Eminem to headline Reading Festival 2013

Speculation always arises before a festival act is announced, but this year is different. The headline acts of the popular Reading and Leeds festivals are usually announced in March, when tickets go on general sale. This year, however, a surprise headliner was revealed months in advance of ticket sale. The official twitter account of the festival stunned its followers when this tweet was posted: “Tune into @zaneloweBBCR1 from 7pm tonight for some BIG news: One Main Stage headliner coming your way…” Eminem was the first headline act to be confirmed for Reading and Leeds 2013. This shocked many festival-goers as rumours of Green Day and Biffy Clyro had already been circulating, following the rock-fuelled headliners of 2012 which consisted of a surprise set from Green Day, the legendary rock group Foo Fighters, 80’s band The Cure and Kasabian.

Although some of the most famous moments of the renowned festival revolve around rock music, for example, Nirvana in ’92, Leeds and Reading have never been known as rock festivals and so the announcement of a rapper as a headliner shouldn’t have been as much of a shock as it was to fans. In fact, Festival organiser Melvin Benn states that 2013’s line-up will be different from other years, featuring 3 new stages and that “there will be quite a bit more dance music”. This will hopefully broaden the range of audiences as the famous “Stan” rapper is labelled the best hip-hop artist of all-time and is the best selling artist of the 00’s selling over 32.2 million in the US alone.