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Picked up our daughter from Reading yesterday. Some of the clips she was showing us from her phone where pretty disturbing. Tents being set alight chairs being lobbed at fellow punters and in general some horrible scenes. She had a weekend ticket but decided to cut her last day short which judging from the pictures seems like a good idea. The amount of tents which will be left on site and end up in landfill is pretty depressing which I find a bit ironic as her generation are to a certain degree are blaming us for destroying the planet. As far as I can see they’re just finishing the job off !! Youngsters just letting off steam?? Or me being an old foggy?
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Reading festival. on 13:23 - Aug 29 with 3316 views
I suppose its a case of we shouldn't over generalise. There are many fine young people who are really well behaved. I got the bus to work a few weeks back, and all the kids were amazingly well behaved. When I was at school they were all fighting and smoking. But then other times you come across some absolute morons. It's a mixed picture!
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Reading festival. on 13:29 - Aug 29 with 3292 views
If you are lobbing a chair at someone it’s probs your mate
I’m not sure who would have been ‘blaming you’ specifically. Possibly the billionaires that own the papers banging on about this bullshite culture war
In any instance It serves as a nice distraction from reported £3bn worth of oil that has been extracted from the ground every day for the last 50 yrs. that’s what’s destroying the planet, not a few tents being burnt (which admittedly) are made from/with oil.
I’m not surprised in the slightest to hear there’s horrific scenes at Reading festival- An incredibly tenuous link to anyone blaming you for anything & environmental damage tho
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Reading festival. on 13:51 - Aug 29 with 3193 views
If you are lobbing a chair at someone it’s probs your mate
I’m not sure who would have been ‘blaming you’ specifically. Possibly the billionaires that own the papers banging on about this bullshite culture war
In any instance It serves as a nice distraction from reported £3bn worth of oil that has been extracted from the ground every day for the last 50 yrs. that’s what’s destroying the planet, not a few tents being burnt (which admittedly) are made from/with oil.
I’m not surprised in the slightest to hear there’s horrific scenes at Reading festival- An incredibly tenuous link to anyone blaming you for anything & environmental damage tho
Fair point!!
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Reading festival. on 14:11 - Aug 29 with 3107 views
Not trying to have a go - Just reading festival has always resembled something from a war documentary
And I’ve only seen in from a speeding train. We could all do our bit to help the environment, but the reality is what we do as individuals is a drop in the ocean
Meanwhile all the water companies dump raw sewage where/whenever they like & BP/ shell rake in 20bn plus whilst many can’t afford to heat there homes and eat at the same time
What could they be so angry about? Anyway let’s see if we can pit the avocado eating young against their parents who bought a house for 30k and got a DB pension
Chronic underinvestment, Rentier capitalism & sovereign wealth funds being allowed to transfer our tax money onto their balance sheets are to blame in my opinion
Sorry bit of a rant- admittedly, there is a certain irony in burning something you might need to sleep in one day not too fair from now
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Reading festival. on 14:13 - Aug 29 with 3097 views
Tbh I used to go to Reading 2000-2004 when I was in sixth form, earlier uni years (while I was going to suddenly shifted to being much more of a post gcse thing) and all that was going on then too, burning tents, tipping toilets. Me and my mates would religiously stick together on the last night as it would get hairy. Hope your daughter is OK, but that stuff at Reading has been going on for well over 20 years
Reading / Leeds has very much become the rites of passage event for 16 year olds on completion of GCSEs.
It's the 16-17 year olds weekend of choice. My kids and their mates had all moved on to other events by the time they were 18, never mind 20+...specifically festivals where you need to be 18+ (fake IDs rarely breach festivals).
Thus Reading / Leeds is a mass of 'let off the leash' teens, inexperienced with drink & drugs, without wiser festival heads there to show them the ropes.
One thing I will add, from my experience of festivals this summer and knowing a few people who work for some - there has been a huge "brain drain" from the festival sector as people who knew what they were doing, have found alternative work and don't want to go back. Glastonbury struggled to get enough security, and had to draft more in at higher rates after loads walked out after day 1.
There were a few major crushes at Glasto that probably only didn't develop onto major incidents cos it was Glasto. Pals at the first weekend of Primavera said it was a miracle no one was seriously injured.
We've got promoters who are financially in the hole, with staff who don't know how to run them. A major incident at a festival feels fairly inevitable to me rn
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Reading festival. on 16:44 - Aug 29 with 2514 views
My son went to Boomtown, originally bought his tickets in 2020. He said the artists were less big name than he was used to, but that everyone was so pleased to be back they had a great time. Because of all the warnings about the dry ground no-one burned their tents and even went round picking up rubbish for a small bribe. It probably helped the average age was closer to 25 than 16.
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Reading festival. on 16:52 - Aug 29 with 2467 views
In 1997 we set up shop by a tent with a David Hasselhoff pic on a 20ft pole as it was funny and a great reference point. On the last night a crowd gathered outside this tent chanting "Burn the Hoff. Burn the Hoff" I cant remember how they did it but he burnt.
I went back in 2010 and didn't recognize it, all corporate and populated by kids in multi-coloured wellies though I didn't stay I was only there for Guns 'N' Roses. (who also looked a bit different )
The year before I went to Bloodstock and all I'm going to say is a rather different experience from Reading though one fecktard did hit one of Cradle of Filth with a full can/bottle and they stopped playing. If you don't like a band don't fkin watch them.
Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent
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Reading festival. on 17:40 - Aug 29 with 2317 views
In 1997 we set up shop by a tent with a David Hasselhoff pic on a 20ft pole as it was funny and a great reference point. On the last night a crowd gathered outside this tent chanting "Burn the Hoff. Burn the Hoff" I cant remember how they did it but he burnt.
I went back in 2010 and didn't recognize it, all corporate and populated by kids in multi-coloured wellies though I didn't stay I was only there for Guns 'N' Roses. (who also looked a bit different )
The year before I went to Bloodstock and all I'm going to say is a rather different experience from Reading though one fecktard did hit one of Cradle of Filth with a full can/bottle and they stopped playing. If you don't like a band don't fkin watch them.
I'm an oldie so remember the first outbreaks of festival aggro,notably May 30 1969 when Fleetwood Mac were playing at the Mr.Wonderful Tour,Parliament Hill Fields.Numpties chucking beer cans(full) at the band because they started playing "Albatross" The band left the stage never to return.
Just remembered same thing happened to Stevie Ray Vaughan at Knebworth 1990...What's with these berks - I mean a FULL can for chrissakes?
One thing I will add, from my experience of festivals this summer and knowing a few people who work for some - there has been a huge "brain drain" from the festival sector as people who knew what they were doing, have found alternative work and don't want to go back. Glastonbury struggled to get enough security, and had to draft more in at higher rates after loads walked out after day 1.
There were a few major crushes at Glasto that probably only didn't develop onto major incidents cos it was Glasto. Pals at the first weekend of Primavera said it was a miracle no one was seriously injured.
We've got promoters who are financially in the hole, with staff who don't know how to run them. A major incident at a festival feels fairly inevitable to me rn
Couldn’t agree more. My daughter made the right decision to leave. Regardless of rites of passage. The violence seen there yesterday was pretty bad. Using tent poles as spears, filling bottles with piss and chucking them at bystanders and burning tents is the act of a thug regardless of age! There will be a tragedy at a festival soon . Lack of security and poor training will see to that
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Reading festival. on 19:15 - Aug 29 with 2088 views
When i went to Reading 22 years ago, the last night people burnt down the toilet blocks, tipped a load of them over, pulled down electricity poles etc. There were a few toilet roll fights as people lobbed rolls between campsites...then some smart arse decided to light one and throw it in to a field of tents.
Anyway, not sure it's new to reading this year, but the footage of it and publicity certainly is.
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Reading festival. on 09:01 - Aug 30 with 1566 views
I did a weekend at Leeds in 2008 when I was 19 and it was the same on the last night - everything in the campsites it seems is set on fire. Quite scary to be in the middle of. We were first timers that weekend and quickly legged it not realising what would happen.
So its nothing new, its been going for years (doesn't make it right of course). As ever, too much drugs, too much drink, too many aggressive "frat" types wanting to show how hard they think they are.
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Reading festival. on 09:09 - Aug 30 with 1539 views
Also a long time Reading Festival attendee, that kind of behaviour always happened, especially on the final night. If anything the festival crowd became better behaved as the years went by.
If you were not considered "cool" or rock enough you would often have bottles thrown at you. The likes of Daphne & Celeste and 50 Cent left the stage because of having things thrown at them. 50 Cent eventually walked off when a camping chair hit him. The singer from Panic & the Disco got knocked out from getting hit by a bottle.
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