Well overall that was....

[Gutter Twin]

As another person in their late 30s I was pleased to see a fair few older people at Reading this year. I had a couple of pensioners beside me for Billy Talent and Mastodon, which was ace.

I thought it was very sad how empty the Lock Up was a lot of the time. I was also so disappointed at the tiny crowd Mark Lanegan got.

Sunday was horrendously busy. I also thought the amount of pushing and shoving just before the Foos came on (and for about 15 minutes after they started) was unreal. I was nearish the back beside one of the ice cream vans on the left of the stage, and groups of 16-19 year old YOLO types would regularly steam past at full pelt, not caring who was in the way. Some lady in front of me was shoved so hard that she would have gone down had her partner not caught her and pulled her out of the way. It made for a grim atmosphere where I was. There's just no need.

Then a few minutes later some bunch of lads came in and started seriously rocking the ice cream van.

Still, I didn't see any fights this year, and the majority of people were chilled and would apologise if they bumped you.

Edited August 28, 2012 by Gutter Twin

[Mouseboy11]

Yep, this was the one and only bit of gittish behaviour I saw all weekend. Which compared to past years again marks this one out as a good one.

[Chinaski_]

Really enjoyed this year's, a lot more than I did last year. Even though most of the bands I saw, I'd seen before, I didn't really witness a bad set or have any boredom during the day and great to see such variety on the line up.

Best bands for me were Green Day, The Hives, Gallows, Billy Talent, Me First & the Gimme Gimmes and The Cure.

[LondonTom]

My first reading and despite minor gripes and it not being as good as glasto (but what is? its a different beast alltogether) I really enjoyed it!!

Site layout I felt had a few to many bottle necks and ridiculous walks to the further away campsites, although white was brilliant (I camped in the bit to the right as you came off the bridge) with its own little area. Feel like it needs a bigger to exit the arena after to? but overall fine and and dandy. Also the feral youth around, and dickheads in some of the crowds, annoying but if you step back and don't go to the front or find a sweet spot it tends to be ok!

Thought the free food/beer was great , got pepsi instead of skol and it proved handy for sneaking in pre mixed spirit to the arena for the evening. The queues for the food looked massive but quickly went down, so can't complain as it looked better than most of the grub on offer from the vans etc. Which brings me to my major gripe, food choice was shit, nothing but shit places to eat, i acept the over charging but I expect decent food for the money. Anyway harrys (I think?) footlong hot dogs and the posh food company southern fried chicken wasn't to bad. (And that little bakery just outside the arena!!! Brilliant brownies!!).

Music was brilliant, the cure provided one of the best headline sets I've ever seen !! Security were brilliant! If the line up suits I'd defo go again despite the youth, once you learn where to avoid them it's fine!

Also i've never seen so much eye candy and girls in such short short shorts at festival before!!! (Best was the girls making out with each other on the floor before Kasabian near the sound desk!!!)

[mikecloud1984]

Back to reality now, so thought I would give my views on what was an EPIC weekend.

This is the first Reading I have done since 2006......and my how things have changed!

Back in 2006 the riots/sunday night fires etc put me off going back - too much stress to keep your tent from getting burnt etc and I realised how old I was at 22 years old then!

But I have had my faith restored in what was a truely unforgettable weekend.

Ok, the people we were with, met and camped with hold a massive part of this. But the festival itself held its own and the improvements made in the last 6 years have made this festival safe and friendly for all ages.

The demographic seems to have gotten younger in my opinion - but that was not really a massive issue as most of the "younglings" respected our MASSIVE camp of "oldies" - not bothering us, realising when they were being too loud and actually telling their own mates to respect us! We of course returned the fabour and made sure they were all ok as we knew it was their first time! When a group of 16/17 lads who were camping next to us come to us on the Thursday and apologise in advance for being immature and young we knew we were all good - the fact that we were up much longer than them in the evenings before they burnt themselves out was a testiment to the audience this year.

Everything ran smoothly in the campsites and arena - the changes, no matter how subtle, have been brilliant - I could go on writing for umpteen pages about how good a weekend I had - but words do not describe!

Special mentions go out to the Cure, who were simply magical - A Forest will remain with me forever. I am so so so glad I sacked off the Foo's after the first half hour, went to the bar and loo and expected the Lock Up to be rammed for MFATGG, yet we walked stright in and about 4 rows from the front with loads of room for what was an on par perfoemance with The Cure! Spike and Fat Mike ripped the lock up a new one and had the audience eating out of their palms.......simply brilliant.

I will also add that the crowd in the lock up tent on sunday were by far the friendliest we experienced.

Bands I saw all weekend - The Cure, Billy Talent, Feeder, Black Keys, Foos and MFATGG.......only 6 bands, but thats all I wanted to see and the campsite filled the rest of my time.

All in all a 10/10 weekend for me. Well done Festival Republic - everything was perfect and we all had a brilliant time in Camp Claw!

Who knows, I might even book a ticket for next year!

[VCK]

All three headliners seem to have got very positive receptions from most of the people who were there.

When was the last time that happened? 2006? Since then there's always been one or two headliners each year that the majority find to put on a gash performance.

[jump]

All three headliners seem to have got very positive receptions from most of the people who were there.

When was the last time that happened? 2006? Since then there's always been one or two headliners each year that the majority find to put on a gash performance.

[Mouseboy11]

The Strokes looked pretty shit last year from what I've seen.

[VCK]

What about 2008 with Rage, Killers & Metallica? I saw Manics over Killers so I can't say if they were decent or not. Or arguebly last year with MCR, Pulp and Muse at Leeds with people saying they were great preformances despite people not being happy with the bands themselves.

Edited August 29, 2012 by VCK

[liam]

- Food on offer in the arena, what happened to the nice 'pie and mash' stand that used to sit next to the R1 tent?

[mrtourette]

I agree, that place was great. The choice has gone down in the last couple of years as I assume to cost of a stall has gone up. There used to be two Sausage, Mash and Yorkshire stands but now there's only one and unfortunately it was the good one that went. Serious lack of curry/Indian food, the one I has this year wasn't particulalrly nice. Great noodles all over the place though.

[Vieuphoria]

the Vegie Burgers with salad and Humous was amazing

[jump]

the Vegie Burgers with salad and Humous was amazing

Edited August 30, 2012 by jump

[Vieuphoria]

I have found that in previous years actually. This year it was goooooood.

One stand ran out of it and replaced the Humous with something else. I don't know what it was by my god it was good. Kinda spicey and green in colour. I wanted more of it.

[Yellow_Fellow]

Guacamole?

[LondonTom]

Yeah that was a brilliant stand! They weren't at V this year either when they usually are. But, I don't get the abuse being given to all the other stands. I thought the choice was good otherwise, I had an amazing sweet and sour chicken with rice

Edited August 30, 2012 by LondonTom

[edgar]

the chorizo, halloumi and tzatziki rolls were awesome. not worth six quid, but the best grub i had all weekend,

overall i had a great time, but i think i'm getting too old for it now. at least for camping in yellow. a lot of the people i went with were a fair bit younger than me and i did end up frowning to myself a bit. there seemed to be a lot of people looking for confrontation all the time.

[Poppington]

This was my 9th Reading and 1 Leeds so this year was an anniversary for me and my God didn't i enjoy it. Few weeks before i was kinda worried because i wasn't looking forward to it as i used to but Thursday morning meeting up with everyone and making the trek up to Reading i was buzzing. Been kipping in White camp for a few years now and while it's a trek to the arena it's a mellow and safe camp site...Other than the snorer in the tent next to us all!! Loud is an understatement.

Highlights for me was The Hives, Graham Coxon, The Cure, Green Day, Foo's, Black Keys, Joy Formidable, At The Drive in, and The Shins.

Bad stuff, was the pizza stall towards the back of the main stage, £7 for the shittest pizza ever.. The amount of dickhead kids who think it's acceptable to smash into you or knock your drink over etc. Not all kids were dicks mind, saw 2 young 10 year old lads loving The Joy Formidable, bless them.

Will i be back? Probably.

[Eager_Eyes]

Well I thought that this year was fantastic. I'm a massive foos fan and I just thought that their set was incredible and worth the cost of a weekend ticket on its own.

Also even though everyone under the sun knew that Green Day were playing I still couldn't believe it actually happened and that I was lucky enough to be there and see it.

Thought over all the crowd was much better then last year, everyone I met seemed to be in a good mood, and had a bit of interaction with a couple of stewards and they were all nice.

Will I go back? I don't konw as great as this year was I wouldn't justify the cost unless there was a couple of bands I really wanted to see.

[Vieuphoria]

Guacamole?

[gooner1990]

Yeah that was a brilliant stand! They weren't at V this year either when they usually are. But, I don't get the abuse being given to all the other stands. I thought the choice was good otherwise, I had an amazing sweet and sour chicken with rice

[Vieuphoria]

I had one of those pies once. I felt too full and immediately needed a poo.

[Mouseboy11]

Never tried it before... but it most probably was. If so... excellent news. Another plus.... I like Guacamole.

[2rare2die]

You've never had guacamole on nachos? You're missing out my friend

Did anyone have those ostrich burgers? Intrigued as to what they were like.

[kaosmark2]

I had an ostrich burger, really good considering it was £7 with toppings at a festival. I'll definitely be doing those whenever they're around.