First acts confirmed for Reading and Leeds festivals

Alt-J, recent winners of the Mercury Prize, will headline the Radio 1/NME stage

Alt-J, Sub Focus and Deftones are among the first acts to be confirmed for next year's Reading and Leeds festivals.

The event, which takes place between Friday 23 and Sunday 25 August, will see the addition of two new stages to the weekender.

There will be a BBC Radio 1 dance stage and the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage, headlined by London grime collective Boy Better Know.

Weekend tickets go on sale at 9am on Friday 30 November.

'Over the moon'

Cambridge-based indie band Alt-J, who recently won the Mercury Prize for their debut An Awesome Wave, will headline the Radio 1/NME stage.

Keyboard player Gus Unger-Hamilton said: "It's incredible. It's beyond anything we thought we could achieve.

"We used to go to Reading and Leeds when we were younger and it's an amazing slot to be given. We're absolutely over the moon about it."

Sub Focus will headline the BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage, while Deftones will perform on the main stage.

Early this month festival organiser Melvin Benn told Newsbeat about the changes he was making to the festival.

"Within those additional two or three stages there will be a lot more diversity of music," he said.

"We're changing the arena at Reading and Leeds quite significantly."

A new deposit scheme has also been introduced for the ticket presale.

Fans can pay a one-off amount of £50 before 31 December to secure a weekend ticket at 2012 prices.

The remainder of the balance, plus booking fees, would be payable in one sum by 31 March.

This year 87,000 fans at Reading's Richfield Avenue site and 75,000 at Leeds' Bramham Park saw performances from headliners Foo Fighters, The Cure and Kasabian.

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