Charli XCX headlined Reading Festival 2026 last night – find all the highlights from her set below.
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The singer made her headline debut appearance on the festival’s main stage – now known as The Grid – last night (August 28). She’ll play another set tonight in Leeds, marking her first time playing the dual festivals 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. After a day of heavy rain on site, Charli took to the main stage to kick off her first full UK set of her ‘Music, Fashion, Film’ era, opening with the album’s first single ‘Rock Music’.
Unlike the ‘Brat’ era, which often saw her alone onstage, the set featured a full band and a host of dancers, all dressed in black. Charli sailed through a setlist predominantly made up of songs from her latest album, though it also drew from ‘Brat’, with high-octane performances of ‘360’, ‘Von Dutch’ and ‘Guess’, as well as her ‘Wuthering Heights’ album, which came out back in February.
Before ‘Apple’, Charli told the audience: “Here’s a classic for you, Reading”, while ‘2007’ was preceded by her being handed a cigarette by a dancer.
Find the full setlist below, and read NME‘s full review of the performance here.
NME gave the set four stars in a review that read: “The set really comes alive after ‘House’, when John Cale’s recorded voice booms out of the PA over black screens, before Charli re-enters the fray for her part of the Wuthering Heights song, crawling across one of the platforms as lights flash artfully around her.
Charli XCX’s Reading Festival 2026 setlist was.
Ahead of her set, Charli watched back some of her previous performances at the festival, and teased what fans can expect from her 2026 headline set.
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.
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.
Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and much more from Reading & Leeds 2026.
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