Undeniably the most omnipresent, inescapable cultural phenomenon of the decade (and quite possibly, the century), it seems almost unfathomable to think that ‘Brat’ was only released a year and a matter of days before Lido Festival. Countless awards, a lime green takeover, a presidential campaign and a Collins Dictionary word of the year later, its currency has morphed and changed from last summer’s hot girl hedonism to part of the mainstream lexicon: even your nan knows who Charli XCX is now.
It gives today’s show a tang that feels different to your average festival headline victory lap. There’s significantly less green in the crowd than at XCX’s original ‘Brat’ show at The O2 Arena last winter where you could spot a ticket-holder a mile off; the singer herself – always one step ahead of the curve – has been slowly destroying the show’s once-pristine ‘Brat’ curtain over the course of her recent gigs. “I’m interested in the tension of staying too long,” she posted recently.
Suffice to say that tension isn’t an issue in Victoria Park today, for a pair of reasons. A new addition to London’s packed summer schedule, XCX is by far the biggest name of Lido’s inaugural line up (which also features Jamie xx, Massive Attack and London Grammar); with its 32,000 capacity long sold out, the hum of a golden ticket reverberates around the field despite the massive numbers. Secondly, the set is over and out in a tight hour and ten – 20 minutes less than her reported end time. Though a few of her megawatt guest stars (Addison Rae, Lorde) have both recently been in town, it’s only fellow festival performers A.G Cook and Bladee that appear during the set. It is hard not to think that, where once her biggest London show to date would have been a milestone, now it doesn’t really touch the sides.
Nonetheless, Charli – clad in her own lime green crop top (her first time wearing the signature hue on stage – is incapable of being anything less than magnetic. An opening trio of ‘365’’s Shygirl remix, ‘360’ and ‘Von Dutch’ are a flawless hat trick, while the more anxious ‘I Might Say Something Stupid’ turns into a united sing-along, its “famous but not quite” line clearly no longer an issue. From Barbie cut ‘Speed Drive’ to gargantuan hit ‘Guess’, there are countless moments that send the crowd into a frenzy. The brash, brilliant ‘Vroom Vroom’ remains one of her best, while the recently re-upped ‘Party 4 U’ sees her crawling on her knees across the stage as the crowd cheers her on.
Indeed, tonight the crowd is almost the star of the show. It takes a certain level of ubiquity to be able to genuinely unite a festival audience, front to back, for an entire set. Most will never achieve it without the occasional energy slump; those that do tend to fall more squarely in the classic pop camp. LIDO, however, feels like the set of Skins gone turbo. Seemingly every person knows every song, and every person came here with a party in mind. Though there are a couple of missteps – a messed up introduction to ‘Rewind’ where they begin the wrong version of the track, and a shameless bit of Aperol Spritz promo during ‘Apple’ – there’s nothing that could stop LIDO having the time of their lives. As the screen flashes up its final text declaring Brat summer “a forever thing”, it’s hard to imagine its impact leaving any time soon.
Charli XCX’s LIDO festival setlist
‘365’
‘360’
‘Von Dutch’
‘I Might Say Something Stupid’
‘Club Classics’
‘Unlock It’
‘Apple’
‘Girl, So Confusing’ (remix)
‘Everything Is Romantic’
‘Speed Drive’
‘Sympathy Is A Knife’
‘Guess’ (remix)
‘365’
‘Rewind’ (with special guest, Bladee)
‘party 4 u’
‘Vroom Vroom’
‘Track 10’
‘I Love It’
