Urgently need photos of riots last night

[Paul ™]

Zero tolerance is surely the way to go. If ANYONE is caught doing anything of the like, kick them out. NO QUESTIONS.

[Explosions_In_The_Sky]

Mate, honestly never seen so many evictions at Reading over the weekend, must have been into hundreds each day

Edited August 31, 2009 by Explosions_In_The_Sky

[Paul ™]

I've worked around 10 Readings since 1995 and that's the worst I've seen it for evictions...

[Budweiser]

Just back, fires will be banned next year for sure

[ourseveninches]

I have never seen so many horrible people in just one place in my entire life!

I went with my husband to Reading as part of our honeymoon this year. We camped by the bridge in the Brown campsite as we've read that it was one of the quietest and most secure areas.

Disappointment is the word though. I don't mind noise that much, but on thursday and friday night we had people (usually very young girls) shouting until at least 2am. Some people in tents around were complaining, but the only response they got was "I don't care!". On Sunday our flag and pole were stolen. We thought it could be our fault as we didn't fix them directly to the ground (we just used a metal pipe), but I don't think we should blame ourselves for it. We just went to the festival expecting to have fun and not worry about such things.

Not mentioning the problems during acts. We were in the front for Them Crooked Vultures and we had to ask to be pulled out as it was just unbearable. People thinking it's cool to push others and keep jumping on others' backs. It's ridiculous! I've been in the front to see bands like Bad Religion and Pennywise (that would be considered "dangerous") and never had so much trouble. We also had problems in the crowd (seriously!) for Vampire Weekend and Jack Peñate.

It seems to me that the security was more worried about people taking their wristbands off and giving to others rather than protecting the ones who paid and were trying to enjoy the festival. Honestly, what's the problem with that? I paid such a big amount of money for these tickets and, in theory, they should check everyone that went in the arena (something that did not happen all the 3 days). If I want to give my wristband to someone else is that really a problem?

We've been to Download this year and, although I think we thought the line-up at Reading was better, we would much rather go to Download again rather than Reading. The people there are much more mature. You don't see lots of teenagers thinking that a festival is all about drinking, smoking and burning tents. People who don't say "sorry" or "excuse me", who talk A BLOODY LOT during acts because don't know the songs as they are not played on Radio 1. People who have no respect for others AT ALL.

We are just sure now that we will never go to Reading again. At least for the weekend. Maybe we might get a day ticket eventually but only if bands that we like play and there is no chance of us seeing them anywhere else.

[fakeplasticlung]

Looks like White Camp is the safest place to be, you're over the river and it's a lot quieter and chilled out. The walk might be long but it is worth it.

[kyjenni]

[kyjenni]

A lot of festivals have an ethos that the attendees respect. Stuff like this just wouldnt happen at Glastonbury, for example. I'm not even sure Reading could conceivably take on any kind of green, or charitable ethos (even its attempts to do so through the pay for returning beer cups scheme is just exploited by idiot children, who fight over the cups to make money), it's just too corporate. But maybe that's what they need.

[Paul ™]

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[Matticus]

plus why burn your turn when it can go to charity, AND save everyone from inhaling toxic burning plastic, its so disgusting. Fire wood, im down with that, its fine, if your responsible then have a small bonfire with proper wood, but unfortunatley when you have a field full of tents and other flammable objects and a load of pissed up 16 yr old mongs then id much prefer to ban fires all together and let them go ruin some other pop festival, and leave reading festival to the people that appreciate it.

[samc86]

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[jameshendicott]

The Green Messengers were out this morning first thing with huge bags to collect in unwanted tents, chairs, roll mats, food etc. I wish I could have hung around for longer to see what they'd got but I was exhausted. I was invited by FR to stay on site for Monday & Tuesday to watch the clean up, if I can walk tomorrow without pain I'll go back and see how they're getting on.

[morelego]

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[mcalli2008]

Was my first time at Reading this year, was with my girlfriend and we camped in Green. The 'Riots' were going on right next to our tent and we were woken up by exploding deodrant cans literally 2 metres from our tent!

Luckily we had a nice bunch of people next to us keeping an eye out and they helped us move our tent into their circle.. By this point the twats causing the 'riots' were literally grabbing any tent they could see nearby and sticking it on the fires - I'm sure ours would have been next. We stood watching for a couple of hours then decided to head to the train station around 5ish.

This aside, I had a great weekend.. I know my girlfriend was pretty shook up about the whole thing. These dickheads need to be taught a lesson.

Also, my cousin was in another bit of green and she said someone was going round with a knife slashing the tents around hers. PRICK!

[mcalli2008]

Double post

Edited August 31, 2009 by mcalli2008

[zahidf]

Articles like this are the only going to encourage more people to riot, as it becomes the more accepted standard of what happens. Maybe some kids won't be allowed to go until they're 16 or something though.

Security had last night on lock down for the most part anyway, I slept through most of it though.

[LusciousLucy]

Here's an idea...

how's about putting an age restriction on the fest? Over 21s perhaps?

I am not kidding and not too worried about the backlash on that one. It would appear its the young wayward teens (usually described as being away from home at a festy for the first time and trashing mummy and daddies stuff and so on) that are the issue and I am pretty sure that a very different experience would be had by one and all if the lower end of the age scale was removed for a year...just to prove a point!

Its just a silly idea folks and yes I am fully aware that hundreds if not thousands of under 18s attend and do behave but we all know after years of this behaviour, and its getting worse and worse as each year goes past that even if just a small proportion of the kids are causing the trouble, they are seriously tarring every kid with the same brush and ruining it for everyone!

I went to one Reading back in 94 and there was some toilet tipping in Green (?) and a bit of burnig craziness on the Sunday night but it wasnt Lord of teh Flies territoryand knew I would never return and now 15 years later the stories that come back are beyond horrific. It still astounds me this crazy event has not been shut down yet, money maker for Reading town and Festy Republic regardless!

The press lauds the showyness of the event but barely reports the very dark and nasty and dangerous side. The Beeb regularly blasts our screens with warzone imagery and jumps on any rioting when its political both home amd away...the fact we have our own warzone in this country that would certainly probably create quite a stir if the nation was aware of what goes on in a respectable town in the UK every August Bank Holiday!

[kyjenni]

The press lauds the showyness of the event but barely reports the very dark and nasty and dangerous side. The Beeb regularly blasts our screens with warzone imagery and jumps on any rioting when its political both home amd away...the fact we have our own warzone in this country that would certainly probably create quite a stir if the nation was aware of what goes on in a respectable town in the UK every August Bank Holiday!

[samc86]

+1

I think the parents would be interested to see it too.

[Im_in_a_tent]

if you want to avoid all this trouble you need to camp in the tight places

al the trouble from what i could tell was coming from yellow/purple

where we were (in orange by road 3) there was hardly any trouble at all we had a mob run through saying burn the tents (which was almost instantly broke up by security) a few large fires cropped up (none= with tents on from what i could tell) they where almost instantly put out by security/the cats. in fact all the fires in our field seemed to have been extinguisehd by about 2 (dont know if this was an intentional move by security or weather they just burnt out)

as for banning fire this isnt going to work people are still going to light they. just like they ban canisters this year but there were pleanty going up through out the night

[benissright]

I was in yellow.

I experienced no trouble.

Yeah i saw fires. And explosions. But no one threatened me.

Maybe its because i wasnt going round getting as close to the action as possible, then complaining when i saw something bad by it and telling people its impossible to get away from. Pfft.

Camp in red or white and you'll be fine. But a significant majority of people, who camp sensibly, are fine.

[the_frame]

This was my first year of not going to Reading after 8 years straight, we have always camped in orange, and never had a single problem apart from someone jumped on my mates car bonnet (when you could park near your tent) and he got a leathering off my mate.

The general rule for me is - the nearer the arena - the worse it is.

but there is so much more wrong with reading festival than this, for the last 3-4 years it has been far too full, they increased the capacity, but only marginally increased the size of the arena.

I dont claim to know the answers, but I do know I didnt miss it this year at all, and I dont intend to return.

[Marshall]

The general rule for me is - the nearer the arena - the worse it is.

[jameshendicott]

I must admit I was a little surprised there was any reaction along the lines of 'press coverage is a bad thing', as I can't see how people knowing about what goes on wouldn't generate a reaction from both the parents of these kids and the organisers, whose current response seems to be 'let it lie, there's no consequence'. Yeah, I accept they banned canisters etc, but they need to get extremely strict, and things are exactly the same year on year.

I'm not a mainstream journo, and it usually costs me more to write a (music related) article than I get paid for it (in fact I very rarely get paid for my music writing at all). I'm not a 'scummy journo' out to ruin Reading with negative coverage, I love this festival. Equally, I'm not under any illusions that a bit of press coverage will 'save' the festival, but I do think it's disgraceful that major publications choose to ignore the problems year on year - I can only assume the people who work for these places dont actually stay the night, they're down the road in a hotel somewhere after writing their reviews. I just think it's about time the true music lovers claimed the festival back from these idiots, and publicity can only help with that.

[Azzy G]

I think this year had a lot less of this than last year based on what I saw, It really pisses me off that these cnuts can act the way they act with no regard for anyone else at the festival, Ive been going reading since I was 16, and Ive never acted like that, but I personally believe that Reading should be made 18+, the majority of this carnage is by these twattish kids away from their parents for the very first time and i know making it 18s and over is unfair on the people who were like me and went and behaved themselves, but what other method has worked?

On a less serious note, I was walking through Green on Sunday night and this drunk guy was singing 'WOOOOOAAAHHH, YOUURR TEENT IS ON FIRREEE' It cracked me up