Summer festivals require scorching weather and banging tunes. With beautiful blue skies overhead, the Main Stage crowd only needed someone to deliver on the music – and Anderson .Paak and the Free Nationals did just that.

Blending a myriad of genres including, but not reserved to, blues, funk, soul, R&B, rap, and jazz, .Paak and his band delivered a fresh, zestful performance that brought good vibes and beaming smiles to everyone’s minds and faces.

With storming songs ‘King James’ and ‘Come Down’ leading the way, it was hard not to find yourself tapping your feet, clapping along, or throwing all kinds of shapes as .Paak lit up the stage. ‘Milk ‘n’ Honey’ helped to bring a rapid tempo to proceedings, but it was ‘Bubblin’’ that really made this performance so special. Anderson .Paak’s iconic song brought his and the Free Nationals’ set to an end, but they honestly could have gone on for much longer.

.Paak was clearly loving life as he looked out onto a sea of long-time and new supporters. The crowd drew on every ounce of energy it could after three days of constant dancing already, and it helped contribute to a fantastic showing that sent everyone away happy.

Music lovers are inundated with choice when it comes to upcoming artists thanks to the virtues of streaming – yet a large contingent rally around one figure, their rise to fame can be meteoric.

Nobody knows this better than one Billie Eilish, a relatively unknown entity as little as a year ago. Sporting her signature baggy wardrobe in electric green, she had the entire crowd bouncing from the very opening notes of ‘Bad Guy’, the chorus of singing from the amassing audience almost on a par with Billie’s amplified vocals!

With a devilish confidence that was profoundly infectious (change), the echoing pulses of synth ripples out through ‘My Strange Addiction’, through ‘You should see me in a Crown’, at which the crowd lost any remaining sense of decorum, attaining a state of feverish excitement that never filled from there on out, even through the touchingly sweet ‘Ocean Eyes’.Prowling about the stage like a stalking tigress, Billie conducted the crowd with a humble power far beyond what any of us could muster as a teenager, riding the nose-tingling bass and samples that pitch and fall like cresting waves.

All this at just 17 years of age. Superstardom really is intrinsic!

A full tent’s worth of energetic punters served as proof of Aitch’s growing popularity at Leeds Festival on Sunday afternoon. Bumped up to the Radio 1 Stage ahead of his performance, Aitch made sure that the huge crowd that watched his 30-minute set were given a gig to remember.

Make no mistake, the future is extraordinarily bright for the Manchester-born rapper. With the audience firmly planted in his hand, Aitch breezed through a sweaty-yet-enjoyable number of instant classics. ‘Taste (Make It Shake)’, ‘Wait’, and ‘Keisha & Becky Remix’ brought the house down.

Aitch’s consistent calls for “the biggest mosh pits of the day so far” were greeted with wild enthusiasm too, and the 20-year-old lapped up the adulation that spilled out of every corner of the packed Radio 1 Stage tent.

Aitch – whose real name is Harrison Armstrong – will be headlining festivals like this one in the near future. His infectious personality, instantly recognizable songs, and rapid rise over the past year have made him one of the most exciting artists to emerge recently. Give it enough time, and there will be more people than those present at Leeds Festival who will be able to fire Aitch’s lyrics right back at him.

The relationship between individual fans and the collective, as well as between said fans and their artists, is paramount in rap culture. Stories of shared experiences are what bind the most dedicated fans to their musical idles.

The call-and-response of AJ Tracey’s name before he even took to the stage, therefore, set the precedent for the rousing unity of audience and artist that was to follow. Skipping effortlessly through the lyrics to each track, Tracey demonstrated his ability to toy and play with words in gymnastic fashion, while the rumbling bass was punctuated by ticking synthesised drums.

The crowd responded in kind, bouncing like popping bubbles as Tracey paced about the stage, backed by spaced-out graphics of melding, rippling, merging colour. Bemusing pasta-related graphics aside, AJ Tracey put on a display of British rap that did himself, and the movement as a whole, very proud indeed.

It’s quite fitting that Georgia’s most popular song is ‘Work About the Dancefloor’, as she certainly did so on the Radio 1 Dance Stage on Sunday afternoon.

Taking to a festival stage for the very first time might be daunting for some solo artists, but not Georgia. The Londoner impressed with a stunning vocal range that, combined with her tight electronic drum skills, gave those present a chilled performance away from the glare of the summer sun. A brilliant instrumental on the drums partway through her set was indicative of how talented Georgia is, and her repertoire of other songs was warmly received too.

Bringing her slice of electropop to the Radio 1 tent, Georgia rattled through top tunes like ‘Feel It’ and the aforementioned ‘Work About the Dancefloor’. There was even time for Georgia to debut her latest song called ‘Never Let You Go’, and it was very much in keeping with the mellow-yet-dance vibe that she’s going for.

Based off of this performance, it won’t be the last time that we see Georgia at Leeds Festival. In truth, it wouldn’t be majorly surprising to see her promoted to a bigger stage next time out. It would be worth it, after all.