Metallica remind the increasingly broad Reading of its hard rock roots

The metal veterans were accompanied on stage by a group of flag-waving fans, including some Game of Thrones actors (Sidney Bernstein)

pSaturated by 16-year-olds fresh out of GCSE hell, this years Reading Festival seems to have attracted less hardcore rock fans and more of the casual listener, interested solely in getting drunk in a field to Bastille. /p pA bright start on Friday saw popular indie acts take the chunk of the day. Alt-J, Django Django, and Swim Deep brought healthy sized crowds with Swim Deeps new psychedelic synth-pop song Fuelho Boogie seeing a whirling dervish perform hypnotically beside them. /ppBastille hit the main stage in the afternoon drawing a huge crowd in the sun. Opening with The Things We Lost In The Fire, they played new song, Hanging that sounded like a UB40 reggae-tinged anthem before singer Dan Smith ended the set with a crowd singalong to Pompeii./pp img alt=mumford-jen-o-neil.jpg src=http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10479909.ece/BINARY/mumford-jen-o-neil.jpg width=w460/ span class=caption Mumford and Sons: The folky odd ones out (Jen ONeill) /span brFridays headliners Mumford and Sons were the folky odd ones out on the Main Stage compared to their rockier co-headliners. Despite this, they came on to cheers and opened the set with their most recent album track, Snake Eyes. Frontman Marcus Mumford announced Theres fucking nothing like a British music festival before playing a volley of hits including, I Will Wait, Little Lion Man and ending the show with a spectacular firework fountain on Dust Bowl Dance./ppBy Saturday the weather had turned, the rainclouds gathered and there were many hungover festival-goers. It seemed only fitting that Metallica provided the soundtrack for this kind of apocalyptic atmosphere and as the band arrived onstage to Ennio Morricones Ecstasy Of Gold, frontman James Hetfield declared to the excited crowd: Were Metallica and this is what we do! Before tearing into Fuel from their 1998 album ReLoad./pp img alt=royal-blood-jen-o-neil.jpg src=http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10479910.ece/BINARY/royal-blood-jen-o-neil.jpg width=w460/ span class=caption Royal Blood impressed on the main stage (Jen ONeill) /span brThe metal veterans were accompanied on stage by a group of flag-waving fans, including some Game of Thrones actors. Highlights included a grinding For Whom The Bell Tolls, and Master of Puppets before ending the night with Enter Sandman in a shower giant black balloons and pyrotechnics.  /ppEarlier in the day, Royal Blood impressed on the Main Stage, while Foals played a not-so-secret show on the NME/Radio 1 Stage before alternative hipsters Wolf Alice let rip. /ppSunday was more of an indie affair with Jamie T, Years Years, and the Maccabees playing the biggest shows. The latter celebrated the release of their new album, emMarks To Prove It/em but ended the show with old fan favourites, Latchmere and Toothpaste Kisses./pp img alt=maccabees-jen-o-neil.jpg src=http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article10479907.ece/BINARY/maccabees-jen-o-neil.jpg width=w460/ span class=caption The Maccabees during the indie-filled Sunday (Jen ONeill) /span brThe Libertines ended this years Reading Festival with a triumphant and surprisingly tight performance that saw Pete Doherty smash up a mic stand and lift drummer Gary Powell onto his shoulders. Opening with Horror Show, the band played a series of old hits, including Vertigo, Time For Heroes that ended with an energetic Dont Look Back Into The Sun and Powell screaming out, Dont forget you are all libertines./ppWith far more popularity with the Rap, RnB and Dance acts this year, Reading Festival attempts to remain loyal to its rock roots but runs the risk of losing some of its rock identity as it continues to broaden its lineup. /p