Monday 20th October 2014 by Andrew Trendell | Photos by WENN / Splash

20 bands that will be stepping up to headline festivals in the future

It's time to give the younger acts a chance

Royal Blood: The Brighton rock duo's debut album shot straight to No.1 as tickets to all gigs have disappeared in an instance. We'd say they're not long from inspiring Muse-levels of hysteria. Reading and Leeds headliners of the not-too-distant future perhaps? Give it a few years...

The comments made by Isle Of Wight Festival boss about Ed Sheeran being a future festival headliner as a 'boring' prospect that 'dooms' us all are certain to split opinion, but you can't deny his point about more needing to be done to nurture new headliners. There are plenty of younger bands ready to replace the old guys at the top of the bill - here are just 20 of them.

The headliners are this year's festivals have ranged from brilliant to uninspiring, but, if the bands in this list get booked, the future of British festivals is in safe hands.

Because festivals can't keep booking legacy acts like The Rolling Stones or big-hitters forever - these are the new-ish bands that we think will up their game and headline festivals in the years to come. Read on, Michael Eavis.