This bank holiday weekend saw the highly anticipated return of Reading & Leeds Festival following a long two year wait. Thousands of festival-goers gathered at one of the UK’s first full-capacity festivals to catch this year’s headliners Post Malone, Liam Gallagher, Disclosure, Catfish And The Bottlemen, Biffy Clyro and Stormzy across two main stages.
Our Friday standout acts start with Yungblud. Having secured a spot as sub-headliner on the West main stage it was clear to see why he was there. With electric energy the crowd were immediately hooked as Dom and the band opened their set with ‘Strawberry Lipstick’ off his most recent album ‘Weird’. The setlist was filled with great tracks like ‘Parents’, ‘I Love You Will You Marry Me’ and his newest single ‘Fleabag’. Next up were Friday night headliners Biffy Clyro. It may seem that Reading & Leeds have strayed away from their rock band roots in recent years but Biffy showed why we need great rock bands on the lineup. From start to finish their set was polished, energetic and a definite crowd pleaser. The stand out moment of their set was the incredible ‘Many Of Horror’ which came complete with confetti cannons and incredible staging, this truly felt like the moment that the crowd realised that live music is really back.
Saturdays schedule felt packed with strong acts leaving fans torn for choice. Great sets from Sea Girls, Declan Mckenna and Mabel set off the day in style. As the evening drew in thousands of fans could be seen running from the East Main Stage to the West to watch Sam Fender’s set. With the crowd fit to bursting Sam and his band came onstage to perform a flawless set which including all the fan favourite tracks including ‘Saturday’, ‘Will We Talk’ and ‘Play God’. The Geordie band seemed overwhelmed to be performing at the iconic festivals which they attended themselves when they were younger. The set ended with the perfect closing song ‘Hypersonic Missiles’.
As Sunday rolled around fans were in for another day full of incredible live acts. Early day stand outs included Becky Hill, The Wombats and Sigrid. Festival favourites Two Door Cinema Club also made an appearance and they never fail to pull in a crowd performing the classics including ‘What You Know’ and ‘Something Good Can Work’. The final act of the festival was Post Malone headlining the festival for the third year running, and it’s clear to see why. Opening his set with ‘Wow’ the crowd were immediately drawn in and knew they were in for a great set. Malone performed all his hits such as ‘Better Now’, ‘Circles’, ‘White Iverson’ and ‘Rockstar’ with top notch stage production, lighting, and fireworks to match which truly ended the festival on a high.
This years Reading & Leeds felt like a reunion, people coming together to enjoy live music once again after a huge break with no restrictions or social distancing. Spirits were high and I think everyone who attended the festival would say it was a festival like no other.
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