I moved to Reading at the tail end of 1999 and being local, made an effort to go to the local music festival. Of course, Reading Festival is one of the biggest and oldest music festivals in the world, and it has attracted some of the big names in the industry to the side of the Thames. Since 2000, I have spent every August Bank Holiday Weekend (excluding 2010 – emergency eye surgery and 2020 - pandemic) watching numerous artists and bands across the many stages on offer.

Over the last 22 years, we have seen the likes of Metallica, The Cure and The Strokes on the main stages whereas the smaller stages have been a constant source of up and coming bands, and quite a few future headliners (the Libertines, Queens of the Stone Age and Twenty One Pilots for example). The festival has constantly changed over this time with the Punk tent and skate ramps of the 2000s being replaced by the Radio 1 Extra tent. Whereas Sunday was always Rock day with a capital R, the lineup on any one day is now seemingly non connected to any of the other bands playing. Although this may be hard for the older festival goers to stomach, the youngsters appear to love the eclectic mix and their generation by far dominates the crowd.

Regardless, I’ve always enjoyed the festival and despite frequently not wanting to watch any bands on the main stage, there were always plenty of bands and artists on the other stages to enjoy. However, standing for three days solid is getting too much for these weary legs and having reached the mythical number of twenty one Reading Festival Weekends, I’m calling time on the full weekend. With this thought in mind, would the 2022 lineup produce enough quality bands for a fond farewell.

First up Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes opening the main stage having played a secret set last year. This was a reminder about what the festival used to like every day – loud shouty punk rock with an early dive into the crowd, and an already split pair of trousers barely making it out alive. A fitting start to the proceedings. I saw Black Honey open the Festival Republic tent way back in 2015 and was instantly won over by their songs for cult film soundtracks. Seven years on and they’ve reached the main stage with album number three widely anticipated. Still sounding effortlessly cool, the band’s short set includes fan favourites, ‘Spinning Wheel’, ‘Corine’, ‘Run for Cover’ and new single ‘Charles Bronson’.

It's over to the Festival Republic tent (now sponsored by a hotel chain!) for the rest of the day armed with the knowledge that The Interrupters would be making a short notice appearance. The tent is full of young people and bimbocore’s Scene Queen is definitely something for that generation – pink infused punky pop and clearly not for someone in their 50s. Thankfully rising stars Kid Kipichi are here to shake things up with their political commentaries, ‘New England’ already becoming a bona fide classic - a highlight of the day. Tigercub, Sick Joy and Tigress all bring their takes of various alt rock strands with the latter being the most enjoyable as Katy Jackson prowls the stage.

The tent suddenly fills up with the mass hordes and the two piece Cleopatrick make an entrance. I’m probably the only person in the tent who does not know every word of every song. Musically, it’s perfectly adequate indie rock but nothing special. As It Is bring so much needed emo rock to the tent with Patty Walters having the requisite stage presence to pull this sort of stuff off.

The big attraction is up next and the number of stage security vastly increases. The Interrupters are on a roll and having just released album number four to rave reviews, things are looking bright for the LA punk ska band. Opening with ‘Take Back the Power’, Aimee Interrupter and the band set out their agenda for the next 40 minutes. Aimee, Justin and Kevin own the stage swapping places with an unashamed frequency. ‘Title Holder’ is one of the great album opening tracks and comes early in the set.  New songs ‘Raised by Wolves’ and ‘In the Mirror’ are well received and although there is very little, if any, crowd surfing, everyone is in dance mode. Powering through the set, it ends too soon with a storming version of ‘She’s Kerosene’. This is what my Reading was always about, seeing a band in its ascendency, owning the punk tent and loads of skanking.

That would have been a suitable end to the day, but I decided to stay on and see Fever 333’s headline set. It was a good decision as the band were a force to behold with hardcore punk riffs mixed with hard hitting rapping. The set concludes with ‘Hunting Season’ and sees the singer precariously stood on top of stacked monitors and the guitarist on top on the scaffolding towering over the crowd whilst he played. Thrilling stuff.

So day one was much the same as in previous years: little of interest on the main stages but plenty to offer in the smaller tents. Roll on day two.

Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes - Reading 2022 Black Honey - Reading 2022 Scene Queen - Reading 2022 Kid Kipichi - Reading 2022 Kid Kipichi - Reading 2022 Sick Joy - Reading 2022 Tigress - Reading 2022 Cleopatrick - Reading 2022 As It Is - Reading 2022 The Interrupters - Reading 2022 The Interrupters - Reading 2022 The Interrupters - Reading 2022