WITH Reading Festival truly under way, we take a look at Friday’s highlights.
Frank Carter dragged the festival kicking and screaming into action, bursting onto the stage in a wall of noise, flanked by his band, The Rattlesnakes.
By his third song, he was already crowd-surfing with ripped trousers.
Climbing back on stage, he said “This is exactly what you should expect from every band you see here,
“What a weekend you have ahead of you.”
Carter stripped down to his underwear during Devil Inside of Me, saying: “It can be an underwear party if you want, but you guys have been here since Wednesday,” before stripping naked in response to chants from the crowd.
He was followed by Vancouver’s BBNO$, who brought a chaotic, shout-along energy to Main stage West.
Inviting a guest on stage to perform Whip A Tesla, the pair joined the crowd in chants of “Hey Alexa”.
They immediately followed with a version of BBNO$’s collaboration with Yung Gravy, Welcome to Chilis.
Shortly after, Wallows performed on Main Stage West in the band’s first UK festival appearance.
After producing a tambourine and a harmonica, the band had the crowd clapping along with I Just Wanna Do Right By You, followed by Sunday, and an impromptu cover of One Direction’s You Don’t Know You’re Beautiful.
They closed the set to rapturous applause after playing crowd favourite Are You Bored Yet
Circa Waves occupied the Main Stage East in the afternoon playing a string of hits including Sad Happy and early track Young Chasers.
They performed their latest single, Hell on Earth, and closed the show with classic festival anthem T-Shirt Weather.
Glass Animals return to Reading Festival, now also playing the main stage after working their way up the roster with previous appearances.
Frontman Davey Bayley recounted the story of how he came to be friends with drummer Joe Seaward, when Joe approached him asking if he had tickets to Reading Festival.
He says that the pair attended the festival together, which led to their friendship and their work together in the band.
Their setlist began with I Don’t Wanna Talk, Tangerine, and Other Side of Paradise, as the band remarked on the size of the crowd.
Towards the end of the set, they brought things to a fever pitch with De-ja Vu, followed by Youth and Denzel Curry collaboration Tokyo Drifting.
They closed the set with their chart-topping, record-breaking summer hit, Heatwaves.
As the performance wound down, lead singer Davey Bayley announced that it would be the last major appearance of the band in the UK before they intended to begin work on their next studio album.
Dan D’Lion, originally from Twyford, closed the BBC introducing stage with an assured, accomplished performance.
His second song, an unreleased, eminently danceable track, was quickly followed by Need You Right Now.
He then performed a song teasingly referred to only as an upcoming single, before bringing on Griff to duet a version of Black Hole.
Reading Festival continues throughout the weekend, with The Sherlocks, The 1975, and Arctic Monkeys still yet to come.
