Urgently need photos of riots last night

[howlin_pete]

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.

[JonnyHarper]

Yeah I Really think the problem is being exaggerated here - for the vast majority it's fine, I had a quality time in green, no trouble at all. This doesn't mean the touble isn't an issue, rather that we need to remember that an internet forum isn't an accurate way of gauging how much of an issue it was.

[Paul ™]

an internet forum isn't an accurate way of gauging how much of an issue it was.

[Marshall]

Yeah I Really think the problem is being exaggerated here - for the vast majority it's fine, I had a quality time in green, no trouble at all. This doesn't mean the touble isn't an issue, rather that we need to remember that an internet forum isn't an accurate way of gauging how much of an issue it was.

[jameshendicott]

Exaggerated? so the people who had their tent and stuff burnt or sat there too frightened to sleep are exaggerating? if there was 1 incident like this it would have been 1 too many but it was on a pretty big scale. there are many witnesses and unfortunately victims of this. It's an absolute disgrace.

[mcalli2008]

As I said before, we were basically on top of the fire in green and if we hadn't been woken up we could have cought fire. People were also trying to push down the telegraph pole which would have landed on our tent and probably killed us had we been in it!

I was really hoping for one of these wasps to catch fire. If they had, I seriously would even piss on them to put it out. Absolute scum the lot of them.

And the people saying that this is being exaggerated obviously didn't see any of it. I spoke to one lad who said it was the worst he'd seen it in the 5 years he had been there.

[jameshendicott]

As I said before, we were basically on top of the fire in green and if we hadn't been woken up we could have cought fire. People were also trying to push down the telegraph pole which would have landed on our tent and probably killed us had we been in it!

I was really hoping for one of these wasps to catch fire. If they had, I seriously would even piss on them to put it out. Absolute scum the lot of them.

And the people saying that this is being exaggerated obviously didn't see any of it. I spoke to one lad who said it was the worst he'd seen it in the 5 years he had been there.

[benissright]

I would usually agree with you, as I've never really had any troublle with it. This year though the fire started literally next door to our campsite. We had several people come try and nick our tents so eventually we had to put several away and stand there guarding the others for the hour or so the fire kept going. A couple of people in our campsite were pretty scared as people tried to lift there tent up as they slept

[kyjenni]

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.

[Gareth100]

I'm not sure what can be done? Tighter lock down on each fields maybe? It was my 19th in a row and this time there were only two of us camping. Friends just won't camp anymore. We grew up nearby so it's just an easy commute for them. The campsites need to attract a more mixed demographic but that won't happen until the trouble stops...and that's going to continue when you get thousands of teenage boys who can't handle their drink and get in a pack mentality...

Saying all that...we didn't see or hear any trouble in Brown (we were by the river wall which was less cramped). We saw plenty of stupidity on the walk back on Sunday night though in the other fields. Previous nights there seemed to be a really good police and steward show of strength. But Sunday they just couldn't cope.

I don't think things were every like this in the early 90s but at the same time it definitely felt quite an unsafe place to be at night...drug dealers amongst walking about the tents and loads of thieving going on. The stronger fences and security patrols definitely helps.

[Dirty Boots]

The stewards were awful this year. One of my friends was hit round the face with a torch for kicking an empty beer can at the ''angry mob''.

[dave_mac]

The stewards were awful this year. One of my friends was hit round the face with a torch for kicking an empty beer can at the ''angry mob''.

[brynman]

Nice to hear some people actually appreciate the fire stewards. 12 hour shifts of getting called a w*nker every time you put out a uncontrolled fire can get a little disheartening.

[benissright]

We met a CAT girl who had a beer can thrown directly at her. That pissed me off.

I told her she should have got assistance and had the c**t arrested and banned for life.

[TalkShow Bob]

Disagree on both counts, though I respect where you're coming from. I think it's got to the point where the festival will die out if something doesnt change, and it's generally the younger kids who cause the problems. If their parents know this stuff happens, they probably wont be there.

[gooner1990]

If theres one thing to take from it at least the "trouble" is getting restricted to teenage boys/girls throwing stuff on a fire.

I recall the first couple of times I went groups of men/drug dealers mugging and intimidating people and in 2001 another group from the same town of us had one of the girls they were with raped.

[jameshendicott]

You really dont know what your talking about mate. I have been out there every Sunday night for a long time now and I can tell you this was by far the least busy for me. Security were on it and it worked. You give it 5 years and the Sunday night 'tradition' will be dead.

[micawber]

That's very presumptuous. Ive been to five Readings sporadically since 2000 (ie not 5 in a row, always for the whole weekend, always staying the night on the Sunday), and have friends working in security who told me how much of a nightmare it was. They absolutely werent on top of it (as he told me), and you only had to take a stroll down to the yellow field or green field (where I was staying) to see that.

Just because I write about it, doesnt make me any less of a regular, I started as a fan and still attend primarily in that capacity (Ive never had a free press pass - to Reading anyway - why else would I go other than because I enjoy it?). but Im glad it wasnt so bad for you. One of my friends nearly had her face blown off, and she was hardly the only one - read back this thread, and you'll see that most agree with me that it's terrible, and something needs to be done about it.

[jameshendicott]

Published crime figures don't suggest that it was anything different from usual. Not that that tells the whole story. But on a comparative basis Reading crime appears to be in line with other well known festivals. I think that the 'riot' hyperbole is unnecessary and deliberately invoked to shock.

http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/newseven...em.htm?id=99786

Edited September 1, 2009 by jameshendicott

[Thatmax]

Is it too late for photos cos I got some pretty good ones of a pretty big one which was edging nearer our tents in purple.

[jameshendicott]

Is it too late for photos cos I got some pretty good ones of a pretty big one which was edging nearer our tents in purple.

[beLIEveR]

The security who were there did a fantastic job on the whole. The feedback I got is that it was the police who were reluctant to deal with the big mobs at an early stage, forcing security to go it alone. Whether the police should deal with a problem of the festival's making is another issue, but it seems that security were expecting help from the police which in many cases did not materialise. This clearly needs to be looked at. If the police expect security deal with riots on their own, said security should be aware of this and have the ability to deal with riots on their own.

The gas canister and aerosol ban was unquestionably the best decision FR ever made though.

Edited September 1, 2009 by beLIEveR

[TalkShow Bob]

That's very presumptuous. Ive been to five Readings sporadically since 2000 (ie not 5 in a row, always for the whole weekend, always staying the night on the Sunday), and have friends working in security who told me how much of a nightmare it was. They absolutely werent on top of it (as he told me), and you only had to take a stroll down to the yellow field or green field (where I was staying) to see that.

Just because I write about it, doesnt make me any less of a regular, I started as a fan and still attend primarily in that capacity (Ive never had a free press pass - to Reading anyway - why else would I go other than because I enjoy it?). but Im glad it wasnt so bad for you. One of my friends nearly had her face blown off, and she was hardly the only one - read back this thread, and you'll see that most agree with me that it's terrible, and something needs to be done about it.

[jameshendicott]

Its not presumptuous. Im campsite crew, I know the whole picture - you cant get that even when working out there when your not doing the whole campsite wide job that I do. It wasnt just my opinion ether, I spoke to loads of other people who were working out there and they all agreed with me.

[TalkShow Bob]

Fair enough. I cant - and dont want to - imagine doing your job on the Sunday evening. I dont have the overall picture, but I did see worse things than I, personally, have seen at Reading before this weekend, and heard of plenty more.

And to be brutally honest, I dont think it's even relevant whether it's got better or worse, the very fact that it happens is something that is worthy of publicity, and Im astounded the mainstream music press so rarely cover it (I can recall an article in NME about Leeds violence a few years back, but that's the only one I remember).