Readipop Festival 2024

Readipop Festival, which takes place by the banks of the River Thames in Christchurch Meadows (10 mins walk from Reading Station) between Friday 12th and Sunday 14th July, has now announced who will be playing on each day of the festival and made limited day tickets available. Readipop Festival is an event created in-house by Readipop, the music charity, to raise funds to continue using music and arts to enrich the lives and cultural landscape of our local community around Reading and the Thames Valley area.

Headlining Readipop Festival 2024 will be Northern Irish indie rockers Ash, godfathers of drum and bass Fabio & Grooverider and Britpop trailblazers Echobelly. Joining them are a diverse array of new and established artists including technopop punk rockers Republica, energetic festival mainstays Dub Pistols, Welsh tongue-in-cheek rappers Goldie Lookin’ Chain (playing a legends set), Manchester indie-dance pioneers A Certain Ratio, BBC 6Music favourites from Holland, Pip Blom and 1980s Reading punk band International Resque playing their final show together.

Readipop will be showcasing their valuable work across the weekend. These showcases include AAA takeovers, presenting an array of local talent that learn musical skills at the charity’s weekly AAA youth club alongside live sets from artists signed to their Riser Music label and their community bands. In addition, Readipop XOX Project Live will be performing a set of classic tracks to demonstrate the vintage drum machines and synthesisers that will make up part of Readipop’s upcoming XOX Project museum.

BBC Introducing in Oxfordshire & Berkshire have selected three up-and-coming acts which they will host in the Purple Turtle tent on Friday 12th July.

Readipop’s family area will be open on the afternoons of Saturday and Sunday featuring craft, music and dance workshops, story telling, immersive performances and other fun activities featuring local arts and music organisations including Jelly, Dance Reading, Tankata Percussion, MiniMixers DJs and more.

Reading’s Indie Market also come to the site on Saturday and Sunday bringing their stalls full of locally produced festival-friendly arts, crafts and clothes stalls. Purple Turtle bars serve local craft beer and real ale all weekend alongside a selection of lagers, ciders, spirits and wine.

Every penny raised from the festival helps support the amazing work within the community that Readipop as a charity does across a number of projects. These include music based mentoring with young people facing challenging circumstances, all the way up to weekly music workshops open to all ages and abilities. For more info on our all year round work, see readipop.co.uk

Friday 12th July (5-11pm)

• Fabio & Grooverider
• Dub Pistols
• The Wise Bloods
• Reading Community Gospel Choir
• Marble Sun - BBC INTRODUCING OXFORDSHIRE & BERKSHIRE ACT
• Leopard Boy - BBC INTRODUCING OXFORDSHIRE & BERKSHIRE ACT
• Martha And The Fairy – BBC INTRODUCING OXFORDSHIRE & BERKSHIRE ACT
• Grace Pounds
• Laura Loh
• + more

Saturday 13th July (1-11pm)

• Ash
• Republica
• A Certain Ratio
• Pip Blom
• Goldie Lookin’ Chain (Legends DJ Set)
• Butch Kassidy
• Hats TM
• Brioche
• Glitterwound
• Glass Half Broken
• Adomania
• K.Kayne
• Colours & Fires
• Donny Hewitt
• Nineteenth Hour
• MarksmaN
• + more

Sunday 10th July (12-9pm)

• Echobelly
• La Mort Subite
• International Resque
• The Skangsters
• Rila’s Edge
• Elucidate
• Ilanga
• Funkin’ Souled Out
• Saxcelerate
• Readiophonics
• Freddie Joon
• + more

Ash

Ash are a Northern Irish alternative rock band, formed in Downpatrick in 1992 with one silver, two gold and two platinum-selling (and chart-topping) records in the UK, as well as 18 songs in the UK top 40 including “Burn Baby Burn”, “Oh Yeah”, “Girl From Mars”, “Shining Light” and “A Life Less Ordinary”. Their debut full-length album 1977 was named by NME as one of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Last September, Ash released their eighth album “Race The Night” through Fierce Panda Records, proving their songwriting is as vital now as ever.

Fabio & Grooverider

Fabio and Grooverider are the godfathers of Drum & Bass and legends of modern music who are idolised worldwide. Chase & Status, Wilkinson & Sub Focus are just a few names that received their initial exposure from the pair on their 14 Year Award winning show on BBC Radio 1. They were recently voted in the top 25  Greatest DJs of all time in a recent Mixmag poll, and December 2015 saw the pair win the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to music award at DJ Mag’s Best of British awards.

Echobelly

Echobelly were at the forefront of the UK indie scene in the 1990’s with writer Barry Waiters describing their sound as “a 90’s strain of power pop that’s got the bounce of Blondie with the crunch and ache of Nirvana” The band also toured with REM and Morrissey declared himself a huge fan. Formed by Sonya Madan and Glenn Johansson, Echobelly’s array of hit singles included ‘Great Things’, ‘King of The Kerb’ and Dark Therapy, all of which became firm favourites and staples of the indie scene and are still regularly played on radio around the world.

Republica

Republica achieved fame in the 1990s with their distinctive brand of music, self-described as ‘technopop punk rock’. The band gained significant attention with their hit single "Ready to Go," released in 1996. This song captured the essence of the era with its catchy hooks, infectious energy, and Saffron's powerful vocals. The band followed up with Top 10 single “Drop Dead Georgous” and their debut album "Republica," which also garnered praise for its energetic and rebellious sound. Republica's fame was further solidified through their captivating live performances with Saffron's charismatic stage presence which comes to Readipop Festival’s mainstage this July!

Dub Pistols

With over 20 years in the music industry, the reggae-breaks-jungle mashup gangsters known as Dub Pistols have collaborated with heroes such as The Specials, Busta Rhymes, Horace Andy, Madness and Gregory Isaacs. Barry Ashworth, the dapper frontman of the Pistols, formed the band because he loved the Happy Mondays and never looked back. The group, which initially started in the mid-90s with Barry as a DJ on the turntables and musicians improvising over it, transformed into a powerful live machine, becoming a regular at festivals and continually gaining new fans at Glastonbury, Bestival, Beat-Herder, and across Europe.

A Certain Ratio

A Certain Ratio are a post-punk band formed in 1977 in Manchester. While originally part of the punk rock movement, they soon added funk and dance elements to their sound. During ACR's early years with Factory Records, the Top Ten of the U.K. independent singles chart included seven of their titles, highlighted by "Flight" and "Waterline," and the band issued five albums including The Graveyard and the Ballroom (1980) and Sextet (1982). More recently, the band signed to Mute Records for reissues and new material, collaborating with Mike Joyce of The Smiths, Sink Ya Teeth and Barry Adamson.

Pip Blom

After making her name as one of the brightest indie rock singers around through two albums on the excellent Heavenly Records label and a lauded live show honed over gruelling years of touring, Pip Blom (and her band of the same name) take a delightful left turn into thumping, carefree synth pop with latest album “Bobbie”. While admitting to the cliché of a guitar-orientated band “grabbing the synths” for album three, this new direction had a real and genuine draw for Blom and blows her own musical landscape wide open.

Goldie Lookin’ Chain (Legends DJ Set)

Straight outta Newport armed with all the Goldie Lookin’ greatest hits (‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do’, ‘Your Mother’s Got A Penis’, ‘Your Missus Is A Nutter’), expect a seriously lively response when the comedy hip hoppers Legends Of GLC take to the Readipop Festival stage.

The Wise Bloods

The Wise Bloods are a young six-piece project from South London bringing their deep grooves, urban attitude, thought-provoking messages and original song writing to true reggae foundations. The band's background spans from different regions of the globe, affecting a mix of influences and takes on the music.

International Resque

International Resque are a punk pop formed in Reading in 1989. They toured with Carter USM, released one album and a string of singles in the early nineties, including “Yeah?” which resulted in them touring Japan. The band recently reformed to support Reading indie legends Bennet and will now play a final farewell show in their hometown on the Sunday of Readipop Festival 2024!