'The further north, the rowdier it gets': Florentenes on Leeds Festival debut and being friends before a band

Rising indie outfit Florentenes have described performing at Leeds Festival 2026 as a "pretty amazing" milestone as they continue their rapid rise through the Northern live circuit.

Speaking to the Yorkshire Evening Post backstage shortly after their set, the band reflected on taking the stage for their very first Leeds Festival appearance.

"Pretty amazing," the band said. "We've had a pretty good time so far. It started raining as soon as we came out into the festival, but we had a really great crowd come to watch our set.

We had a great time, the stage was brilliant, so yeah."

When asked about what makes playing to a Leeds crowd distinct, the group pointed to the unmatched energy of Northern gig-goers.

"Pretty rowdy," they said. "I think the more north you get in England, the rowdier it gets, but Leeds is definitely up there.

“We're from Manchester so it's not that far, so I think you get a lot of like, hometown fans as well sometimes coming to places like Leeds."

The four-piece also highlighted their pride in coming from the North of England and carrying on its legendary musical tradition.

"The music history—it's got one of the best music histories in like, the world really," they explained. "You've got so many great bands coming from Manchester and like, places that we live near. Everybody, yeah, it's always like really hard-working bands, like starting from nothing and like growing, and you can see their evolution."

"Even if they're like 90s bands or 80s bands, you can see the way they've like, started from nothing and got to the top if you look back. I think they've all like influenced us quite a lot."

Having spent five or six years building their craft together as best friends, the band emphasised that performing live on major stages remains the ultimate reward.

"It's fun because we're like best friends—friends first, music second," they said. "So it's like you're working with your mates. We've been doing this like five, six years, so we're not that old, so still got a long way to go, I think.

“It's just fun; you get to like hang around with all your best mates and then do really cool stuff like going and playing for like mad crowds like today."

Looking ahead to their upcoming tour dates, Florentenes promised fans a mix of established fan favourites alongside unreleased material.

"We kind of treat every gig as like, you know, we play all the released songs that we know people know, and then we always put in like a few of our favourite like unreleased ones that we've been working on," they revealed. "Just kind of show people and showcase what's next. So I think we're really excited to show people those songs."

They added: "And also we've never done a headline tour before, so we have no idea how it will go! But hopefully really well."