So How Was It/

[Englishdragon]

So now people are starting to come back I thought Id start a overall review thread

Personally this year has brought back my love for the festival. Some terrible bands over the weekend (Libertines, Guns N Roses), some amazing bands (Blink 182, Frank Turner) but overall a great weekend.

Thought Festival republic made some awful decisions, reducing toilets, getting rid of the program but charging the same price.

Left sunday night after the campsite was getting full of idiots early sunday afternoon so I dont know if anything happened last night.

Overall I loved it!

[PeterD]

4.00 a pint of cider. Stricter controls on the gate to absolutely stop alcohol getting into the arena and then charging 4.00 a pint. Something needs to stop and these forums that are held people need to raise this, and have the price start coming down, not halting, but come down.

That said huge security and steward presence on sunday night, in green in Leeds at least ensured that it was moderately trouble free, did hear the odd small explosion and a f**king terrible racket coming from the direction of the main stage, but that turned out to be Guns n Roses.

Highlights for me was The King Blues, Frank Turner, Against Me, Weezer, NOFX, Biffy, Adam Green and Billy Talent. Majorly disappointed with Thrice and The Drums.

[gazza_20]

I thought it was bloody awesome. ANd as for Guns N Roses, they were f**king amazing and I was at Leeds.

Loads of kids walked off after Sweet Child but hey what you expect, they don't knwo the rest, guns aren't the band they turn on at a sleep over at the weekend laughing in the bedroom with a bottle of wkd is it.

[JBarbour]

I prefered the way the band times and stages was set out, I never missed the program this year because its normally shit anyway. But wasn't it £10 last year?

They made the right decision to move the main stage

Weezer should of sub-headlined. Arcade fire put most bands to shame. Guns don't deserve a penny from another festival or concert. Blink still think they are in there 20s but put on a good show.

More dick heads at the festival.

Amazing line up as a whole, despite a few bands letting the team down

Toilet queues inbetween bands stupid long.

Too many of the same food places, once you had one burger/yorkshire pudding/noodles u had them all.

The crowd at front a bit tame? Apart from limp bizkit maybe because our pit got messy

Had an incredible weekend, but unless foos on the line up next year I think a break is needed. Feel like I'm out growing the festival

[PeterD]

I thought it was tame at the front also, had to go pretty much centre front for NOFX to get in anything resembling a pit.

[theramm]

Just got back, had an absolutely belting weekends (Leeds). Weather was great, general atmos was really good, everyone seemed friendly & saw no trouble & very little idiots all weekend (some young lads acting like pricks at Biffy but swiftly told them to f**k off & that was the end of it they were just steaming).

The quality of bands was high across the weekend. Friday highlights were Gaslight Anthem & Cancer Bats. Saw the 2nd half of The Libertines who seemed OK playing to a really big crowd. Watched the 1st half hour of Arcade Fire who had the smallest crowd for a mainstage headliner I've ever seen at ANY festival. They seemed good though, we went & caught Bad Religion then saw Arcade Fire play 'Wake Up'.

Saturday was all main stage. Limp Bizkit were tremendous, really got the crowd going & for the first time of the weekend felt like we were at a festival. Cypress Hill delivered a quality greatest hits set & Weezer blew me away with an inspired set list & super lively show. Paramore were decent enough but it seemed likea short performance. Blink 182 seemed to have the biggest crowd of the weekend & were better than I expected, it wasn't a headline performance people will be talking about for years to come but the enthusiasm of the crowd seemed to make up for the sloppy musicianship. Dreadful between song banter too, I could see Hoppus cringe every time Tom opened his mouth.

Sunday was my favourite day. Young Guns were alright, A Day to Remember were great & got the day started well. Billy Talent was reliably good, 'Rusted by Rain' was great. I was a bit disappointed with Gogol Bordello & snoozed through NOFX who were OK. Lost Prophets started slowly but picked up halfway through their set & ended well. It wasn't the bst I've seen Biffy but they were reliable enough, some pissed up twat elbowed my girlfriend in the head 3 times which sucked but after he f**ked off we ejoyed the rest of their set before heading off to the lock-up. Caught the end of Hatebreed (wished I watched it all) & then saw Against Me....f**king hell! A small crowd but one of the performances of the weekend, I'm now a big fan. Got some food & drinks & headed down for GnR. It was now that my friends & I noticed the difference between Leeds & Download. I wonder how many people are at Leeds for the music & how many for 'the fest'. GnR came out & delivered the best headline set of the weekend. Everything a festival headliner should be...a big show, theatrics, hit after hit. Axl was on fire, looked like he was having fun & the rest of the band were tight as f**k. A few knobs booing in the crowd when he introduced the guitarists but as soon as the next anthem came along they were all singing along. Blinding performance that should silence any of the doubters.

Highs

The weather

Organisaion of the shuttles

Guns & Roses

Against Me

Cypress Hill

Limp Bizkit

Weezer

Lows

£4 a pint of cider - Seriously, if the price keeps rising people will soon get pissed off

The food stalls were uniformly shit

Roll on 2011

[brettredmayne]

I don't know about stricter staff, I snuck in vodka every day at leeds

[matt123]

Really enjoyed Frank Turner and Foals. Thought they both had cracking sets! Amongst a few other bands.

Few twats started coming into orange where we were camped on Saturday night that led us to leave sunday night just before GnR but other than that it was pretty trouble free.

Didn't get searched at all going into the fest or arena. Had to queue for 4 hours on wednesday to get in the gate which was a killer, but well worth it.

Cracking weekend for me.

P.S, Did anyone see the nutter that climbed the support pole in the NME tent whilst Enter Shikari played, that was pretty mental!

[paulomas]

8th year at Reading, 5th year camping full weekend. easily the best year yet! so much fun and amazing bands. shame about the mud but apart from that I don't really have a bad word to say about it. left at 4am this morning and didn't see any trouble apart from the odd fire here and there. not sure whether it was the muddy wet ground or the fact people have realised it's stupid or there wasn't as many dickheads compared to last year, but no fires and riots is a very good thing. roll on next year!

[Electricityscape]

Still alot of ..... but they all seemed to huddle up together in Yellow Camp so it was good.

Nothing huge but overall it came together to become a good weekend.

[bennyk]

Got back at 2am last night, after one hell of an AMAZING weekend, was great. only problem was, i was left with nothing last night, after i had watched LCD went back to my camp to find no tents, no bags, no nothing, everything GONE. fires everywhere (Leeds) wasnt impressed at all. so that put a low on my whole festival but as for the rest, i thought it was excellent

Loved: Kele, Pendulum, Libs, Mumford & Sons (were incredable) and in general the whole festival apart from last night.

Roll on 2011

[Role Model]

Left after Blink last night.

Brilliant weekend, thought the security was the worst it's ever been though. everyone was sneaking stuff in, and well it was hardly sneaking in truth. I walked through with a can of beer in my can and they didn't even blink.

Actually on a bit of a downer this morning, sad it's over for another year.

[rexclark]

Had a cracking weekend. Mostly good points but a few bad points. Musically it was great GnR were great (well at least they were there) and Arcade Fire were phenomonal, one of the best sets I've ever witnessed.

I thought the atmosphere was pretty good through the weekend, apart from the usual Sunday arseholes. Our tent collapsed with the wind so we had to shack up with my mate. Three people crammed into a smallish tent was no fun.

Overall I had a great weekend and will hopefully be back next year for my 12th Leeds.

[Nathan113]

Thought it was average tbh.

Doubt i'll ever go back to Reading.

[dblythe]

Had a cracking weekend. Mostly good points but a few bad points. Musically it was great GnR were great (well at least they were there) and Arcade Fire were phenomonal, one of the best sets I've ever witnessed.

I thought the atmosphere was pretty good through the weekend, apart from the usual Sunday arseholes. Our tent collapsed with the wind so we had to shack up with my mate. Three people crammed into a smallish tent was no fun.

Overall I had a great weekend and will hopefully be back next year for my 12th Leeds.

[Budweiser]

Musically it was f**king awsome, atmosphere was good.

only downers was the weather for wednesday/thursday and me feeling ill most of the weekend but that didn't stop me having a good time. Another downer was how cold it was at night.

I wouldn't say it was the best Reading i've been too, but it had the potential to be the best if i didn't feel like shit and the weather was better.

[Dan R]

I had a brilliant time at Leeds!

Didn't really have any downers other than it being a bit cold at times on the night

Although would've liked a Sunday night headliner that really appealed to me

And the fact that they didn't do a proper programme this year pissed me off

I'd prefer to pay an extra £3 for the booklet than £7 for the lanyard

Would've just printed the times out at home if I'd that