FRIDAY at Reading Festival kicked off with a surprise set from indie darlings Bombay Bicycle Club over on the BBC Radio 1 Dance stage.
They began with the anthemic duo of Eat, Sleep, Wake, and Lights Out, Words Gone, before harking back to some of their earliest hits with Evening/Morning.
After the crashing and thumping beat of Evening/Morning, they performed one of their newest singles, My Big Day, before rounding out their set with Luna and the upbeat throwback It’s Always Like This.
Bombay Bicycle Club’s heady mix of flowing melodies and shimmering instrumentation provided a perfect start to a (mainly) sunny Friday at the festival.
Yard Act were hot on their heels, with the Leeds rock outfit barrelling into a set full of crowd pleasers including Payday and Pour Another.
This time around, with the stage adorned with mannequins in raincoats, Yard Act embraced their stagecraft with a number of choreographed sequences alongside dancers in similar costume, reminiscent of David Bowie’s 80’s stage shows.
Mixed with their guitar-driven, dissenting, down-to-earth rock, the set began the festival in earnest.
Frank Turner was next on the Main Stage. bringing a mix of classics and songs from latest album FTHC, which have a slightly punkier bent than usual, but still radiate the trademark Frank Turner calling cards.
Sea Girls followed, with their set touching on festival anthems like Ready For More and Too Much Fun before breaking out the brand new song, Weekends as Workdays.
The set wound down with some of the band’s more down-beat, introspective songs, before rounding out with Do You Really Wanna Know, Call Me Out, and All I Wanna Hear You Say.
Wet Leg burst onto the stage with fan-favourites and some surprising news, as, after playing Wet Dream, Oh No, and Ur Mum (complete with totally legitimate Scream-O-Meter), the band announced it could be “one of the last of five or so gigs before we retire.”
They then closed with barnstormer of a track Chaise Longue.
Over on Festival Republic, Magnolia Park, hailing from Orlando, Florida, was Magnolia Park, who, after one or two sound issues, brought boundless energy and infectious hype to the stage.
ALT BLK ERA followed, matching the energy over on the BBC Introducing Stage, jumping head first into a set full of dissenting, driving metal mixed with all sorts of influences from across genres, closing with the almighty I’m Normally Like This, filled with chant along vocals and thrashing metal.
Speaking ahead of their set, they said: “It’s amazing, just the rush we’re getting from being here — it hasn’t even sunk in, it just feels like we’re here to watch everyone else vibe.
“I’m feeling pretty chill now, but catch me half an hour before the set, and my heart will be going.”
Regarding the more intimate setting of the BBC Introducing stage, they said: “It’s great to be able to look people in the eye and sing a lyric out to them, because then you can see them getting excited.
“But sometimes when I’m nervous I wish there was just smoke– sometimes you point at someone in the crowd but you can’t really see them, you can’t really tell.
“But we like all kinds of stages, whether there’s one person at the show or thousands: it’s gonna be the same show, with the same energy.”
As for where their incredible energy on stage comes from, Chaya said: “[Nayrobi] is the more extroverted, and it just comes naturally.”
Nayrobi added: “I think that love of performing; if there’s even one person who wants to listen to our music, I’m gonna make sure they really enjoy it and have the best time- but obviously the more the merrier!”
“The rush that I get is just incredible.”
Their appearance at Reading is their third this year, including a set at Glastonbury earlier in the summer- an incredible achievement for artists so young.
Chaya is just 16, and sister Nayrobi only three years her senior.
“We played at about 1am at Glastonbury, and the energy was still there, so it was so cool- they don’t sleep.
“Getting the call, we were screaming, panicking, calling people — it was overwhelmingly crazy.”
As siblings, they say performing together is amazing: “When we played Glastonbury we had this moment where we just looked at each other and screamed, so it’s always good to be on stage with each other.”
They also tour with their mum, who manages them: “we have a whole family working hard for us to get to this level.
“And to get here so soon, we’re really honoured.”
As for what one can expect at an ALT BLK ERA show?
“We love to bring high energy, hopefully people will feel it in their souls, and we’ll have them screaming back at us.”
And with their eclectic style informed by so many different influences, they said: “When the time is right, and it sounds right- are we gonna make rock or heavy metal, whatever were feeling the vibe for.
“I think people are getting more freedom in genres, mixing genres and communities together that you don’t usually see- we’re gonna keep doing us, and for now, were expressing ourselves wherever the vibe takes us.”
Festival mainstays Foals didn’t miss a beat over on the Main Stage West, kicking into their set with Wake Me Up, Mountain at My Gate, and 2001.
They followed up with smash hits My Number, 2AM, and In Degrees, before slowing things down the haunting Spanish Sahara.
With Inhaler, Black Bull, and What Went Down, Foals sealed the deal on the quintessential festival set, full of fan favourites, old and new, as well as heartfelt songs to hug your best mate to, cementing themselves as giants of the scene.
Sam Fender wasted no time in kicking off his headline set with The Kitchen and sing-a-long classic Will We Talk?
Addressing the crowd, he said that headlining the festival is “something [he has] dreamed about since he was 16,” before performing Get Inside, heart-wrenching anthem Dead Boys, and the screaming sax solos of The Border.
As his set continued, he touched on some of his particularly introspective songs, with Spice, Get You Down, and Spit of You ringing out with pathos, reinforced by consummate performances by all.
He closed the set, and Friday’s Main Stage, with mega-hits Saturday and Seventeen Going Under.
