BBCFatboy Slim has closed out the dance-focused opening day of BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend with a nostalgia-fuelled headline set.
The veteran DJ had thousands of festivalgoers at Sunderland’s Herrington Country Park chanting and bouncing along to non-stop hits.
He wasted no time in showing the extent of his decades-long discography by teasing his classic track Praise You before sampling Queen’s iconic Don’t Stop Me Now.
The 62-year-old later awarded the crowd’s patience by delivering a full run of the club anthem, but it was of course mixed to a host of cleverly intertwined samples.
This was a theme throughout the set, with his hit, The Rockafeller Skank, getting an added dash of Eminem’s Slim Shady.
And if there’s one way to get a UK dancefloor going, it’s cracking out The Killers’ Mr Brightside, and the crowd at the main stage thanked him by chanting back every lyric.
He later took a sharp 180-degree turn into an acid house mix up, and “eat, sleep, rave, repeat” could be heard ringing out across the field.
Before his set, Fatboy Slim told BBC Newsbeat he was “looking forward to enjoying my songs without any swear words”.
“I’ve spent the last week just basically taking my set apart” for the live BBC broadcast, he joked.
Real name Norman Cook, Fatboy Slim gained some recognition in the 1980s with bands The Housemartins and Beats International, before enshrining himself as a mainstay of the dance music scene during the 1990s.
Alongside artists like the Chemical Brothers and Death in Vegas, he helped pioneer and popularise the big beat genre, which sits somewhere between hip hop and acid house.
Friday was the first time the festival used all of its stages to host a “huge dance party” across the opening day.
The line-up also featured Australian house and techno producer Fisher, who brought literal pyro fire to the main stage.
His high-energy set featured a number of hits including a remix of Gotye’s Somebody That I Used to Know and his adrenaline-filled banger Losing It, which landed him a Grammy nomination in 2019.
He took over the decks from American producer MK, who has become a defining force in electronic dance music over the last three decades.
The Detroit-born DJ momentarily turned the sky around the main stage into a sea of purple as a cannon sprayed confetti across the crowd to celebrate him bringing out singer Poppy Baskcomb for their new track Zone.
Tops were swung in the air and fans danced together as he blasted out tracks like Back & Forth and a dance-infused remix of Celeste’s Stop This Flame.
MK kicked the energy up a notch further when he launched into his viral hit Dior, which became an instant club classic following its release last year.
Earlier in the day, the sun beat down on the crowds as Sonny Fodera really got the party started on the main stage.
His set was filled with wall-to-wall bangers including Think About Us, All This Time and a remix of Disclosure’s You & Me.
Clementine Douglas also made a surprise return to the main stage during Fodera’s set to perform their track Tell Me and a high-energy rendition of Asking.
The Birmingham-born singer hyped up the crowds earlier in the afternoon while accompanied by a live band.
The dance-focused opening day of the festival spanned a host of styles and generations, with Notion, a prominent bassline DJ, and trance-focused Marlon Hoffstadt also on the bill.
HorsegiirL – the German DJ, singer and songwriter who describes herself as a human horse – was billed to play on the New Music stage in her iconic chestnut-coloured horse head mask.
But she had to pull out last minute, telling fans on Thursday that she had to cancel due to sickness.
Tens of thousands of fans are expected to attend this year’s three-day event, with pop stars Zara Larsson and Olivia Dean headlining on Saturday and Sunday.
Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays – or listen back 'Eat, sleep, rave, repeat': Fatboy Slim.
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