Garage-rock band The Strokes, riding high in the music charts on both sides of the Atlantic, are to headline the 2002 Reading and Leeds festivals, organizers announced on Tuesday.
The New York band, last year promoted to the events’ main stages due to popular demand, is expected to attract more than 100,000 festival-goers over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
“This year has seen them (the Strokes) become the most talked-about band in Britain,” events promoter The Mean Fiddler Group said. “They are playing no other UK dates this year… this is your only chance to see them.”
Co-headlining with The Strokes are British Indie band Pulp who made a chart comeback this year with “We Love Life.”
The Reading festival has long been regarded as one of the highlights of the British music calendar, and is arguably the most prestigious after Glastonbury.
Its origins in the 1960s lie in jazz but the music has changed with the years and it now has a reputation as one of the country’s top rock festivals.
In 1999 it expanded to take in a second site at Leeds.
Other acts performing at this year’s festivals include the Prodigy, Guns’N Roses, Ash and the Foo Fighters.
The Reading and Leeds festivals will run from the 23-25 August.
