smash show was defined by the fans

The first thing you notice at a Harry Styles concert is the color. Just like when thousands of football fans stream down the iconic Wembley Way in their home colors before a match, the exuberant deluge of fans who made their way to the stadium on Tuesday night was a bewildering sea of ​​bright hues and stylish frocks . Stocks of pink cowboy hats and feather boas nearby were extremely low.

The former One Direction member’s first of four gigs at the venue this week – a total of six nights there last summer and that – was more of an event than just a gig. Styles played a polished and flawless two-hour show, but everything going on around him in the stadium was just as important and captivating. Costumes were made, online friends met for the first time, fans held up signs asking Styles to help them come out as gay, and a warm community came together to celebrate.

In recent weeks, stadium tours from Beyoncé and The Weeknd have rolled through the UK, both filled to the brim with maximalist stage productions, choreographed routines and theme lines. Styles’ Love On Tour show, meanwhile, is gimmickless. The singer was wise to realize that the people in the crowd here were the real show as much as himself.

“Feel free to be who you’ve always wanted to be in this room tonight,” he told the crowd midway through the film, the plea being heeded emphatically. Before the Satellite choir began, a hundred fans rushed into formation in the spacious back of the standing area in an organized routine. Forming a circle, they all then ran into the middle for the best mosh pit in the world. Later, a massive conga line formed before fans lay back en masse and gazed up at the night sky during Fine Line. Fostering such a safe space for people to be so shamelessly themselves was Styles’ greatest feat.

In a setlist mixed only slightly from his shows at the venue last summer, Styles traveled from the classic rock leanings of his 2017 debut to last year’s groovy, tropical house, Harry’s House. Alongside a rapturously received rendition of One Direction’s What Makes You Beautiful and the still-powerful pop smash Watermelon Sugar, the show’s most emotional moment came on Matilda, whose heart-tugging acoustic number showcased his Styles at their best as they let and weaved. between the harmonies of his excellent bandmates.

Running largely the same show in the same venue for the second summer in a row also felt inconsequential when such a hungry and unrelenting appetite for such a simple, cheerful and lively show still exists. Running through As It Was, a song as glued to the top of the charts as the last time he performed at Wembley, Styles barely sang a word. Instead, he let the crowd scream for him, ending a show that felt like it was theirs all along.

Wembley Stadium, until June 17