Earlier this week, Charli xcx took a trip down memory lane. Sitting with BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, she reflected on her previous appearances as a performer at Reading Festival over the years. She was hard on herself in the way you can be when confronted with your younger, more idealistic, carefree self. “It’s cringing me out, if I’m honest,” she said of her 2017 performance. Her review of her 2019 show? She didn’t like her fringe much, she added. “This is a collection of some of the worst hairstyles and hair dyes ever throughout Reading & Leeds, it seems.”
This is typical Charli, though. Few acts in modern times are as achingly aware of their presentation, their overarching narrative as a creator, or how their music or eras are received. This mindset fueled Brat, an unapologetic riposte that had, indeed, buckets of intentionality behind it. Music, Fashion, Film, her new LP, finds her ruminating deeply on the direction of her career and if being a recording artist is even something she wants to do anymore, particularly as her head is turned by acting roles.
So how will Charli xcx look back on her headline set at Reading Festival on Friday (Aug. 28)? It seems safe to say she will look back on the set with bullish pride. This set is loaded with additional subtext: It’s the first U.K. performance since the release of Music, Fashion, Film, her second No. 1 on the Official Albums Chart in 2026 following Wuthering Heights soundtrack in February 2026. It was also her first time headlining the iconic festival she grew up attending, as mentioned in her BBC Radio 1 interview. The stakes were high, not least because of Charli’s own expectations.
The striking new stage production — first debuted at Lollapalooza last month — brings a thrilling edge to Charli’s performance and the songs sound fuller, less bitty than they do on record. She commanded the stage with a singular focus and was bolstered by a live band in places and a group of dancers; the result was a statement of epic proportions.
These were the five best moments from Charli’s headline debut at Reading Festival.
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An Old-School Production
Charli’s stage production feels like the antithesis to what “works” at a modern music festival. Eschewing the use of wrap-around LED screens, she instead built a towering black structure which provided a stark backdrop to some of these confrontational tunes. The show’s first act — including “Rock Music” and “Wink Wink” — were played alongside a band with Charli some 30 feet high in the structure and meant she didn’t just rely on visuals to bring the atmosphere.
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Brooding Soundscapes
Following the opening section, and before the set went Brat-heavy for thirty minutes, there was a brief interlude between the two which allowed for some further mood setting. “Pink Diamond” from 2020’s How I’m Feeling Now embraced its esoteric soundscape, and “Dying for You” and “House” from the Wuthering Heights soundtrack went even further in summoning a brooding, intense atmosphere. Not what you expect from a festival headliner, but certainly not unwelcome, either.
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“Brat” Still Rules
For a younger demographic at Reading Festival, the music event may well have been the first time they’ve seen Charli xcx as a superstar performer, and the show’s Brat-heavy middle section certainly proved that. The hyped-up audience went feral for the run of “365 Party Girl,” “Sympathy is a Knife” and “Von Dutch” which, although featuring just Charli singing over a track, still encouraged the most intense of reactions.
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“Camera” Hits Hard
If any song embodied the mixed emotions — and ambition — of Music, Fashion, Film, it would be “Camera” where Charli reflects on her recent acting roles and questions her role as an artist in her mid-30s: “It makes me wanna throw my life away/ All the music, all the people,” she sighs. In a live setting, the song’s emotional intensity is boosted, and skittish outro featuring the song’s guitar riff gives it a rougher feel than on record. The song’s message — messy, contradictory but true — is elevated in this arrangement.
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An Intense Farewell
You can forgive the teenage crowd for being somewhat puzzled by the set’s final track “Nothing Lasts Forever,” which features a spoken word piece from director David Cronenberg on the role of art amidst more life and death matters. During this spoken word moment, Charli and her team of dancers stand perfectly still, staring out to the audience as Cronenberg speaks on the pursuit of art in old age and how “oblivion is freedom” from the pressures of fame. It was a challenging but powerful closing statement for a set that played by no-one’s rules but Charli’s.