Sam Fender recounts experience as a festival-goer after being announced as headline act for Reading and Leeds

Sam Fender sky-rocketed to fame after arriving on the mainstream music scene back in 2018. The 28-year-old from North Shields is now internationally successful, and has recently embarked on a tour of Australia.

In the summer of next year, Fender will be performing two massive sell-out shows at Newcastle United football stadium, St James’ Park. The special gigs will take place on June 9 and June 10.

Today, it was announced that Fender has another huge performance coming up in 2023, as he was revealed as the main headline act for the Reading and Leeds 2023 festival, which will be taking place on the August Bank Holiday next year.

The line-up for Reading and Leeds is always hugely anticipated, due to the big name acts booked. This year, accompanying Fender at the Leeds festival are Lewis Capaldi, The Killers, Billie Eilish, Becky Hill and many more amazing acts.

Fender shared the news via his Instagram feed, telling a story about his own experience as a festival-goer at the very same festival.

He explained that when he and his guitarist Dean Thompson attended the Reading and Leeds festival ten years ago, his tent was set alight. However he was saved by a man from Sheffield, who apparently urinated on the tent to put out the flames. He wrote: “Thankfully because of that lad whose name I can’t remember, I didn’t perish in the flames.”

He ended the caption with giving himself a bit of recognition as to how far he has come since being a festival-goer to a headline act in the space of ten years. He wrote: “Little did he know he’d just saved Reading and Leeds’s 2023 headliner.”

Celebrity friends such as Vicky Pattison and Little Mix’s Jade Thirlwall’s boyfriend Jordan Stephens took to the comments. Jordan simply wrote: “Yes mate”, while Vicky commented on the story writing: “It’s the imagery for me” with a crying laughing emoji.

Tickets for Reading and Leeds go on sale on Monday at 9am.