Reading has always been the festival that lives its life ever so slightly in the shadow of the mighty Glastonbury. However, year upon year, it seems to further flourish in terms of its international reputation for bringing the big names of all music genres into Richmond Park on the last weekend of August, as well as being one of the most diverse and enjoyable festivals going. Year on year, people return from their weekend in Berkshire with only smiles on their faces and incredible stories to tell. This year’s festival was no different and over the course of this article I won’t only describe my experiences of the event but also advise you on how to (and how not to) survive it yourself if you choose to pay a visit.
I booked both my festival and train tickets very late on (three days before the festival, to be precise) and this is something I’m very keen to put you off doing. Although there is something exciting and spontaneous about booking your tickets last minute, I have personal experience of the absolute mayhem you cause yourself. The anxiety of awaiting the arrival of your ticket just 24 hours before the festival begins, the inability to book a ticket on the train you want, the vastly extortionate price you have to pay for that ticket, and the sweaty businessman you have to sit next to all the way there. Not only was there the stress of the ticket arrival, but also the preparation at such late notice. With just two days to buy everything, pack everything and realise you haven’t got everything, you can imagine how your life can descend into a dry shampoo and toilet roll filled chaos.
My second piece of advice is to do whatever you can to get an ‘Early Bird Camping’ ticket for the festival. I arrived at about 11 on the Thursday afternoon and I don’t know quite what I was expecting of the campsite but it certainly wasn’t what I found once I’d got past the gates. It felt almost like I’d stumbled into some drug fuelled refugee camp. I’d be staying in Orange campsite … And it was packed. Tents on top of tents – literally. Thankfully, my friends had saved me a small patch of grass (In the centre of which was a large pothole filled with the vomit of someone who went a bit too hard on a Wednesday night) into which I could wedge my four-man tent. However, on further inspection I noticed that many festival-goers were not quite so ‘lucky’. Even by this point on the Thursday, the mud was something else, and people with tents near paths were literally floating on a grim mix of lager, mud and urine. This is the reason I’d suggest an ‘Early Bird Ticket’ would make your Reading weekend so much more enjoyable. Being let in a day early means you can claim the best camping spots, and having a good camping spot almost certainly means having a good weekend.
This year’s Reading line up was one of my favourites of recent times; with headliners Mumford and Sons, Metallica and The Libertines all putting in performances truly worthy of their now legendary ‘top of the bill’ statuses. The rest of the line up didn’t disappoint either. Rebel Sound, unexpectedly introduced by Trevor McDonald on the Friday night seemed to create a musical/social revolution, which only continued to flourish as the weekend went on, before Jamie T’s anthems for the urban youth brought this intrafestival insurrection to a triumphant finale on the Sunday night. This brings me nicely onto my next piece of advice. Although I saw many of the acts I had intended to see over the weekend, I did, on one too many occasions, become too embroiled in the campsite camaraderie. I’ll exemplify this point and the pain of it by recalling how I missed the opportunity to see one of my favourite bands, The Maccabees, on Sunday evening, to involve my self in a game of ‘Intercampsite dodgecanister/camping chair/can of lager.’ Being a huge fan of the band, I began
to head down to the arena early however, upon my wander through the campsites, I noticed some fairly weighty projectiles being launched through the air. Upon further inspection of what was unfolding, I realised that there was in fact a war commencing between the orange and brown campsites. Eager to get in on this bit of campsite solidarity, I ran to help ‘The Tangerine Army,’ forgetting about my previous, considerably more important intentions of watching The Maccabees. Almost an hour passed, over which time it seemed that half the commodities of each campsite had been hurled into the enemy’s, before I realised that Orlando, Felix and the gang would be over half way through their set. Close to tears, I trudged back to the tent to evaluate the monumental blunder I’d just made. Please, do not make the same mistake as me. Make sure you find out when all your favourite acts are, and make sure you watch them all.
Another key feature of Reading Festival is the shear number of considerably small, yet no less talented, acts playing over the course of the weekend. I stumbled across the comedian, Joel Dommett, whom I’d spotted on Live At The Apollo a few times, performing on the alternative stage. I’d never even considered watching comedy at a festival, I thought it would feel all wrong, but I can safely say I will be returning to the comedy stages at festivals I attend in the future, and if I am lucky enough to do so, one of Joel Dommett’s ridiculously funny gigs. This leads me to advise you, as well as seeing your favourite acts, to try to also watch or do something new. There was an incredible range of acts and workshops at Reading, from midnight viewings of short films, to tutorials on how to make them yourself.
My final point is a vital one: do not listen to the opinions of others. As I trudged through the mud back to the train station the rainy Monday after the festival, I began to ask what my festival comrades had thought of their weekend. Those who hadn’t been to Reading before claimed the weekend to be one of the best of their lives, however, those who had been the previous year seemed to immediately dampen our moods by boasting of how the preceding festival had been more enjoyable. However amazing my weekend was, the opinions of others managed to knock my post-festival buzz down a couple of notches. For this reason, do not let others tell you what they thought of the festival; enjoy what you enjoy, and do what you want to do, don’t let anyone stop you.
I had one of, if not the best weekend of my life, and I met some amazing people who, without this extraordinarily diverse event, I’d never have come across. Although I left slightly traumatised by the ritual tent burnings I had witnessed on my walk out, I wouldn’t hesitate to spend my next payslip on reliving the weekend again.
Also, any parents out there wishing to find a way to put their children off taking drugs, I’d advise a short trip to Brown Campsite at 3 in the morning. That should do the trick.
YOU CAN COP TICKETS FOR THIS YEARS FESTIVAL HERE: http://readingfestival.seetickets.com/event/reading-festival-2016/richfield-avenue/907203