Florence + The Machine call on crowd to “put your phones the fuck away” and “experience” set at Reading 2026

Florence + The Machine headlined Reading Festival for the first time tonight (August 30) – see the full setlist and footage below.

The band appeared on the festival’s main stage – now known as The Grid – at Little John’s Farm just before 8pm, ahead of fellow Sunday headliners Chase & Status.

It marked Florence Welch and co.’s first performance at Reading since 2012, and followed their headline set on Welch’s birthday at Leeds Festival on Friday (August 28).

The show also brought their ‘Everybody Scream’ tour to an end, having begun with a run of UK and European arena dates in February before travelling across North America and returning to Europe for the summer festival season.

Welch was on characteristically energetic form, prowling and spinning her way across The Grid’s huge stage, leading singalongs to the likes of ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’ and ‘You Got The Love’.

She told the crowd that it was “the first festival I ever wanted to go to”, adding that her dad took her when she was 14. “This is my childhood dream, so thank you so much.”

IDLES guitarist Mark Bowen joined her for ‘One Of The Greats’, the song the pair wrote together and recorded in a single take. He also appeared on stage with her on the tour’s opening night in Belfast in February, and also at Madison Square Garden later in the year.

With the rain tearing down, ‘Dog Days Are Over’ drew one of the night’s most frenzied crowd reactions, with Florence imploring the crowd to join her in “a small ritual”, asking “every single person at this festival” to “put your phones the fuck away”, because “filming this song will stop you from experiencing this song, and is that not why you came?” As the final chorus hit, the crowd leapt as one, arms in the air.

Florence and the Machine live at Reading Festival pic.twitter.com/cvG09xeJa3

— Anthony Hacking (@Anthony_Hacking) August 30, 2026

FINAL #everybodyscreamtour dress is BLACK for Reading pic.twitter.com/RPydghaC8V

— K 🚂💜 (@kay_m_sea) August 30, 2026

Florence + The Machine’s Reading 2026 setlist was:

‘Everybody Scream’
‘Shake It Out’
‘Which Witch’
‘Spectrum’
‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’
‘You Got The Love’
‘Howl’
‘What Kind Of Man’
‘Heaven Is Here’
‘One Of The Greats’
‘Buckle’
‘Sympathy Magic’
‘Dog Days Are Over’
‘Free’

‘Everybody Scream’ arrived last October as Florence + The Machine’s sixth studio album and their first since 2022’s ‘Dance Fever’. Welch revealed at the time that it was partly shaped by the ectopic pregnancy and emergency surgery that almost killed her during the ‘Dance Fever’ tour in 2023.

“The closest I came to making life was the closest I came to death,” she said last year. “And I felt like I had stepped through this door, and it was just full of women, screaming.”

“Are you ready to move?!” – Florence Welch celebrated her birthday at Leeds, ripping through ‘Spectrum’ with a lively crowd #RandL26 #FlorenceandTheMachine #FlorenceWelch pic.twitter.com/happr6q94z

— NME (@NME) August 29, 2026

NME awarded ‘Everybody Scream’ five stars, describing it as “a tempestuous record, one that stays with you longer than the rage and anguish which, here, is as fleeting as it is striking”.

Welch’s history with Reading stretches back considerably further. The festival was the first she ever attended as a fan, having received a ticket as a 14th birthday present. “I was terrified,” she told NME in 2012. “But it feels good to be going back because I remember what it was like to be in the crowd.”

Florence + The Machine first performed at Reading in 2008, before returning the following year to open the festival with an unannounced two-song appearance on the BBC Introducing Stage.

In the intervening years, Welch has become an established festival headliner. Florence + The Machine famously stepped in for Foo Fighters at Glastonbury 2015 after Dave Grohl broke his leg, with their Pyramid Stage set including a cover of ‘Times Like These’.

Check back at NME here for the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and more from Reading & Leeds 2026.

You can view the original article HERE.