Reading Festival to introduce alcohol and campfire restrictions

[Mamba]

Haven't seen this posted. Don't really see the point to be honest. If you're going ban campfires, ban them completely. After 8pm is when you'd want one!

Organisers at Reading festival are set to pilot a new scheme which will limit the amount of alcohol those attending the event can bring onto the site.

As part of the plan no alcohol will be allowed to be brought in the festival after 6pm, while no firewood will be allowed on-site from 6pm and no campfires will be permitted after 8pm.

As Virtual Festivals reports, the scheme is hoping to limit the amount of incidents which could put festival-goers safety at risk.

The decision follows a report on last year's event by Reading Borough Council, which found: "As groups grew in numbers they began moving around the site committing crime and acting in a disorderly and anti-social manner."

They added: "Numerous fires were started, telegraph poles carrying onsite lighting were tampered with, sections of fencing were ripped up and hedgerows, tents, rubbish and combustibles were set alight."

NME link

Edited July 1, 2010 by Mamba311

[Vieuphoria]

I'd prefer more restrictions at Reading. Too many c**ts here

[ska_4_life]

The restrictions are only on Sunday

[lharris92]

/index.php?showtopic=150244">http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=150244

its sunday only to stop any riots happening... or so they hope

[DaLumberjack]

Hey original poster...ever heard of going straight to the horses mouth?

http://www.readingfestival.com/info/index.aspx

(click on "Changes for 2010) in the yellow section...second header. Then read the 3rd and 5th points)

As mentioned, its a Sunday ONLY rule. It makes sense, and to be fair I have left on Sunday night after the head liners for 4 years now so I can't comment on what I have experienced, but I know some of my friends biggest and most harmful memories of the festival are Sunday night.

[Electricityscape]

I'm guessing this applys to leeds aswell. You're gonna see a bugger load of people running in with crates at 5 to 6.

[Yuh!]

I'm guessing this applys to leeds aswell. You're gonna see a bugger load of people running in with crates at 5 to 6.

[saskofreak]

im guessing then sunday night is rather bad at reading then?

[Electricityscape]

Flipping heck, i'm all for having a last day "party", but it got way out of hand last year. We need those restrictions.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Nope, this restriction applies only to Reading.

[rexclark]

Reading gets restrictions for rioting. What does Leeds get? Entertainment till 6am. Lifes a bitch aint it.

[Dave The Hedgehog]

Reading gets restrictions for rioting. What does Leeds get? Entertainment till 6am. Lifes a bitch aint it.

[frankie boy]

What a pathetic idea so they ban u takin beer in the gate but you can walk through at the start of the sunday with 2 crates for all day n night

pointless

[ska_4_life]

What a pathetic idea so they ban u takin beer in the gate but you can walk through at the start of the sunday with 2 crates for all day n night

pointless

[kittycat100]

It annoys me a bit - we camped in white for the first time last year and had a fantastic time with no trouble really chilled out.

Annoyed that in the area which doesn't see trouble we still will be penalised! (

[farewellandgoodnight]

One thing is that there isn't a supermarket just outside the Leeds site. At Reading it's much easier to just wander out of the site and grab a tonne of booze if you so wish.

Any booze taken to Leeds you really have to bring with you from the start so the assumption probably is that you wont have a shitload left by Sunday night.

Edited July 14, 2010 by farewellandgoodnight

[adam1234]

I think they need to do something at Leeds to stop the trouble on the sunday night. People tend to say its not that bad but ive been the last two years and to be honest i think its reaaly bad.Its just pathetic idiots who do it i just don't see the point. In my view the more they do to combat it the better, but it may be hard to stop it, the more rules they introduce the more people will rebel against it.Don't know how bad it is at Reading because i have never been mainly due to the fact that northerners are friendlier in general, apart from these idiots on the last night

[FiestaDave]

Reading needs these restrictions, the sunday night problems have been getting worse every year I've been and its got to the point where people are choosing Leeds/Glasto over it because of the rioting. Anyone who's smart will have what they want/need at their camp before 6pm on sunday.

[Cooter]

Reading doesn't need these restrictions at all, more rules and regs will just make the non-conformists behave even worse. What Reading does need is a hell of alot more (sensible) security and a big campaign for a couple of years telling everyone to respect the festival and not to be anti-social or there will be no Reading festival forever more.

Banning alcohol at anytime, is a step too far imo. The ban on no entry into the main arena with your own alcohol is bad enough. A new ban of personal alcohol into the main festival campsites, even just on a Sunday evening, is a quick route downhill for any festival.

[Paul ™]

Gotta wait and see how this pans out, certainly won't make things any easier for us

[rexclark]

Can't see these new restrictions working, who goes out at that time to go get more booze anyway? Pointless.

[Paul ™]

Can't see these new restrictions working, who goes out at that time to go get more booze anyway? Pointless.

[rexclark]

I suppose, I've only been to Reading once and that was 10 years ago so can't really remember much. But like you say people will just get there booze earlier so it won't make a massive difference.

Edited July 19, 2010 by rexclark

[Cooter]

Yes it won't affect alot of people but the few that will want to wander in as usual with a couple of tinnies on the Sunday evening will be turned away. And by "a few" I mean about 10,000 people! In turn this will annoy all their 10,000 friends, and before you can say "Watch out thats gas cannisters gonna blow your face off" you have nearly half the festival even moodier on the Sunday night than usual.

Naive and very short-sighted by the organisers imo.

[kev1664]

Yeah you are probably right about the knock on effect. Due to the fact that the majority of people going to the festival will just buy there tickets then turn up on the day of the festival, not come onto message boards or visit the official websites, I'm willing to bet that a lot of the people going to the festival will not have a clue about this ban and therefore it may upset quite a few.

I cant be assed to make trips to and from the car so we take everything we need to the campsite on the Thursday (at Leeds), that includes all of the drink that we take. I just don't see the point in labouring back and forward to the car everyday, plus the drink would be warmer in the car than back at the camp anyway.

Yes people wont be able to go out and bring some more alcohol in. But if you do need more alcohol the festival will ensure they exploit all of these people who don't know about the ban by offering alcohol at the campsite bars etc.