Reading Festival 2022

For the first time in what feels like forever, Reading festival brought the fervorous energy of old. With beautiful weather shining on the star-studded lineup, the crowds were in high spirits.

With the option of six different stages, and acts rolling on and off, everyone would be able to find music they loved. Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes kicked off the festival with a secret set, encouraging crowd surfing and opening mosh pits. PinkPantheress rattled off her increasingly popular ep ‘to hell with it’ in the dance tent with real energy, and Nia Archives followed suit with a lengthy set of her original nouveau jungle style. Combining her floaty vocals with an old school punchy bass, she had the whole crowd bouncing. Little Simz and Megan Thee Stallion, two leading female rappers, both headlined on opposite mainstages. Little Simz’s performance was a combination of a gritty North London vocal delivery and a jazz-infused earthy backing. She played some crowd favourites like ‘Venom’, ‘Woman’, and ‘101FM’, while also playing some newer songs from her most recent album ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ like ‘Two Worlds Apart’. Her set was definitely an emotional one, and she commented on the fact that she was told she would never make it to the mainstage at Reading. That didn’t age well. Megan Thee Stallion turned up the heat for some ‘real hot girl shit’ with an excellently choreographed performance, singing songs written all across her career. There were some dull moments of crowd interaction, where security reluctantly (and slowly) let some excitable fans dance with Megan on-stage. At least they seemed to be having fun. Despite this, Megan’s performing experience and ability to enrapture her crowd really shone through. Wrapping up Friday’s music, Dave headlined with a colourful mixture of sounds and visuals. We were taken through his journey to the top, with beautiful moments of what felt like spoken word poetry outlining his experience, as he sat at a piano, sharing the lessons he had learnt. In between these intimate moments, Dave performed his top hits like ‘Location’, ‘Professor X’ and ‘Starlight’ with a full choir, marching band and orchestra present; while also mixing up his lesser known songs like ‘Wanna Know’ which had an intro of ‘Samantha’. Dave stunned the audience with an unexpected guitar solo, right before bringing Stormzy on for ‘Clash’, like Stormzy brought Dave on last year. AJ Tracey also was a feature, coming on for ‘Thiago Silva’. Everyone present at the performance seemed to be ecstatic to be on the emotional rollercoaster we were taken on, especially Dave himself.

Saturday kicked off with a wholesome performance from the Lathums, from Wigan, with lead singer Alex Moore sipping a cup of tea throughout. For the first time playing at a main stage, they seemed very comfortable performing, and had a great stage presence. Moore’s vocal range really stood out, and his voice had real power.

Fontaines D.C followed on, playing songs equally from both albums ‘Skinty Fia’ which loosely translates to ‘the damnation of the deer’, and ‘Dogrel’. Classic tunes like ‘Roman Holiday’ and ‘Jackie Down the Line’ went down very well with the crowd, with obvious passion shining through Chatten’s gravelly voice. For ‘Boys in the Better Land’, sixteen year old Dexter, a Fontaines super fan, was brought up on stage to play guitar at his request, which made the crowd go wild. Fontaines ended their set with ‘I love you’, which initially seems like a standard love song, but is much more a tribute to their homeland, the emerald-isle. Jpegmafia, performing at the Radio 1 Xtra tent, had huge energy and delivered his songs in such an abrasive and high octane way that the relatively small tent was rocking. However this frenzied emotion didn’t have much variety, it would have been nice to hear some more of ‘Peggy’s’ more thoughtful reflective side. Wolf Alice took Saturday’s sub-headline spot, and were completely at their best for their set, showing incredible pacing with transitions from slower songs like ‘How Can I Make It OK?’ to more upbeat songs like ‘Play The Greatest Hits’. Arctic Monkeys headlined on Saturday, where the crowds at the main stage were probably the largest out of the whole festival. Despite a promising start with the anthem ‘Do I Wanna Know’ which had the crowd roaring along, the middle of the set dipped as more unknown songs were played and people began to lose interest. There was also little to no crowd engagement - the band simply came on and played their set without much real emotion.

Willow appeared on the mainstage to start off Sunday’s music, bringing creativity to all her songs, constantly making subtle variations that added to the performance as a whole. Her hit song ‘Wait a Minute’ had people singing along far and wide, with her original poppy voice ebbing around the festival. You could really tell she was enjoying her time on stage, which meant the audience were too. Denzel Curry was next, with his heavy hitting hip hop anthems, backed by atmospheric desert-like visuals and a great control over the crowd. The multiple beat drops led to many huge mosh pits, where everyone was bopping as one to the energy Denzel created. Charli XCX in a similar way had the whole crowd dancing primarily to her early 2010s poppy dance tunes, like ‘Boom Clap’ and ‘1999’. With an excellently choreographed dance outfit, Charli stole the show, with olympus-like visuals guiding her through the songs. She then transitioned into her newer hyper-pop music, which hit equally as hard, with songs like ‘Boys’ and ‘Vroom Vroom’. Bastille featured on the other main stage, playing primarily from their fourth album ‘Give Me The Future’. Smash hits like ‘Happier’ and ‘Pompeii’ echoed around the festival with people chanting at the top of their lungs. For a band who is almost ten years old their ability to stay original and fresh is truly commendable.

Headlining on Sunday was ‘The 1975’ who stood in for ‘Rage Against The Machine’. Their apology: “We’re not Rage Against the Machine, so sorry about that” showed real humility. This absence was however represented in the dwindling crowds, as many had left due to RATM pulling out. Despite standing in at such short notice, they put on a proper stripped-back rock show, where they just belted tunes out like ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Love Me’.

Hybrid Minds closed the festival, with people spilling out multiple metres of the dance tent. Spirits were still very high, and the general atmosphere was that everyone had thoroughly enjoyed the music.