Megan Thee Stallion
(Picture: Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP)In the end, then, it was the small-time arsonists in the campsites who made headlines as proceedings came to a close on Sunday. A real shame: because bar the boneheaded, long-standing tradition of burning tents, Reading (and Leeds) Festival felt truly refreshed and new in 2022.
Chiefly because its posters have largely been full of boys, Reading has in recent times become a poster boy for the lack of diversity at festivals. But no longer. Anyone who witnessed Megan Thee Stallion’s set at Glastonbury will know that she out-headlined all the Pyramid stage headliners. On Friday night, with second album Traumazine having now been out for two weeks, she went even higher: defying security to bring up a succession of fans onstage - ‘Why would someone break up with her?’ she said of one who’d been recently dumped - and exhibiting the kind of gale force, superstar charisma that is supposed to be extinct.
