed out with an enraptured crowd of indie obsessives. And despite one of the genre’s stalwarts taking to the stage later tonight, The Sherlocks were not afraid to put their all into their own rippling indie riffs that bounce between a perfectly balanced quartet of chords. That, and the full commitment to the genre that is wearing a hooded parka in the beaming midday sun that was pushing 23 degree heat down towards the crisp grass – hats off to you, Kiaran Crook!

Backing up the image, however, were the songs, each of which was teetering with bubbling melodies. From the funky, rollicking riffs and spirited chorus lines of ‘Magic Man’, to the exuberant ‘Will You Be There?’, The Sherlocks have absolutely succeeded in gently rousing the crowd from their final-day stupor, and teeing up a day of indie dominance in delightful fashion.