Waking up Friday morning in chronic pain from the 'short walk to Tesco' I was relieved that we'd finally be getting to hear music. The sun was blazing, so we took cover in the NME tent and listened to 20 minutes of Dry The Rivers' set before deciding that sleepy music was not what we needed and instead joined the constant party in the Dance tent.
Turns out Lauren and Elly are not morning people. I don't consider myself a morning person - in fact i'm far from it - but there are certain situations where i'll drag myself out of bed and push through my tiredness because something cool is going on like at Reading. But apparently they just couldn't do it. Headed back to the tent me and Meg said we'd meet them there and queued to get over-18 wristbands and dropped my phone off to the Vodafone truck when New Found Glory were due on.
Having seen them more times than I can remember I knew exactly what to expect and wasn't disappointed by their energetic pop-punk performance and was more than ecstatic at the news they'd be playing Sticks And Stones in it's entirety. Churning out anthem after anthem it kept the not so die-hard fans entertained as well as offering songs not often played live for those of us who'd seen them before.
Having been gone for nearly 2 hours we were feeling a bit guilty at having left Lauren and Elly in the tent and decided not to stay for Bring Me The Horizon despite every fiber of our beings telling us to do otherwise. (Note: we should definitely have stayed and I will spend the rest of my life kicking myself for not having done so).
When we eventually headed back to the arena we caught the end of Frank Turner's fun set. With his happy blend of folksy music and The Sleeping Souls backing him up it was a fun affair for all there to witness. With Elly finally awake and Lauren still asleep but waiting for someone we joined the crowd for Bastille. Having catapulted themselves to stardom with "Pompeii" the crowd was a large one, radiating heat similar to Two Door Cinema Club last year. Hell, there was even a guy peeing into a cup behind us. Deja Vu everywhere. Coming out to title track "Bad Blood" it was immediately apparent that the quartet are some of the most talented out there in today's industry. There's nothing easy about playing their songs live and yet they make it work so fantastically. Opportunities for crowd participation are everywhere in their songs and the festival set list was no different with them playing popular tracks like "Weight Of Living, Pt II" and "Icarus" as well as their version of "What Would You Do?" and "Of The Night." Closing their set with "Flaws" and of course "Pompeii" they finished on a high after putting on a truly incredible performance.
Knackered from all the walking around and the intensity of Bastille's set we found a patch of grass outside the Dance tent and watched Fenech- Soler who gained three new fans after we saw their brilliant combination of electro dance music with pop-rock sounding songs.
Finishing the night were punk legends Green Day. After their surprise appearance last year the anticipation was high in the arena and the crowd gathered. The child in me was gleeful and desperate for the trio to hurry on stage so I could live out a childhood dream and let me tell you - they didn't let me down. And the addition of a fan on stage for "Know Your Enemy" who took one look at the crowd and exclaimed 'oh fuck me' even added a comedy element to their punk extravaganza. "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" was goosebump performance of the day as 90,000 people sung the song in perfect harmony with Billie on his knees, stunned. Much was the same with "Wake Me Up When September Ends" which led into the beginning of the entirety of Dookie. Admittedly it did leave us a bit lost in the middle with a set so laden with political punk rants but favourites such as "Basket Case" and "Minority" lightened it up. Typically, "American Idiot" set everything off in the crowd and my tired feet thanked the fact we were on the outskirts. One of my favourite set endings came from them too with Friday being closed with "Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)" which was beautifully fitting.
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