After a summer of abnormal, scorching warmth and weeks-long stretches without so much as a drop of rain, day one of Reading Festival 2026 feels almost quaint. The sky is an ocean of dark, angry grey; rain clatters down over throngs of inadequately waterproofed revellers. During a set from the US rock band Geese, the tented stage springs a leak, dousing a metre-by-metre patch in the middle of the crowd. The mud is fiendish. In other words, fear not: the British Festival Experience lives!
Like most festivals of its size, Reading has only a loose musical identity at this point. Its bookers don’t tend to discriminate between rock, pop, and hip-hop; if young people listen to it, they’ll have it. With the notable exception of a set by grime pioneer Skepta, though, Friday’s bill is distinctly rock-focused. There’s even a Gallagher on the lineup – not Noel or Liam, but Liam’s son Gene. His grunge band Villanelle were booked to play Reading’s new Canopy stage, which controversially replaces the longstanding BBC Introducing stage. The ostensibly grassroots-oriented Canopy has since been dubbed the “nepo baby stage” thanks to its platforming of various industry children-ofs, from Gene to Violet Grohl (daughter of Foo Fighters’ Dave) and Cruz Beckham.
