Charli XCX made her main-stage headline debut at Reading Festival on 28 August, opening her first full UK show of the ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ era after heavy rain at the site. The performance matters as it marked her return to Reading and Leeds for the first time since 2022, ahead of a Leeds headline set and a North American arena tour.

– She opened with ‘Rock Music’ and performed with a full band and black-clad dancers.
– The set mainly featured material from ‘Music, Fashion, Film’, alongside tracks from ‘Brat’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’.
– Highlights included ‘Apple’, ‘360’, ‘Von dutch’, ‘Guess’, ‘party 4 u’ and ‘2007’.
– It ended with ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, accompanied by a repeated David Cronenberg monologue.
– Other Reading and Leeds 2026 headliners include Florence + The Machine, Dave, RAYE and Chase & Status.