Reading Festival’s ‘TikTok stage’ pulls in the crowds

Its line-up includes Chunkz and Filly, who have over 8.7m followers between them on TikTok – the sort of numbers some of the bands here could only dream of.

Then there’s the likes of The Useless Hotline’s Max Baledge (3.6m followers) and George Clarke (2m followers), and Ayamé – host of the In Ayamé We Trust podcast – who has 3.8m followers.

A place for audiences to sit back and laugh in between music isn’t exactly a new thing for Reading & Leeds – its comedy stage had big names like Joel Dommett, Russell Kane and Fern Brady on the bill last year.

But it feels like a new generation of stars, ones who are arguably more familiar to Gen Z festivalgoers, are in the ascendancy this year.

“The impact of content creators on our culture, especially with young people, is undeniable,” Reading and Leeds organiser Melvin Benn told the BBC in a statement.

“They spend countless hours with them online and the Aux stage was created to bridge the gap, offering them a live platform to connect beyond the screen.”

He said that “Reading and Leeds will always be a music-first festival” but that there was space for “other innovators who are redefining entertainment”.

The introduction of this innovation hasn’t gone entirely smoothly.

At Reading’s sister festival in Leeds, the Aux stage had to be closed and most of the performances cancelled after it was hit by Storm Lilian on Friday.

Max Baledge – one of those due to perform – said he was heading to Leeds anyway and organising a meet and greet for his disappointed fans.

Writing on his Instagram story a few hours after, Baledge said the amount of people who attended was deemed a health and safety hazard and he was told to leave the scene.