'We're meant to dance': Radio 1's Big Weekend has one focus on its first day

"Music is one of the best ways to bring everyone together," says BBC Radio 1's Charlie Hedges.

The Dance Anthems DJ "cannot wait" to perform on the main stage during the dance-focused first day of the station's Big Weekend in Sunderland, she tells BBC Newsbeat.

"I think that's what we need right now, right? Good music, good times."

Tens of thousands of fans are expected to attend this year's three-day event, with pop stars Zara Larsson and Olivia Dean headlining on Saturday and Sunday.

But Friday will be the first time the festival will be using all of its stages to host a "huge dance party" across the opening day, Radio 1 says.

It will see veteran DJ Fatboy Slim, Australian producers Fisher and Sonny Fodera, Birmingham-born singer Clementine Douglas and American DJ MK on the decks at Herrington Country Park.

Dance music has a rich history in the UK, with disco, acid house and techno among the genres which drew crowds to dancefloors in the 1970s and 1980s.

Things ramped up further in the 1990s, with jungle, garage and drum & bass fuelling underground raves and clubs.

The 21st Century saw dance music splinter into even more sub-genres, providing something for everyone to move to.

But in recent years there appears to have been a renaissance of electronic dance music (EDM), with the likes of Fred Again and Sammy Virji headlining UK festivals.

And artists including Charli XCX, SOPHIE and PinkPantheress have helped to revitalise hyperpop.

Big Weekend's dance-focused Friday is set to reflect the diversity of the genre - spanning styles and generations, with bassline DJ Notion, trance-focused Marlon Hoffstadt and German hardcore DJ HorsegiirL all on the bill as well.

Clementine Douglas, who will be performing on the main stage with a live band, tells Newsbeat she has seen dance music emerge "out of the underground and go more mainstream".

"You have a lot of pop-dance crossover acts now that are really smashing it," she says.

While it has remained popular over the years, Spotify says consumption of dance music for under-25s has grown 73% across the world since 2020.

Whether it's hyping yourself up at home, on a dancefloor or in a field, dance music has often been seen as a way for people to escape momentarily from what is going on in their lives.

Douglas says there is something about the "repetitive beat" and everyone "gathering to release some pent-up energy" which feels like a way to connect to our ancestral roots.

Radio 1 DJ Hedges agrees that it doesn't matter if you're with a big group or on your own, there is something special about "being present and experiencing something together".

"I don't think there's anything else in the world that gives that to you," she says.

And it's a similar feeling for her when she is DJing.