Sun, superstars and other takeaways from Radio 1’s Big Weekend
Radio 1’s Big Weekend doesn’t always promise sunshine.
Nor does north-east England, as we were regularly reminded by some of the 100,000 festivalgoers who couldn’t believe their luck in Sunderland.
They were treated to about 100 acts across three glorious days at Herrington Country Park.
BBC Newsbeat was there too, speaking to artists and fans about the big talking points – starting with a few words they all wanted to hear.
‘Zero chance of rain’
Kicking off the start of festival season at the end of May, Big Weekend’s weather conditions are usually mixed.
And there’s no denying it can make or break the experience.
So when worrying rain icons on our apps turned into three days of sunshine, we knew it was going to be special.
“The sun brought the good mood,” 20-year-old Caitlin told Newsbeat at the end of night one.
And that good mood didn’t leave.
Olivia Dean’s victory lap
Tickets for the final day, featuring Olivia Dean’s first major headline slot, were piping hot, too.
It’s after a remarkable nine months for the singer since she released her second album The Art of Loving.
“It’s completely changed my life,” she told the crowd.
Chart records, huge sold-out tours and a tonne of awards have followed.
She can now add another achievement to the list.
If there were any doubts about how her often intimate and understated style would suit a main stage festival finale, they melted away within minutes.
As the Sunday sun set over Sunderland, her performance radiated with the warmth it left behind.
And fans from around the world were there to see it.
Kameel, 27, flew from New York after missing out on tickets to her US tour and coming across Big Weekend on Instagram.
“Olivia Dean resonates with me,” she tells us.
“She’s a person of colour, and so it’s great to hear her music and her story – and her vocals are insane.”
Being the most you
If Olivia Dean’s rise has been meteoric, Zara Larsson’s has been years in the making.
It’s almost a decade since the Swedish star first performed at Big Weekend – opening the main stage in Hull.
But her global popularity has exploded recently, powered by viral dances, high-profile collabs and, she says, by becoming “the most me”.
It would be naive to think sounds and personalities aren’t still carefully curated by talented teams.
But the shift does at least seem to reflect fans’ perceptions – and what they’re craving.
“It’s like Zara Larsson’s bloomed into the full butterfly version of herself, like this is the Zara,” fan Christian 25, tells BBC Newsbeat.
His friend Leanne, 26, agrees, saying: “The dances, her make-up, everything she’s wearing in this era, it’s incredible.”
She’s not the first star to claim that authenticity can be the key to breaking through with more savvy and social media-focused audiences.
The message? To stop aiming for old-fashioned stereotypes of what a pop star should look and sound like, and instead lean into your own artistic instincts and true character.
Girl group FLO agree it’s increasingly important if you’re going to have a long career.
“It’s always easier to sell a story that’s your own,” singer Stella Quaresma tells Newsbeat.
“It becomes a drag when it’s not from you.”
The dancefloor is alive
The vibrancy of the current electronic music scene led Radio 1 to dedicate day one of Big Weekend to its Dance Party brand for the first time.
It spanned styles, backgrounds and generations – from local lad Max Jones getting the party started on the Introducing stage to Fatboy Slim finishing it on the main one.
He might be 62, but Fatboy Slim – or Norman, as he introduced himself to Newsbeat – still has an energy and aura that transcends age groups, and decades of timeless bangers to back it up.
“That’s the beautiful thing about dance music,” he says.
“Getting us all together in one place, with a common cohesion and unity – the power of that”.
Same again next year?
“Yes please!” Radio 1’s dance music maestro Danny Howard tell us backstage.
Sunderland is ‘lush’
If you’ve been to a Big Weekend, you’ll know it’s not like other festivals.
It takes huge stars to new places that don’t usually get to see them.
Tickets are significantly cheaper than most major festivals, too, with a large number reserved for local residents.
And so it feels different every year – with each place stamping its own character and culture on the event.
People from Sunderland beamed with pride when they told BBC Newsbeat about their accent, chicken parmos and other trademarks that make it a “lush” place to live, to steal a word from Zara Larsson.
For local DJ Sorley, it was a “full circle” moment, telling Newsbeat how he’d come to Big Weekend with his family when it last came to Sunderland in 2005 – highlighting how the event can inspire new generations of artists.
And colliding with the end of a football season that’s put Sunderland well and truly back on a global map – and above local rivals Newcastle – it felt like the place to be: right here, right now.
Fatboy Slim knew what to expect from the people he was playing to: “They’re lunatics,” he joked, lovingly.
But “always a really friendly, lively crowd”. He was right.
It hasn’t just been for the city, though, as Fatboy Slim was keen to tell us.
“Big up everyone in Sunderland, big up everyone in the North East.”
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back here.
