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Rhian Teasdale swaggers onto the main stage at Wilderness Festival, turns her back to the audience and flexes her muscles like a prize-fighter. The Wet Leg singer has every reason to be feeling cocksure, given that the band recently topped the UK album charts with their sugar rush of a second album, ‘Moisturizer’.
Drawing a huge crowd on the Sunday evening of this fabulous weekender, the reigning indie champions leave no doubt as to why they beat Oasis’ best-of ‘Time Flies’ to the top spot. Their muscular guitar anthems are so full of wit that the audience responds in kind: one little kid down the front waves a sign that reads: “I’m your smallest fan.”
The band’s gritty performance shows how many ways you can ‘ave it at Wilderness. Held on the picturesque Cornbury Park and now in its 14th iteration, the festival has cultivated a reputation as the glammest on the boutique circuit. Yes, there’s a Veuve Clicquot champagne bar. And, yes, there’s a spa (and another champagne bar) beside one of the two lakes sunk into the site. Here pampered punters watch on as families enjoy a spot of wild swimming, minding not to disturb the people doing yoga on a cluster of paddle boats.
So, much of it’s very genteel and this is a distinctly family friendly do, with parents weaving kids’ trolleys around the throng (Wilderness has a capacity of 30,000 but it feels like the enormous site could accommodate double that number, which prevents any chance of overcrowding). At night, though, the freaks come out to play in a designated dance section that begins roughly at a secret garden-themed bar called The Riddle and leads to The Valley, an expanse of woodland that’s been transformed into a vast dancefloor.
Vibes-wise, this side of Wilderness is Charli XCX in her shades and Vivienne Westwood wedding dress, demurely smoking a Vogue. Late on Saturday night, Confidence Man move a packed crowd with their DJ set at The Valley, lasers zinging overhead as the Aussie dance dons pump out the likes of ‘Gossip’, their sassy, Spanish guitar-adorned collab with JADE. The freewheeling atmosphere is pretty well summed up by the lad good-naturedly dunking his fox tail-wearing mate face-down into a recycling bin.
There’s decidedly less neon on display at The Dive, a small venue that’s new to Wilderness this year. With an exterior that’s styled to resemble an American roadhouse, this gloriously dingy bar hosts scuzzy indie bands such as Goodbye, a five-piece who blend fragile, Cocteau Twins-style vocals with a guitar tone that’s by turns dreamy and full-on grunge. They’ve yet to release any music but are clearly one to watch.
If there’s a single band that embodies the louche side of Wilderness though, it’s Air who grace a main stage framed by a white oblong box. The minimalist set-up indicates the effortlessly cool approach that the French space-pop duo (rounded out by a live drummer) take to noodling through their 1998 masterpiece ‘Moon Safari’, which they began to play in full last year.
The band’s crisp beats, snaking basslines and neon-hued synths conjure images of, well, people sipping champagne in a hot tub overlooking a lake, which you couldn’t quite say of Kent ravers Orbital who obliterate the same stage with a sonic assault later in the evening. At one point the pair – cast in shadow, with flashing white lights affixed to their heads like eyes – are accompanied by a pre-recorded video of Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson, who barks class war missives during their pulverising collaboration ‘Dirty Rat’.
Norwegian singer AURORA is also outspoken the following evening, as she intersperses arty synth-pop with pleas for a better planet. “We see the world in so much pain and we want to do so much,” she says, “but it’s hard to know what to do.” In the end, she concludes, “our voices help and everything we do matters so much”. In that spirit, she dedicates the delicate, heartbreaking ‘Through The Eyes Of A Child’ to “the children of Palestine”.
She’s followed on the main stage by local lads Supergrass, who batter through their sensational debut album ‘I Should Coco’ to mark its 30th birthday. Peppering the set with other classic tracks that didn’t appear on that record, Gaz Coombes and co. put on a weekend highlight for all-ages audience who prove the Britpop revival continues apace.
After Wet Leg display their mettle on the final night, with Teasdale at one point dousing her hair in water, looking like a boxer who’s just floored the competition, Basement Jaxx close the main stage with a truly jaw-dropping show. The London dance duo rock out from a circular hole cut into the floor, aided in their big beat bonanza by a rotating cast of vocalists and dancers in space-age silver tutus, all of whom strut fearlessly down the tilted stage.
After a 10-year break from performing, the lads are certainly back with a bang. It’s yet another KO at a triumphant Wilderness Festival, the heavyweight glamp-ion of the UK.
NME is an official media partner of Wilderness Festival
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The closing hours of Reading 2026 have finally arrived. Florence + The Machine brought the rain during ‘Dog Days Are Over’ at The Grid, opening the heavens and leaving the festival site completely soaked. The weary fans who have stayed behind are wet, exhausted and clearly feeling the effects of the weekend. What they need now is one final enormous celebration to make the wait worthwhile.
The Gallery tent comes alive as the speakers blast ‘Favourite’ by Friday’s headliners and fellow countrymen Fontaines D.C., receiving the kind of reaction usually reserved for ‘Mr Brightside’ at a drunken wedding reception. Moments later, Kneecap display their familiar statement accusing Israel of carrying out genocide against the people of Palestine and Lebanon, with support from the UK government. It captures the Belfast rap trio perfectly, combining serious political messages with an unapologetic party atmosphere.
“We use our platform to talk about what we believe is right,” Mo Chara explains during the performance, before recognising those who “aren’t so fucking lucky” and whose voices have been suppressed. He soon encourages the audience to roar “fuck Netanyahu” and “free free Palestine”. Later, he starts a powerful chant of “Aaaaaa-ndy Buuurn-ham’s a waaaaaaan-ker” to the melody of ‘Seven Nation Army’, targeting our new Prime Minister over his claim that “a united Ireland is off the table”. Laughing, he asks: “The BBC won’t broadcast that, or will they?” As it turned out, they did not.
Away from the headlines and the controversy, there is no denying the connection Kneecap have built with their audience. Politics may shape the conversation, but the crowd also came to enjoy themselves, ready for a rave after the rally. The performance begins carefully with the heavy rumble of ‘Smugglers & Scholars’, before exploding during the Grian Chatten collaboration ‘Better Way To Live’ and the threatening energy of ‘Sick In The Head’. “Are ya ready for a mad one?” Mo Chara shouts. The response is already obvious.
The atmosphere becomes increasingly chaotic as the hip hop rhythm of ‘Cold At The Top’ and the hypnotic trance sounds of ‘An Ra’ send the entire tent into motion. The trio jokingly thank the UK for everything it has given Ireland, listing UKIP, fish and chips, a mental health crisis, Jimmy Saville, HP Sauce and Bloody Sunday. However, the show reaches another level once the second half begins. The explosive ‘Sayonara’ brings the ‘beef’ to ‘IBEEFA’, while ‘Get Your Brits Out’ and ‘Guilty Conscience’ give the crowd every reason to obey Móglaí Bap’s demand to “oooopen up the piiiiiit”.
Anyone watching closely may have questioned why the cameras continued to focus on Móglaí Bap and Mo Chara. The pair eventually reveal that they have spent recent weeks performing alongside a “provisional” DJ Próvai. Wearing the familiar tricolour balaclava, the temporary replacement handles his role as the crowd agitator with confidence while their bandmate enjoys some paternity leave. “Some things are more important than music, and that’s family,” they explain. How sweet. Móglaí Bap quickly destroys the tender moment by adding: “As you might know, the Brits took all our potatoes from Ireland; they took all our cocaine,” before declaring, “but we still have all our caaandy.” The group then charge directly into one of the biggest tracks ever written about extremely powerful ketamine.
‘Liar’s Tale’ sparks another huge reaction with its response to Keir Starmer, “genocide armer”, while the group warn that “you’re not getting away with doing nothing”. It is a politically charged message hidden inside an irresistible anthem from musicians who have experienced the “belly of the beast” through the legal system. Their latest album, ‘Fenian’, has helped Kneecap fully embrace the celebration that has always been part of their identity. Their live production now feels capable of filling arenas, blending the intimacy of a late night lock in with the rhythmic force and visual scale of The Chemical Brothers, the reckless electronic punk spirit of The Prodigy, and the fearless political honesty of Public Enemy. The spectacular visuals complete the experience.
Kneecap fans at Reading 2026. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
Kneecap fans at Reading 2026. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
Closing with the powerful combination of ‘Fenian’, ‘H.O.O.D.’ and the enormous ‘The Recap’, Kneecap bring our final celebration at Reading to a thrilling conclusion while also finishing their last festival appearance of the summer. “It’s been a pleasure to spend it with you mad c**ts,” Mo Chara says before leaving the stage. The feeling is mutual.
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