Charli XCX has watched back some of her previous performances at Reading & Leeds, and teased what fans can expect from her 2026 headline set.
The singer is set to make her headline debut appearance at Reading & Leeds later this week, performing at the dual festival for the first time since 2022. The performances come on the heels of her latest album ‘Music, Fashion, Film’, and ahead of a North American arena tour with Underscores in September.
In a new video interview with BBC Radio 1, the ‘360’ singer watched back clips from her previous performances at Reading & Leeds, and shared her verdict on her previous sets.
The first clip she watched back was from her performance in 2017 where she performed the single ‘Boys’.
“It’s cringing me out, if I’m honest,” she quipped, adding that she forgot that she used to play with a live band, and actually remembers it feeling like a “a cool show”.
She then looked back at her performance of ‘I Love It’ at the 2019 edition of the festival. “I remember this because it was so hot. It was really, really hot that day. It was when I had short hair and I had a fringe. I hate that hairstyle… When I would get really hot, my fringe would do its own thing in a way that was really unfortunate.”
Asked what it was like to see such a big response from the crowd as someone who used to go to the festival as a punter, Charli replied: “I think that’s the thing about whenever I do get to perform at Reading — I really think of it as the festival that I grew up at. It is a bit surreal. [The crowd] really goes for it there. They party really hard, so that’s cool and a bit scary.”
Finally, looking at her time playing ‘Beg For You’ in 2022, she poked fun at her previous haircuts, joking that she had “a collection of some of the worst hairstyles and hair dyes ever throughout Reading & Leeds, it seems”.
“It happened. I had fun. It was a different time and a different era,” she added.
As for what fans can expect from her first ever headline performance at R&L 2026, she revealed that fans can expect “a very different show than anything I’ve done before”.
“It’s going to be my first performance in the UK where I’m playing new songs and doing a whole new stage set up, so hopefully people enjoy it,” she added. “If they don’t, that is totally fine. I will see you there. It’s going to be great.”
Charli will headline the main stage – now known as The Grid – at 7:45pm on Friday in Reading and 7:10pm on Saturday in Leeds.
Also headlining the 2026 festival are Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C., Dave, RAYE and Chase & Status, and other names on the line-up include Skepta, Sombr, Role Model, JADE, Kneecap, Geese, Skye Newman, Holly Humberstone, Gurriers, Westside Cowboy, Declan McKenna, Maisie Peters, Paris Paloma, Overpass and Duke Dumont.
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Earlier this summer, Charli made a surprise appearance during The Strokes‘ set at Outside Lands, and also made a virtual cameo during Djo’s set at the festival.
Before then, she recorded an intimate live performance from Maida Vale, performed her first full headline show of the ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ era at Lollapalooza, and also joined Lorde on stage at the Chicago festival for ‘Girl, So Confusing’.
Since her latest album dropped, the singer has “begrudgingly” released the ‘B-sides Edition’ and shared an accompanying film for the original album.
