Sam Fender says ‘young hero’ saved him from tent fire at Leeds Festival as he announces headline slot

‘Little did he know he’d just saved Reading and Leeds’s 2023 headliner,’ Fender wrote

Sam Fender has just been announced as one of the headliners for Reading and Leeds festival (9 December).

While sharing the news to his Instagram page, the North Shields artist recalled a story from when he attended Leeds festival 10 years ago as a punter.

During his time attending the festival, Fender told how he was apparently saved from a tent fire by a “young hero from Sheffield“, who urinated on the flames to put them out.

“Little did he know he’d just saved Reading and Leeds’s 2023 headliner,” Fender joked.

Announcing the news alongside a picture of the official line up, Fender wrote: “I first went to Leeds festival 10 years ago as a teenager, me and Deano [childhood friend and guitarist] spent the entire week launching hot dogs out of a gazebo pole at random crowds of lads chanting ‘Yorkshire Yorkshire’.”

“One night I was out cold in my tent from necking a bottle of vodka at Eagles of Death Metal, my tent got set alight - some fine young hero from Sheffield pissed out the fire to save me,” he remembered.

“Thankfully because of that lad whose name I can’t remember, I didn’t perish in the flames, little did he know he’d just saved Reading and Leeds’s 2023 headliner. See you down the front.”

Alongside Fender’s announcement, a series of headliners for the 2023 festival were revealed on Friday (9 December), and include huge acts such as Billie Eilish, Lewis Capaldi, The Killers and Foals.

Twenty-year-old Eilish will become the youngest solo artist to headline the festivals.

Loyle Carner, who is also playing at the festival, commented on Fender’s post teasing that he might be playing the guitar during his set.

“You still need me to play guitar for it?” Carner wrote under the post.

The comment comes off the back of a recent instagram post shared by Carner showing a picture of the pair together.

Reading and Leeds takes place from 25 to 27 August 2023. Tickets will go on sale at 9am on Monday (12 December), with further acts to be announced.