The main line-up of the Reading Festival kicks off today, Friday’s line-up includes Dave, Megan Thee Stallion, Glass Animals and Little Simz. However, we also expect a number of secret sets to take place over the weekend. We already have a pretty good idea of who some of them will be, and we also have a list of when secret releases will take place below.
Confirmed
- Interrupting 21:20 Friday
Republic Scene Festival - Vargasm 12:00 Saturday
Main Stage East
The Interrupters will also play Leeds on Saturday, but Wargasm have confirmed they are only in Reading.
Almost Confirmed
We expect Pendulum to only appear in Reading and not Leeds, but this has not been confirmed.
Once the campsites were hit with an absolute flood early Thursday morning, those present will be happy to hear that there will be no more rain for the rest of the weekend. According to the Met Office, skies will remain mostly overcast with light breezes and occasional sun flares, and temperatures will hit 23C every day until the end of the weekend. The chance that even a short light rain will fall on the festival is now minimal.
A high-pressure weather event known as the “Azores” will begin over the public holiday weekend, resulting in consistently calm and dry weather across much of the country. Aidan McGivern of the Met Office said: “The Azores are a group of islands in the middle of the Atlantic. Semi-permanent high pressure persists here most of the year. But what has been happening this year so far, and especially during the summer, is that the high pressure from the Azores continues to spread across the UK, hence the warm summers and the very dry summers we have had. And this recurring pattern is repeating again this weekend.”
The BBC is streaming key scenes live via iPlayer throughout the weekend. On Friday, you will be able to watch the live broadcast from 2:30 pm, and live broadcasts will start at 2:00 pm on Saturday and 1:20 pm on Sunday. And once they’re ready, the full sets will be available to watch again in iPlayer for 30 days after the festival.
Click here to watch Friday’s Reading Festival live on BBC iPlayer as soon as it starts at 14:30.
As with the BBC’s coverage of Glastonbury, several artists will take to the stage before the start of the live broadcast each day, so it is unlikely that their sets will be available to watch online. But you’re not entirely lucky – the radio broadcast will start at 11am every morning, so check out the official BBC Radio 1 broadcast on BBC Sounds tune in.
Although Leeds and Reading play the same squad on different days, almost all TV coverage will come from Reading, so if you’re watching at home you only need to pay attention to Reading’s schedule, although some of them the radio transmission could very well be coming from Leeds as well.
If you come early, you can warm up with three spectacular shows from last year. There is festival barsfeaturing Stormzy, AJ Tracey and more, Guitar Energywith sets including Sam Fender and Wolf Alice and Pop bops with artists including Mabel, Sigrid and Becky Hill.
Image Credits:
James Bridle / Reading Festival
Information disclosure: TheFestivals is funded by advertising and occasionally earns a commission on purchases made through links on this site, including this article.: Nobody