The old guard remains, but what's the future of rock at Reading & Leeds?

As fun as they are, it probably won’t be Limp Bizkit. Sure, fellow 90s icons Deftones and Nine Inch Nails are cooler than ever, but Fred Durst and co. are comfortably embracing dad rock. ‘Break Stuff’ and ‘My Generation’ used to seem dangerous, but now just feel like rock karaoke classics, and the band perform in front of AI memes that presumably have been lifted straight from Facebook. It might sound horrible, but it’s everything you’d want from Limp Bizkit in 2025. During the closing swagger of ‘Take A Look Around’, Fred even imparts some fatherly advice: “They keep feeding us all this bullshit in the news, but we can’t let them push us into hating each other.”

Meanwhile, Enter Shikari have always sounded like the future. Today’s main stage slot sees them bouncing between glorious, escapist pop rock and snarling political fury. A filthy remix of ‘Bloodshot’ sets the urgent pace, while ‘The Dreamer’s Hotel’ has vocalist Rou Reynolds reminding the crowd that “the first duty of a human is to dream and dream big.” In between the soaring ‘Live Outside’, a thundering ‘Juggernauts’, and a rave-ready reworking of breakout hit ‘Sorry You’re Not A Winner’, there are hard-hitting speeches about climate change and the war crimes being committed in Gaza. “No politics please – we’ve been told that for 20 years and for 20 years we’ve ignored it,” says Rou. “We will not refrain from trying to heal this world.”

But away from the acts who have more Readings than hot dinners under their belts, there are plenty of relative newcomers to the festival to be excited about. After an arena tour with Sleep Token, Bilmuri couldn’t be more confident in delivering his deliciously aggressive party rock bangers in the Festival Republic tent, while Ecca Vandal’s sleek mix of emo, alt-rock and indie is well-crafted and catchy as hell. Their main stage slot might be cut short due to technical difficulties, but South Arcade make every moment count. ‘2005’ is a knowing wink to noughties nu-metal that never feels tired, ‘How To Get Away With Murder’ is wonderfully wonky, and the glitching ‘Supermodels’ is futuristic pop-punk that’s as instant as any of the classics. The cocksure Y2Kcore stomp of recent single ‘Fear Of Heights’ was clearly written with massive stages like this in mind. South Arcade make rock music look like the most exciting thing in the world.

The whole of NXDIA’s headline set on the BBC Introducing Stage clashes with Limp Bizkit, which would be a death sentence for most acts, but, despite the odds, they pull a huge crowd. It only gets bigger and louder as the gig goes on – and for good reason. ‘Nothing At All’ is all dreamy wonderstuff, ‘Boy Clothes’ offers hammering empowerment, and ‘Body On Me’ is brilliantly cool slacker rock. The different moods are tied together by NXDIA’s conversational songwriting. They get the crowd to boo various things (overpriced festival food, J.K. Rowling) as a segue into ‘Boo, Nevermind’, but also “because it’s fun”. That feel-good spirit continues throughout the set, with the bratty ‘More!’ sounding like Sabrina Carpenter fronting The Hives, and the closing, cathartic purge of ‘Feel Anything’ giving the crowd space to rage. The Nex Gen is well and truly here.