overview

This year the capacity of Reading was increased and the ‘White/Quiet Camping’ introduced as well as the highly entertaining man showers. The site felt pretty busy over the weekend but never too packed in the thoroughfares.

Increasing the capacity meant all four stages had a good size crowd in them for every act, this combined with a stronger bill on all stages meant that those of us who had already seen pretty much all of the acts on the main stage got to see some real quality alternative acts over the weekend.

The age demographic was primarily teens although on Sunday with old veterans Pearl Jam providing a storming set the age range rose drastically for both them and Slayer. The youth culture were well catered for with Muse, The Arctic Monkeys, The Streets, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand providing up to date tunes.

The biggest crowds of the weekend on the other stages were veteran rockers Primal Scream, Gogol Bordello, The Automatic, Bodycount featuring Ice T, Goldie Lookin’ Chain and the hugest crowd ever seen at the Carling Stage for Klaxons who were the surprise hit of the weekend.

As well as many other musical high points and some fantastic bands on show, Reading also had a crazy cabaret of the most bizarre kind. Early highlights included Big Al’s performance in the Stars Up Their Arse Karaoke before musical acts and some gross out performances with nudity including necrophilia, blood lust, fire, sadism and suspension by meathooks! Not surprising a few members of the audience fainted and all the raw liver had the Specialised crowd safety guys unwilling to pick up the chunks!

For those wanting a dance Steve Lamacq provided the tunes in the late night silent disco. There were also films on offer for the more vegetated in the Lock Up Stage. But the rain of the Friday night meant the crowd were pretty thin on the ground. Talking of weather it pretty much avoided getting in the way, which was nice and cloud cover kept the arena cool but it was still T shirt weather through out the weekend. The sun was out a lot of the time and the tasteless lager and cider kept flowing, still no provision for those that prefer beer.

The addition of a new two tier barrier at the front of the main stage, worked really well in controlling the crowd and preventing the very front of the crowd to suffer bad crushes, it was still packed all the same.

Queues for bands signing were impressive with huge lines all weekend and Gogol Bordello’s fans must have been waiting for hours to meet their heroes. The plan to prevent gas canisters being thrown on the fires also appeared to work with the amazing prize of 4 tickets to Reading Festival, Glastonbury, Benicassim and Download in 2007 tempting hundreds to enter. Mani from Primal Scream provided the laughs and the draw on the first day of winners, and two other people I’d not heard of provided the winners’ names on the next two days.

Outside the relaxed feeling campsites, still as crazy as ever but lacking the dangerous edginess of previous years, thanks possibly to the ‘Love Not Riots’ campaign, the streets were awash with festival goers, food stalls, fly pitch traders, shirt sellers, live acts doing street performances and loads of pubs and cafes offering food and a pint of real ale!

Overall Reading provided probably the greatest bill on offer at a festival this year. My only gripe is that it’s a music festival and after all summer reviewing proper festivals I feel the festival has very little else to offer. Catering was less diverse this year, there’s still nothing for kids to do, and though the number of them is increasing many of them appeared bored by just sitting in front of stages all day and night.

The problem for people of my age with families, is much though I love Reading festival and that unbeatable atmosphere generated by headliners like Franz Ferdinand, Muse and Pearl Jam and the fact Reading has an intangible quality to it that you fall in love there’s nothing for the rest of the family to attract them.

I did enjoy seeing the Premiership Trophy on display outside the Press Tent to celebrate Reading’s promotion to the Premiership. Better still I got a chance to meet the Soccer AM crew who were there with it, before heading off to the first act on the main stage on Saturday.

It’s a fashionable festival for the youth, a right of passage for many and an escape for others. I really loved the 40 odd acts I saw primarily on the Radio1, Carling or Lock Up stages some I’m unlikely to ever see again. But my problem is until my family are of an age where they’ll enjoy it, I find myself in the wrong demographic, at a festival that a pre-teen is not going to enjoy, the music’s too eclectic for her. Therefore it’s unlikely I’ll be back for a few years!

It’s a shame because I loved this year, many of the problems of previous years have been addressed, although some new ones like the queue times from White camping on the ferry (five hours!) and teething problems with late night entertainment and some blocked/closed loos are minor gripes. The line up was the strongest for years, as testified by the crowds at all the stages none of which were ever as empty as last year. Overall this was the best Reading in years, well done to all those who made it run so well.

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