GaydarGirls Goes Backstage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend

Want to know what happened back stage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend? We sent a spy from GaydarGirls HQ to be our eyes and ears for the day…

Snoop Dogg snakes past shrouded by entourage and a cloud of unusual-smelling cigarette smoke, and in the background Ben Howard frolics in a ball pit. What can this mean? Only one thing; That Gaydar has snuck backstage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend to watch the UK’s biggest free festival and catch up with some celebrity gossip.

Sometimes it feels as though there’s a gulf between the bands we love and us but Big Weekend attempts to bridge that by giving young people in local communities a slice of the major festival experience without having to pay crazy festival ticket prices. This year’s free event was hosted in Norwich, with more than half of its 50,000 tickets reserved for locals.

We find ourselves backstage where everyone is supposed to maintain their cool, yet Snoop (yes we’re on first name terms) is constantly being stopped by selfie-hungry celebs. Nonetheless he still finds the time to tell us what he thinks of the recent gay marriage bill passing in Ireland. ‘Everyone should just be who they want to be, without being judged’ he tells us. We couldn’t agree more. It seems his new strategy of getting Pharrell to produce his records is working. He performs tracks from ‘Snoop Lion’ that set the crowd on fire.

We spot Florence Welch. She appears to be limping, yet still exudes elegance. It transpires that she broke her foot during her Coachella set, yet refuses to be defeated and carries on by performing tracks from her new album ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ from a stool. What a legend.

We spot Rita Ora looking fabulous backstage. And she delivers in her live show too. A big production with well-choreographed dance routines and snazzy staging fills the pop quota for this weekend. It’s an impressive show and ‘I Will Never Let You Down‘ takes the crowd by storm.

Prize for biggest entourage goes to Taylor Swift. The back stage area is all but cleared to make way for six blacked out cars to mow through carrying the tiny Country-turned-pop princess. Her set does not disappoint though. Swift classics such as ‘Love Story’, ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Shake It Off’ delight the crowd.

Dave Grohl seems suitably amused to be sharing the bill with Her Royal Highness Tay Tay. ‘She makes a good support act’ he jokes. We agree, un-ironically of course. The Foo Fighters deliver hit after hit, thus providing a brilliant closing ceremony to this year’s Big Weekend.