If Charlie XCX is playing the levels, I think it’s fair to say that it doesn’t require much foresight to say that you have to plan specifically to bin off a headliner to see that or at the least leave midway through a headline set and be prepared to be disappointed.
With Bicep, our group agreed to meet at iicon. Various people had different strategies depending on where they were but all involved getting there well before bicep started. We also agreed to go in the right hand side of the field as be left hand side was crazy (I got there straight after jungle and the toilets in between iicon and block 9 was already carnage).
We moved right down to the front right of the stage at the back of the crowd and had a huge slice of empty field behind us for the rest of the set.
In front/to the left of us seemed busy but not crazy and behind us/to the right remained empty. My guess is that the choke points between the sound stage and the bars were turning into crushes though. About half an hour in though (1.45 is when I messaged someone about it), they stop the music and ask everyone to take three steps back, and after a short while ask everyone to do this again and announce they are stopping the music (can’t quite remember the exact order of these things). Where we were it remained busy and not many people left the field (the two of our friends who did leave said it was chaos getting out of the SEC).
By about 2.15 they then announced that they were about to restart and that there was more space further forwards so people could slowly make their way to the front if they wanted, then restarted and bicep ended up playing their full set I think (went on longer than scheduled from vague memory).
Guesses are that a) they continued letting people into SEC for longer than they should have done as SEC capacity is higher than what was in, however everyone was trying to get into iicon rather than Shangri-La/Block 9 and b) because the field wasn’t full at the front they hadn’t closed the stage but things got too crushed too quickly at the sound stage.
Lots of songs in their catalogue take variable times played live, as they'll extend things out and play around a little if it's working. It's what makes them exciting to watch live: it's a not tight, carefully planned show.
I hsve just listened to her album on the bus. I thought it was pleasant & if she was on WH in the afternoon or maybe the Pyramid & I was there - I wouldnt leave.
Headline? Esp on a sunday? Not for me.