See Reading & Leeds’ epic new Chevron stage in action

24 August, 2024

Reading Festival Chevron Stage. Credit: Andy Ford for NME

This year’s edition of Reading & Leeds saw the festival debut the Chevron stage — a brand-new addition to the music bash. Check it out in action below.

The Chevron boasts the world’s first outdoor floating LED video sky canopy and was created especially to host dance music, pop and hip-hop acts. This year, the stage will be headlined by The Prodigy, Sonny Fodera and Skrillex, as well as hosting performances from the likes of Nia Archives, Denzel Curry, Barry Can’t Swim and Kenny Beats. The stage will also see the return of the biggest silent disco to R&L.

The 40,000-capacity open-air venue’s video canopy is made up of hundreds of thousands of programmable LED lights, “turning the sky into a dazzling, reactive display” and boasted as “a feat of engineering, as the LEDs will appear to be hovering in the air.”

Videos of The Prodigy’s heading set at the Chevron last night (August 23) showed the LED canopy displaying the electronic dance band’s eclectic video projections and images while performing.

In a four-star review of The Prodigy’s performance, NME wrote about the stage and shared: “Reading & Leeds’ new Chevron dance stage, replete with a canopy that glitches, flickers and pulses with flashing lights and even the band’s insidious insect logo, is the perfect platform for their return a festival that, Howlett told NME, has always felt like home. The stage, meanwhile, is like a steam-punk serial killer’s basement from David Fincher’s nightmares: the aesthetic grey and rusted-looking, with analogue numbers counting down and ominous, oversized figures lurking in the background.”

Speaking to NME, Reading & Leeds festival boss Melvin Benn described the new stage as a “testament to Reading & Leeds’ continued commitment to innovation and industry leadership”.

“I also really wanted to have a stage that dance acts, hip-hop acts [and] pop acts could all feel that it was their own. The Chevron is building on the Reading & Leeds logo, and it just happened. We got some inspiration from what was the LS23 stage for late nights in Leeds and wanted to build on that.”

In other news, Reading & Leeds Festivals 2024 kicked off yesterday (August 23) at their usual sites of Richfield Avenue (Reading) and Bramham Park (Leeds) – see here for how you can follow along at home on BBC iPlayer and elsewhere if you were not able to secure a ticket.

The festival boasts Fred Again.., Lana Del Rey, Liam Gallagher, Catfish And The Bottlemen, Blink-182 and Gerry Cinnamon as its six headliners this year.

Raye, Spiritbox, Fontaines D.C., Reneé Rapp, Pendulum, Denzel Curry, Kenny Beats, Nia Archives, Two Door Cinema Club, Neck Deep, Rachel Chinouriri, Hak Baker, The Last Dinner Party and more are also expected to play.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, interviews, photos and more from Reading and Leeds 2024.

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