The final day of the festival delivered a collection of fine performances from young stars and established legends.
Sunday got off to a stunning start courtesy of Manchester resident Alex Spencer. 20 minutes was not even close to long enough on The Canopy Stage. He has the whole package already, a natural performer with showman instincts. The tunes he has already sound like classics, particularly ‘Nightmare’ and ‘These Will Be The Days.’ Indie music has another great hope thanks to the wonderful Manchester production line. He ends the set by standing on the drum platform and doing a back flip!
54 Ultra seemed a slightly unusual booking so we had to check him out. Never has the Reading Festival main stage (now called The Grid) ever seen such a small crowd. It was a shame, as his soulful 70s vibes were a really lovely way to start the day. A decent voice and his band create some proper grooves.
Raynor is another indie-star in the making. He only put out his first single in January, but is already making great progress live and on streaming sites. His band sound great and he is a really nice guy. One for any fan of Master Peace or Bloc Party.
We had big expectations for Westside Cowboy’s set in The Ballroom. They not only met those, but vaulted over them! Somehow, they have gone up a gear further, even since the brilliant gig we saw at The Bullingdon back in February. Coming onstage to The Who’s ‘Baba O Riley’ shows their growing confidence. You don’t remind an audience of the brilliance of a classic band unless you feel your own work can live with it. They go straight into ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ and the building ferocity of their intense performance takes even us aback. You knew right away this was going to be a special set. From there it is straight into ‘Can’t See,’ such a fantastic, confident indie-groove.
The twelve song set referenced the whole history of their recorded output. Debut album ‘It Goes On’ produces a fantastic run of top moments as they work through ‘Worried Age,’ ‘Dobro’ and ‘Pin Up Boys.’ ‘The Wahs’ delivers a classic Reading Festival 2026 moment. Each member of the band uses their voice well, but the sparing use of Aoife Anson O’Connell’s vocals is their secret weapon. Every time she contributes it feels like a little bit of magic.
If you use the definition of new band as one album or less, then Westside Cowboy are the best new band in the UK right now. Thoughtful, playful, powerful, easy going and devastating all rolled up into one package.
Julia Wolf clearly wasn’t sure what to expect out of Reading and Leeds. Whilst she has done some big supports in the UK, for MGK, her biggest headline show previously was the 1,500 capacity London KOKO, where she will return to on a November tour. The Gallery is significantly busy and she is really blown away by the size of the crowd. Her alt-rock-pop instincts serve her well, a set which touches upon quieter moments, whilst also bringing in a few full-throated death metal screams from her guitarist in others. ‘In My Room’ is quite something.
Doing a lot better on the secret set front than Royal Blood was Lola Young, our Special Guest on The Grid for Sunday afternoon. Lola put out a sneaky message a couple of days prior with random capital letters in it spelling out READING. Official Reading Festival confirmation only came a couple of hours prior to the set starting. Young was supposed to perform at Reading Festival 2025, but pulled out quite late on. At that point ‘Messy’ was still riding high in the charts and it would have been such a moment. Reading finally got that moment one year late. Young made the huge stage smaller by performing several songs straight into a handheld on stage camera, pulling a wider part of the crowd into her set. Her low-key confessional style has won her a lot of fans, it is a solid performance. Our favourite Lola Young fact is that her aunt is children’s author Julia Donaldson!
Kilu on The Canopy Stage turn out to be very decent. The 22 year old, self-taught singer-songwriter encourages audience participation. There is a hint of early Radiohead about the output. There is also a bit of cheekiness from Kilu, suggesting the ladies focus on the one single member of the band.
We stuck around after Kilu, which allowed us to get front and centre on the next act. A massive scrum of cameras was down for this one in the media pit, and the tent was full nearly a quarter of an hour before it started. Even recovering from laryngitis it wasn’t a battle. Violet Grohl delivered a clear, first round, knockout in the Battle of the CaNEPOpy Babies. She has an excellent band assembled around her. It is clear she is not yet the finished deal as a frontwoman, but what a place to carry on from.
She kicked off with two strong singles, ‘Bug In The Cake’ and ‘Thum.’ Amongst material from her very good debut album there is an interlude for a cover of ‘Sun God’ by Squirrel Bait. This was a solid performance given the vocal strain she had been under in the last week. You suspect Reading will be seeing plenty more of Violet Grohl in the years to come.
We didn’t want to risk a repeat crush getting into the pens for Florence + The Machine, after Dave last night, so decide to get in early and sit through Role Model. He wasn’t top of our list of things to see but it was an amiable set. He kicked straight off with ‘High Hopes 3000.’ Were the best signs “My name is Sally,” of which there were several, or “Where are the 1975?” He uses the word “mother****er between songs far more often than you would have expected from a laid back, country leaning pop act. Several teenage girls up on the shoulders of others are caught on camera looking like they were having some form of religious experience.
About twenty minutes before Florence + The Machine came on stage they took over the playlist. There were some fun, weird folk vibes in a horror movie kind of way, like The Wicker Man soundtrack. It all played into the magic and witchcraft vibes of the last album Everybody Scream. Speaking of which, Florence appears in a stunning black dress, backed by four dancers in white and goes straight into ‘Everybody Scream.’ It is a huge, commanding opener. She breaks character long enough to soak in the enormity of the moment before her game face returns for ‘Shake It Out.’
She first came to Reading Festival at 14 years old, persuading her parents to bring her. For the second night in a row a harp again has a centre stage position, like Dave last night her genuine affection for the festival elevates the emotion of the performance. The fourteen song set is filled with magical moments. ‘You Got The Love’ is the first to bring a tear to our eyes. She really is a national treasure.
Idles guitarist Mark Bowen joined them on stage for ‘One of the greats.’ He helped write six songs on the last album, but this was our favourite, it translated into another stunning live moment showcasing her incredible vocal skills. An epic version of ‘Sympathy Magic’ follows soon after. At this point the rain is starting to pour down. Walking out onto the thrust platform Welch is exposed to the elements, yet she seems to be made more powerful by it, commanding the rain and bending it to her will. She goes down to the barrier and over and over sings, “So come on, come on, I can take it. Give me everything you got.
What else, what else, what else, what else.” It is the second time this evening we find ourselves moved as this great earth-witch proves her qualities as a legendary performer.
Just when you don’t think it can’t get any better along comes ‘Dog Days Are Over’ and Reading Festival explodes. She stops it halfway through to request everyone put their phones away and jump instead. It is a great moment and the crowd oblige. The rain gets heavier but no one cares, she really is one of the greats and this was a classic Reading headline set.
As the set finishes, the day that had been nearly dry to that point, provides an almost biblical downpour. There is a gap before the next bands are out and everyone is desperately hoping that it blows over in time. The Chase and Status fans don’t want to be drowned watching their band, and the Kneecap and Paris Paloma fans don’t want their tents being overfilled by people taking refuge from the elements.
Walking away from the chance to watch Chase and Status was not something we did lightly. The lure of Kneecap was just too great to resist though. What an incredible set we were given. Fontaines D.C. made their most memorable contribution to the weekend here, as everyone goes crazy to ‘Favourite’ playing on the speakers as the hip-hop trio come to the stage (and then later Grian Chatten’s tv framed head appearing for ‘Better Way To Live). From the get-go, as ‘Éire go Deo’ (Ireland Forever) gives way to ‘Smugglers & Scholars’ there is a musical ferocity that then doesn’t let up. This was a much more EDM/rave/drum and bass heavy set than it could of been. A number of their earlier songs have been giving a harder reworking. Combined with some truly top-notch visuals, transforming the live images into artful black and white, or bold shades of blue, then red, then green it is a truly headline worthy show.
It is about two-thirds of the way through that they drop the bombshell that the balaclava clad man running around on stage is not actually DJ Próvaí, but a stand in. J. J. Ó Dochartaigh is off on a few weeks of paternity leave. The remarkable thing is that if they had not said anything we would not have noticed. All one needs to do is don the balaclava, raise your arms often to encourage audience response, crowd surf in the mosh-pit and any of us could be DJ Próvaí on stage. Few would be able to match his production talents in the studio however.
Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap are on blistering form. Early tracks sound as good as they ever have, including ‘Get Your Brits Out’ and ‘H.O.O.D.’ The newer material is ferocious, ‘Sayonara’ and ‘Liars Tale’ are thundering highlights.
It wouldn’t be a Kneecap show without a few comments to bait various right-wing elements. There is a “F**k Benjamin Netanyahu” alongside the obligatory free Palestine chant. Andy Burnham is described as “a w****r” for ruling out a united Ireland. Mo Chara started the evening by asking us, “Are you ready for a mad one?” We were, and it was. A fine ending to another fine Reading Festival.
There was just time to stumble out of The Gallery as Liam Bailey was helping Chase and Status perform Blind Faith and fireworks were starting up. Irah was out to do ‘Program’ to bring their set to an end. We had missed quite a performance with the most guest stars of any set to help make it a memorable night. Even Tom Grennan had turned up to do ‘All Goes Wrong.’
Sigh, the September Reading hangover post-festival will be real. Luckily, it is only a couple of weeks until Down At The Abbey, then only a few months until next years headliners are revealed. Reading 2.0 delivered this year, all aboard for Reading 2.1 next year!
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