MAISIE PETERS is officially in her main-stage era. The singer-songwriter returned to Reading 2026 for the first time in five years on Saturday (August 29), taking over the festival’s main stage — now called The Grid — with what she described as a “megamix” pulled from across her discography.

For Peters, it was a neat bit of time-travel. Her last Reading appearance was a surprise set on the (now defunct) BBC Introducing stage — and it happened on the day her debut album came out. This time, she was back with album number three, calling the moment “full circle” as she stepped up to the festival’s biggest platform.

That third record, ‘Florescence’, arrived in May and, by Peters’ own account, it’s tied tightly to where her life has been recently. She said she wrote her albums — especially the second and third — with the aim of documenting the year-and-a-half spent making each one, adding that ‘Florescence’ came from a “more grounded place”.

She also shared how that calm showed up in the music: she was falling in love and was home for the first time in four years after constant touring and travelling, which she said she needed to feel stability before the album could exist.

‘Florescence’ is her first record to feature other artists, with collaborations with Julia Michaels and Marcus Mumford. Peters said having more time than before allowed her to experiment, get into writing sessions, and make ideas work around schedules.

Next up: a major London flex. Peters is set to headline The O2 for the first time in 2027 — a moment she said she “literally can’t fathom” yet. As for plans? She jokingly teased a horseback-heavy spectacle, with “real horses” and a dramatic ascent “just like the Ariana Grande show.”