Big Weekend: Chase & Status provide Friday fireworks

"Long live Drum and Bass," Chase & Status repeated durng their set

Friday headline act Chase & Status thrilled the Big Weekend crowd with numerous surprise acts such as ArrDee, Stefflon Don and Clementine Douglas.

They followed Becky Hill, Ella Henderson, Rudimental and Nathan Dawe who also performed on the Main Stage at Stockwood Park in Luton.

It was the first time in the event's history that acts played across all four stages on a Friday.

In previous years Friday was reserved for an 18-plus dance night.

Speaking to Newsbeat before their set, the drum and bass duo admitted it was - by their own standards - one of their shorter sets.

"It makes it more difficult what songs to cut. We're fortunate enough to have seven albums now, and that's a lot to choose from," Will (Status) says.

"So it's been difficult finding the exact ones for this one."

But they didn't disappoint the crowd, who were regularly jumping around listening to a career-spanning set which celebrated drum and bass.

Becky Hill thrilled crowds

The day also saw a surprise from Rachel Chinouriri on the BBC Introducing Stage, who was only revealed as Friday's stage headliner in the morning.

She played songs from her recent debut album What A Devastating Turn Of Events.

"Me and my friends, we're quite good at keeping secrets. I'm a Scorpio so quite secretive," Rachel told Newsbeat.

For most of the day, though, she was "hiding in the traffic", in a journey that ended up taking her four hours.

The New Music Stage saw the likes of Diplo and Kenya Grace perform too.

But one group who didn't perform were Girls Don't Sync, who posted on Instagram that they pulled out due to "timing" issues.

There are expected to be about 100,000 people attending across the three days of the Radio 1 festival.

The rest of the weekend will see Raye headline on Saturday, and Coldplay on Sunday.

Aitch, Griff and Mabel will be playing the Main Stage on Saturday.

Sabrina Carpenter, Olly Alexander and Vampire Weekend will also hit the Main Stage on the final day of the festival.

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