Reading Festival 2019: Highlights!
Images courtesy of R&L Press Team
The UK’s most awaited festival to ring out the summer returned this year with a transatlantic line up. Whether you were a 16 year old camping after your GCSE results, or an avid rock fan coming home to your routes, you had a place in the headliners of The 1975, Twenty One Pilots, and Foo Fighters. The beloved BBC had a huge presence at the festival too, with four stages, showcasing the versatility of UK’s music scene with local pop, hip hop, electronic, and up and coming artists on the Introducing Stage, with a line up hand selected from national tastemakers. Here is my personal favorite from each stage across the weekend:
Billie Eilish (Main Stage)
Following the release of her debut album earlier this year. In the minority of US-origin artists on the classic UK festival, Billie showed the crowd she belonged, gathering one of the largest festival crowds. Some gathered out of curiosity for what this interesting new artist had to offer, others hardcore fans who were there from the start and already knew the words to her debut album.
Japanese House (Festival Republic Stage)
The Japanese House isn’t actually a band name – it’s front-woman and solo artist Amber Bain’s own stage name, with a band behind her to give it the full live sound. The festival appearance saw her play her debut album released earlier this year, for many fans surely the first time on a festival stage.
Everyone You Know (BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage)
An electronic duo who make their music to be consumed by a live audience first and foremost. Their set also showed the gradual build up of a live band forming behind them. “Dance Like We Used To” is the performance that makes the crowd go crazy, whether they saw it for the first time or the fifth time. Their music particularly grabs the youthful audience of Reading Festival because they focus on the mundane of life: weekend spending habits, beefing with bouncers, and so on. The performance comes just days after the release of their debut EP ‘Look After Your Pennies.’
Kawala (Main Stage)
Kawala opened the Main Stage, a huge milestone for the Camden based duo, who’s main joy as artists is live performance. They spent the last two to three years collecting a huge following purely through their live performances around the UK. There is an evident folk influence in their music, but Kawala keep it contemporary incorporating upbeat elements, keeping them a competitive contender in the world of commercial music.
Bastille (BBC Radio 1 Stage)
Bastille have been playing at Reading and Leeds for years. I remember my first time at the festival back in 2012 when they were still brand new, so to see them seven years later pulling in a crowd tenfold was amazing to witness. This awkward-dance filled yet musically genius band Bastille are always a favourite to see live.
Everyone You Know (BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage)
An electronic duo who make their music to be consumed by a live audience first and foremost. Their set also showed the gradual build up of a live band forming behind them. “Dance Like We Used To” is the performance that makes the crowd go crazy, whether they saw it for the first time or the fifth time. Their music particularly grabs the youthful audience of Reading Festival because they focus on the mundane of life: weekend spending habits, beefing with bouncers, and so on. The performance comes just days after the release of their debut EP ‘Look After Your Pennies.’
Marsicans (BBC Music Introducing Stage)
Marsicans are a Leeds based band, so the festival (at least, the Northern half of it) was a homecoming of sorts. At Reading, the audience demographic was anything between the young fangirls (and boys) who were responsible for the numerous mosh-pits throughout the night, to a more adult audience, the range demonstrating the high quality of music the band deliver, as well as a charm on stage.
Other favorites from the weekend included Sports Team (Festival Republic Stage), VC Pines (BBC Music Introducing Stage), Becky Hill (BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage), and Geko (BBC Radio 1Xtra Stage).
Whilst our coverage is focused on the newer up and coming artists of the line up - a selection we can only assume are future headliners - the headliners of the weekend also were ones to remember.
