It’s day three of the festival and the site is certainly quieter at the start of the day. On the way in, I’d already passed a stream of youngsters who were leaving the site early laden with their belongings either completely wasted after four days of festival camping or fearing the usual teenage stupidity that arises in the campsite on the closing Sunday night (and sadly it did).

With Rage Against The Machine cancelling at short notice, and the remaining line up for the day looking less than inspiring, I headed back to the safety of the Festival Republic tent once more. Opening a sparsely populated tent, Cardiff’s CVC played an engaging set to a slowly increasing crowd of weary youngsters. They laid down a nice festival groove with their early 70s psychedelic rock sound.

Bringing along loads of easy listening vibes, Brooke Combe has an incredible voice which floats across the tent.  After the noisy aspects of the last two days, it is good to see something at the other end of the musical spectrum. There are a number of artists appearing over the weekend who started out as Tik Tok stars before breaking across into the live arena. Abby Roberts is no exception having made her name as a beauty promoter who has now decided to enter the music world. Aiming for the poppier side of things, her version of the Cardigans ‘Lovefool’ fits nicely into her set without sounding too much out of place and ‘Video Girl’ is a fun end to the set.

Daisy Brain take us back to the alt-rock sounds of the previous two days. Formed around multi-instrumentalist Will Tse, they also have the first big crowd of the day. Introducing ‘Digital Atlas’ as a song about addiction… to World of Warcraft, I am made to feel incredibly old in an instance. What happened to the old vices of sex and drugs? The crowd stayed around for The Native who went down well but had nothing to really distinguish themselves.

Next up was the first trip to the main stage to see Pales Waves strut their stuff. With album number three just released, the band are in a jubilant mood with the new songs fitting easily into the set. The band are incredibly tight and their songs sound arguably better in the live environment. ‘Television Romance’, ‘She’s My Religion’ and ‘Unwanted’ are perfect pop songs for a Sunday afternoon. 

Back at the tent, Crawlers have pulled another big crowd and their lyrically aware alt rock sound has the crowd lapping it up. Food calls but on the way over I catch Lice playing on the BBC Introducing stage. Coming on like Mark E Smith’s younger brothers the band made a glorious noise and are definitely worthwhile investigating further.

The Blinders are next in the tent and have a competent line in indie rock. Finishing my weekend stint in the Festival Republic tent, Chloe Moriondo brings her bedroom indie pop to the stage. Chloe is highly engaging and her joy at being at the festival is clear to see.

As headliners go, putting Halsey up to top one of the main stages is a bold move. Intrigued by the Trent Rezner connection I headed over to want would be one of the best sets of the weekend. Starting with ‘Nightmare’ from the latest album and accompanied by images of female rights protests is a powerful statement of intent. This was going to be no ordinary pop show. Songs from all periods of Halsey’s career pepper the set, but it is songs like ‘The Lighthouse’ that demonstrate something far more special and interesting. An excellent cover of song of the summer, ‘Running Up that Hill (A Deal With God)’ cements Halsey’s place in Reading history. Finishing with ‘I Am Not A Woman, I Am A God’ and ‘Without Me’, this was an exceptional set.

And with that it was time to go. It’s been a relatively good festival with the girls certainly coming out on top this year although the Sunday dragged for large parts. After twenty one festivals, it was time to say farewell to the weekend festival experience. It has been fun but there has been increasing less choice of music that would appeal to me and the merging of the old Lock Up/The Pit and Festival Republic tents has been detrimental in my opinion. In addition having some tents finish at 8pm reduces an already limited choice. On the positive side, the introduction of two main stages (with a no clash running schedule) for the second year running has worked well. Having the option to see up to six main stage headliners ups the ante considerably.

No doubt I will be back in some capacity although probably only for single days, but in the meantime it is farewell old friend.

CVC - Reading 2022 Brooke Combe - Reading 2022 Abby Roberts - Reading 2022 Daisy Brain - Reading 2022 Pale Waves - Reading 2022 Lice - Reading 2022 Chloe Moriondo - Reading 2022