2021 Lineup

[Jonathan Jonathan]

I may consider APE going forward to be honest. I love music and big indie acts. Strokes, National, London Grammar, Massive Attack are all up my alley.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Jonathan Jonathan

[NoBuses]

Sam Fender was incredible, got a massive crowd too 

[OliverC]

1 minute ago, NoBuses said:

Sam Fender was incredible, got a massive crowd too 

Watched him on iPlayer, easily one of the best sets of the weekend

[JamieB1830]

1 hour ago, NoBuses said:

For a lot of acts this year people were going only to start mosh’s with no actual knowledge of the band, group of 4 at wombats asked me who wombats were and said they only came to start mosh pits haha 

yeah i was at the wombats and i started a mosh pit in moving to new york, was the first time i’ve ever done it but i only did it because it made SENSE to do it

 

also yeah crowds (ESPECIALLY the rap crowds) and camps were pricks, i was in white which was very nice but such a FUCKING TREK OH MY GOD

the fact there’s been no festivals for a couple of years led to this, like someone i haven’t spoken to for years randomly texted me asking if i have weed lmfao

 

still - was one hell of a weekend, thoroughly enjoyed it. i’m 18, was a rite of passage before uni really. i feel like shit, look like shit, i’m aching in places i didn’t know it was possible to do so, got ungodly colours pouring out my nose, probably got some sort of disease, but frankly i’d do it again in a heartbeat

until next time lads

Edited August 30, 2021 by JamieB1830

[TornShaun]

Just got back from Reading, whoever on this forum suggested Calva Louise, I salute you, they were so good! 

[RarerThanDandyB]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

On the way back from Leeds right now. I’ll review bands later on but this will certainly be my last weekend at this festival. 
 

There were two stabbing in purple camp last night (security chased two lads through our campsite and warned us about the incidents). A girl was raped in Orange on Saturday and all weekend, w*nkers were lobbing cans of booze across the campsite, bottles of piss, air bed pumps etc. People were jumping onto others tents near us in the night and running off. 
 

This morning was chaos in the campsites; massive fires everywhere, thick black smoke, crowds of kids giving the stewards putting the fires out shit (some even throwing cans etc at them).  

The general atmosphere this year was the worst I’ve known it to be in eleven years. In the arena, so many people I encountered had no courtesy or decency when travelling around, pushing people out of the way, swearing at them to move etc. 
 

I saw lads groping girls in crowds and the amount of drugs at the festival is absolutely unfathomable. I have never seen so many empty baggies on the floor. As said above, enjoy yourself by all means but don’t be a prick to other people and ruin their time (I saw countless ketted up kids being so unpleasant to others walking around). 
 

It was overall a really unpleasant and, at several point, hostile environment at Leeds this weekend. 

Thoroughly agree, every point you made I witnessed. Grim crowds, personally stood at the back or if it was someone I wanted to see, I stood at the back of the front section.

little to no respect for anyone most people which is very sad to say. People vaulting over the barriers also, the groping of girls though was fucking disgusting, saw it on many occasions and intervened on a few occasions asking the girl if she wanted him to do that - they said no. The demographic is pricks. 

Squid, Biffy, Broco and Post were my highlights and I had a good weekend but the camping experience (being hit with one of them bangers on the tent), beer flying on my tent. Everyone felt like they had some given right to be a c*** and if that’s how it is then I don’t know if I can keep doing it. Maybe give it another go again but aside from being with my group and loving everything we did, couldn’t help but feel out of place to the short back and side beer lobbing, c**ty little pricks. 

Leeds what have you become (it was always heading that way).

[TornShaun]

3 minutes ago, RarerThanDandyB said:

Thoroughly agree, every point you made I witnessed. Grim crowds, personally stood at the back or if it was someone I wanted to see, I stood at the back of the front section.

little to no respect for anyone most people which is very sad to say. People vaulting over the barriers also, the groping of girls though was fucking disgusting, saw it on many occasions and intervened on a few occasions asking the girl if she wanted him to do that - they said no. The demographic is pricks. 

Squid, Biffy, Broco and Post were my highlights and I had a good weekend but the camping experience (being hit with one of them bangers on the tent), beer flying on my tent. Everyone felt like they had some given right to be a c*** and if that’s how it is then I don’t know if I can keep doing it. Maybe give it another go again but aside from being with my group and loving everything we did, couldn’t help but feel out of place to the short back and side beer lobbing, c**ty little pricks. 

Leeds what have you become (it was always heading that way).

When I watching Yonaka at Reading, there was a young girl right by me near the front starting to have a panic attack, I managed to get her to chill and breathe and relax, and then said to everyone around if she needs to get lifted over the barrier be ready! 

Edited August 30, 2021 by TornShaun

[RarerThanDandyB]

1 minute ago, TornShaun said:

When I watching Yonaka at Reading, there was a young girl right by me near the front starting to have a panic attack, I managed to get her to chill and breathe and relax, and then said to everyone around if she needs to get lifted over the barrier be ready! 

Good lad! 

PS that silent disco queue last night in Leeds was fucking horrible. Managed to get in but security were such awful. power went to there head!

[Jonathan Jonathan]

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations:

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

[TornShaun]

2 minutes ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations: 

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend: YM@6, Biffy, Becky Hill, Calva Louise and Yonaka

Act that most exceeded expectations: Catfish

Best new act you discovered: Calva Louise

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): Biffy Many of Horror, song makes me cry every time!

Edited August 30, 2021 by TornShaun

[nathanh]

4 minutes ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations:

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

Best Act: Stormzy for me

Exceeded: Kid Laroi (thought he would of been awful)

New act: JC Stewart in the dance tent was great

Musical moment: Afterglow Becky Hill

Edited August 30, 2021 by nathanh

[Jonathan Jonathan]

To answer my own questions:

Best act: Wolf Alice (or Sam Fender had I not seen him a couple weeks before)

Exceeded expectations: Disclosure, Sports Team and Gerry Cinnamon.

New Act: Lyra in the FR stage was cool. Bit Florence and the Machine like.

Musical Moment: Live Forever guitar solo. Alfie Templeman playing Smells Like Teen Spirit was also entertaining.

[CG31]

Best act of the weekend: Gerry Cinnamon, Disclosure, Stormzy, Don Broco

Act that most exceeded expectations: Disclosure

Best new act you discovered: didn’t really see many new acts tbh

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): KSI bringing out the Sidemen, Wonderwall or Belter, where I’ve met my new best friend 😂😂

[rfc_478]

1 hour ago, Jack.194 said:

Reading, have looked at hotels in the city centre, but I’m not actually sure how far of a walk it would be.

Edit: Just as a side though, does anyone know if car parking passes can be used by people who aren’t camping? E.g. could I book a hotel and use the car park pass to park there each day?

No reason why not, there’s no obligation to camp with a weekend ticket 

[JimMacVeigh]

26 minutes ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations:

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

Best act: Biffy Clyro. 
 

exceeded: Wolf Alice. I only saw four acts or so, so I’ll go with them. 
 

best new act: I’ll say…Bloxx. Really good. 
 

best musical moment: The end of  “Bubbles” by El Biff. Always a classic bit. Although ending on “Machines” was gorgeous. 

[nathanh]

2 hours ago, Jack.194 said:

Yea honestly based on all these posts I can’t see myself doing the full weekend again and camping, just doesn’t seem worth it, plus I’m getting older now (only 24!)

That being said, has anyone who used to camp done the festival while staying in a hotel or something similar? I’m worried that the line-up will warrant a full ticket without me wanting to camp! I’ve stayed in a hotel with a day ticket once before, and it wasn’t too bad, but I really struggled getting a taxi when the day had finished.

I stayed at a friends house this year- Im disabled so the campsites arent best for me. It works fine 

[manchestermusicreview]

30 minutes ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

 

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations:

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

 

Only went Saturday sooo…

Best act of the weekend: Sam Fender, what a superb set. 

Act that most exceeded expectations: Aitch, he’ll be headlining in 5 years time (or less). 

Best new act you discovered: Demob Happy seemed good whilst having lunch. 

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): Sam Fender joining Declan McKenna on stage for ‘Brazil’ - so unexpected and was a treat! 

[JamieB1830]

37 minutes ago, Jonathan Jonathan said:

To avoid straying into pessimism, some questions for you all:

Best act of the weekend:

Act that most exceeded expectations:

Best new act you discovered:

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc):

best act: hard to say but i really enjoyed sam fender, wombats, disclosure, liam and biffy

act that most exceeded expectations: stormzy and beabadoobe. i didn’t at all expect to enjoy stormzy because it’s not at all my thing but it was so good

beabadoobee was awesome, i had no idea they sounded that good…thank tiktok for that, i thought they were just some quiet happy group but it was damn near shoegaze

best new act: the snuts are awesome, and like i said, beabadoobee i’ll defo be listening to more

best moment: this ahahaha (also me starting my first mosh pit and everyone chanting along to sam fender)

[iistroudley]

Best act of the weekend: Biffy Clyro

Act that most exceeded expectations: Yungblud

Best new act you discovered: Biffy Clyro- I knew who they were but was very skeptical, they blew me away. Easily one of (if not) the best set i've ever seen at Reading

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): Ending the festival on Wonderwall was quite poetic

[NoBuses]

3 minutes ago, stanh said:

just on my way back from leeds on the train at the moment… wow! what a weekend!! having spent the weekend at boardmasters a couple weeks back, i was itching to get back to another festival - and it was great to get back after rolling tickets over from 2020… despite the lineup (in my opinion) on paper not looking all that, i had such a great weekend with my mates, but i do have a couple points about the weekend i do want to talk about and share!

 

camping wise we stayed in red this year, despite us usually doing orange, this was mainly because we had heard about how quickly it had filled up within the first couple hours of opening, and i assume partially due to the popularity of TPD now. our neighbours were all great and super friendly, and ended up doing a decent amount of stuff (especially late night entertainment) with them - which is always a plus. there were of course the usual dickheads around camp, but nothing worse than usual, especially for whats considered one of the more rowdy camps. managed to get a decent amount of sleep surprisingly too! last night and this morning though was absolute carnage, tents on fire everywhere, tents being jumped on, bottles being chucked here there and everywhere, security running all over the place; definitely was the most rowdy ‘last night’ ive seen so far - definitely felt for the people who had their tents smashed up by ketted up teenage lads. 

 

food this year was once again your average festival grub, pretty poor standard food for a hefty price tag… 4 dry chicken nuggets and cold chips cost me £12 in the arena… but i guess thats to be expected, just nothing on food at quite a fair few other festivals now. queues though for food was a LOT longer than normal, and there did seem to be a fair less amount of vendors around the campsites and arena. 

 

bar wise was your standard festival prices, just a shame the queues were so long for those this year, and was surprising to see the amount of under 18’s being served without question. but the main problem was definitely how long the waits (most times being almost over 30 minutes), would be good to see that changed and sorted for 2022. 

 

the new main arena setup i personally wasnt much a fan off; i did however love having a new second ‘main stage’, but really did notice the lack of having the radio 1 tent and festival republic tent (on all days). i think the positioning of the two main stages should maybe be reconsidered for next year, as a lot of the time acts would over run and then bleed into the sound of the opposite stage, also the rush of people to and from sets was also borderline dangerous, especially between the wombats and two door cinema club. the arena also felt a lot more busy than usual and felt quite hard to easily move about, especially with a lot of (mainly) younger punters making it very hard to get past one another. overall though, i did quite like having a second open air stage, especially with the weather being pretty decent all weekend. 

 

atmosphere this year was great, other than what seemed to me to be a lot more drug usage than previous years - baggies lying about EVERYWHERE. security didnt seem tight with any of that at all, and checks whilst getting in (both on to site and into the arena) were basically non existent. also should be noted how many mosh pits there were this year, many of which completely uncalled for and felt just there to hurt one another, rather than to enjoy the music - aj tracey especially, with there being quite a few crushed to the barriers and at many points lots of people falling over (at least being helped back up, luckily). sound on the main stages prior to headliners was very very quiet, with us not really being able to hear much of aitch or mabel’s sets - definitely could do with being turned up a bit louder or introducing more delay towers to help with it. 

 

finally music wise i spent a lot longer in the arena than normal, and managed to see quite a few acts!

 

friday: russ millions, the hunna, bad boy chiller crew, ksi, nathan dawe, shy fx, gerry cinnamon, crucast, liam gallagher, bad boy chiller crew (again) and kainine

 

saturday: mostack, aitch, mabel, sam fender, franky wah, catfish and the bottlemen, mk, stormzy, lowes, 220 kid and the prototypes

 

sunday: easy life, beabadoobee, becky hill, slowthai, the kid laroi, the wombats, two door cinema club, disclosure, post malone, eli brown, rebuke and franky wah

 

highlights for me this weekend include stormzy, disclosure, the wombats, bad boy chiller crew, nathan dawe, shy fx and becky hill. 

 

disclosure’s headline set was stellar, definitely solid headliners in my opinion… received an enormous crowd, much larger than biffy and catfish. but they smashed it, and everyone around us seemed to love it just as much as i did. 

 

stormzy too, he holds the crown for the best set of the weekend for me, banger after banger, with a pretty stunning production packed out with lots of fireworks and special effects with it all combining to be a rather stunning headline set - which i am sure will be looked back on in the future!

 

aitch, becky hill, aj tracey, mabel, sam fender and bad boy chiller crew all got massive crowds too, with their stages being completely packed out and very packed even on the more outer areas of their sets, aitch and becky hill especially. 

 

all in all, a class weekend of music and drinks with my mates, and a great move back into ‘normality’ and of course so brilliant seeing live music once again! there were quite a few problems ive highlighted, as well as some more major issues of violent and sexual assaults across the weekend security had informed and warned us about - but hopefully next year these issues get ironed out with id checks on the entrance being more strict, or just something enforced to help with these problems. cant wait to start the countdown towards 2022 and our first names getting announced, now its just time to keep my fingers crossed for dave!

Dave has to headline next year, the reception when stormzy brought him out was insane

[BeddingatReading]

Best act of the weekend: Posty - thought he was brilliant, got the crowd going and was just amazing, wasn’t too fussed about him in 2019 but recently got into him so I’m so glad he came back.    

Act that most exceeded expectations: Gerry Cinnamon, to be honest we hadn’t even planned to see him because my friends hadn’t even heard of him so we were going to see Biffy but decided to see Gerry instead to get a good spot for LG and we actually preferred Gerry over Liam  

Best new act you discovered: To be honest we stayed at the main stages so no small acts who stood out, I guess Broco because I’d never really listened to them but I really got into them in the crowd so I’ll really try and listen to them now  

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): Hypersonic Missiles

[jump]

1 hour ago, TornShaun said:

Just got back from Reading, whoever on this forum suggested Calva Louise, I salute you, they were so good! 

That was me and I'm glad you enjoyed them. I've seen them a couple of times when they were supporting other bands like The Regrettes but everytime Calva Louise steal the show.

[Ferda]

2 hours ago, Jack.194 said:

Yea honestly based on all these posts I can’t see myself doing the full weekend again and camping, just doesn’t seem worth it, plus I’m getting older now (only 24!)

That being said, has anyone who used to camp done the festival while staying in a hotel or something similar? I’m worried that the line-up will warrant a full ticket without me wanting to camp! I’ve stayed in a hotel with a day ticket once before, and it wasn’t too bad, but I really struggled getting a taxi when the day had finished.

Staying in the hotel since 2014, works great for me while in Reading. The Guest gate is open for exit in the evening which makes the walk significantly shorter, it's under 2 km to the city center in the night so you can make it in 20 minutes if you are really fast. Used to camp in white which is pretty much a similar distance, can't complain at all 😉

[BeddingatReading]

I’ll post my review of the bands later on but I just wanted to give my opinion on my experience of Reading now I’ve got home to try and level out the comments. Obviously this is my view only and what I experienced may have been different. 
I’ve been going since 2014 and although there were a lot of knobheads, it didn’t seem like many more than other years, think it’s just to be expected when you’ve got a massive load of teenage lads. With the change in genre, generally I think with rap/grime music it does attract a worse crowd. 

I was in the crowds quite a bit and to be honest I didn’t see any kind of sexually inappropriate behaviour, a few lads trying it on maybe but they gave up when the ladies weren’t interested (I also went with a female and she said she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all by any of the lads). 
Yeah the festival was rife with drugs and people weren’t exactly subtle about it, doing coke in the crowds, but each to their own really, doesn’t bother me personally. Also, if you are charging £7 for a pint of Carlsberg after queuing for over an hour then you can’t be surprised people are taking drugs instead 

Maybe I got quite lucky with where I camped (red) because I didn’t really see any violence or tent burning or anything like that, a few rowdy lads but no physical violence and no reason for me to feel threatened, there was one security guard who said someone had been bottled nearby but I didn’t witness that so can’t comment on it. 
I thought the crowds were pretty well managed this year actually and the pens did a good job of making sure the people seeing the headliners got priority if they really liked the act rather than someone just pushing to the front after hopping between stages. Obviously there were a lot of mosh pits during the day full of lads trying to assert their masculinity which got annoying but it has to be expected. 
In summary, for me I enjoyed it just as much as any other Reading I’ve been to, I think the kids just seem more annoying because ive got older (27 now) and felt more out of place but honestly I don’t care if kids are judging me for enjoying myself for 3 days of my life. I fully enjoyed the weekend and will 100% be back next year, camping for the whole weekend. 

Edited August 30, 2021 by BeddingatReading

[Dukey]

For Leeds:

Best act of the weekend: Biffy Clyro, Sam Fender, Wolf Alice or Stormzy

Act that most exceeded expectations: Post Malone

Best new act you discovered: Nothing But Thieves (no idea why I hadn’t listened to them before) 

Best musical moment (song, crowd, etc): Biffy Clyro - Many of Horror