R+L 22 Campsite Warfare

[__Phoenix]

Is it just me that thinks the chaos of the Sunday night was heavily evelated this year? Do people think a change will actually be made (18+?) Social media is seriously talking about unsafe it was today.

[gfa]

29 minutes ago, __Phoenix said:

Is it just me that thinks the chaos of the Sunday night was heavily evelated this year? Do people think a change will actually be made (18+?) Social media is seriously talking about unsafe it was today.

No way will it go 18+, would be the death of the festival in its current form. Probably increased patrols etc

honestly its probably been so bad because of tiktoks from Boardmasters and also the woodstock documentary especially

[Andre91]

Leeds was way calmer than last year. Way, way calmer. I’ve seen it much much worse in years gone by (2013/14). 

[Nobby's Old Boots]

52 minutes ago, gfa said:

No way will it go 18+, would be the death of the festival in its current form. Probably increased patrols etc

honestly its probably been so bad because of tiktoks from Boardmasters and also the woodstock documentary especially

Sure, because there were large swathes of people who would never behave like that, but then they saw a 3 part documentary on netflix and instantly became violent, threatening thieving arsonists. 

What a simplistic way to look at it.

There is a problem with society at the moment especially in the younger generation and this is a byproduct of that.

It isn't because they saw footage of Fred Durst crowd surfing on a bit of wood 🤣

[gfa]

12 minutes ago, Nobby's Old Boots said:

Sure, because there were large swathes of people who would never behave like that, but then they saw a 3 part documentary on netflix and instantly became violent, threatening thieving arsonists. 

What a simplistic way to look at it.

There is a problem with society at the moment especially in the younger generation and this is a byproduct of that.

It isn't because they saw footage of Fred Durst crowd surfing on a bit of wood 🤣

Look at the comments sections of tiktok, theres so much hype around that documentary at the moment and it was the same at boardmasters.

People see it at boardmasters 2 weeks before and just repeat it as they saw it on social media - its not like society has changed that much on its own since last year which had single digit tent fires.

[steviewevie]

Reading/Leeds now have this reputation as a place that 16 year olds go after GCSE and both enjoy and survive, and I expect many will be put off going again...which is kind of sad. My daughter went last year and never wants to go again.

[andyrhodes24]

It was an odd year for security, I didn’t get searched at all on the two occasions I entered the main Leeds fest gates, or any of the times I went into the arena, not even a pat down. Also didn’t see a single copper all weekend.

This is a poor comparison but the irony is there’ll be a huge police presence at the football tonight when there’ll probably be next to no disorder, it’s just all about how the media wants to report on it.

If the BBC, NME etc wanted to they could absolutely rinse FR for everything this year. Instead, the BBC prioritised their review of AM above the story of the 16 year old lad overdosing in their newsfeed.

Edited August 30, 2022 by andyrhodes24

[GField1399]

It was definitely worse in the campsites at Reading this year. Normally you get the odd tent burning Monday morning, but in the 4 previous times I've done it I've never seen people setting random people's tents alight. 

My view on it is that the scheduling caused a lot of the issues. We found it quite hard to stay in the arena for long periods of time because acts were staggered with massive gaps between similar genres, and it was too hot with no shade. You'd go in and watch a band and then need to wait 90 mins so you'd just leave.

Boredom probably caused a lot of the campsite antics more than anything.

bring back the R1 tent, clashing acts is a good thing for festivals

[gooner1990]

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

Reading/Leeds now have this reputation as a place that 16 year olds go after GCSE and both enjoy and survive, and I expect many will be put off going again...which is kind of sad. My daughter went last year and never wants to go again.

Its had that reputation for about 20 years mate!

[steviewevie]

12 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Its had that reputation for about 20 years mate!

yeah, ok...you don't think it's getting worse? I've only been to Leeds a few times, back in late 90s or early 2000s (can't remember), so I don't know about the last 20 years, and only experience I have now is through what my daughter experienced last year, and some of her friends this year, and it just sounds unpleasant and ruins the weekend for them...surely they need to do something about the sunday night trash the place thing

[Andre91]

28 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

It was an odd year for security, I didn’t get searched at all on the two occasions I entered the main Leeds fest gates, or any of the times I went into the arena, not even a pat down. Also didn’t see a single copper all weekend.

This is a poor comparison but the irony is there’ll be a huge police presence at the football tonight when there’ll probably be next to no disorder, it’s just all about how the media wants to report on it.

If the BBC, NME etc wanted to they could absolutely rinse FR for everything this year. Instead, the BBC prioritised their review of AM above the story of the 16 year old lad overdosing in their newsfeed.

It’s tragic and heartbreaking but this happens every single year. I’m not saying for a moment that it is right but there are drug deaths at festivals all over the country every year. There has always been news of some teenager dying at R&L every year I have been. People die at Glastonbury from taking drugs. People die at Download from taking drugs. People die at R&L from taking drugs. 
 

11 hours ago, Nobby's Old Boots said:

Sure, because there were large swathes of people who would never behave like that, but then they saw a 3 part documentary on netflix and instantly became violent, threatening thieving arsonists. 

What a simplistic way to look at it.

There is a problem with society at the moment especially in the younger generation and this is a byproduct of that.

It isn't because they saw footage of Fred Durst crowd surfing on a bit of wood 🤣

Hate to break it to you but society has ALWAYS been violent. We just know about it more because everyone has high quality video recording equipment on them at all times. 

 

1 hour ago, steviewevie said:

Reading/Leeds now have this reputation as a place that 16 year olds go after GCSE and both enjoy and survive, and I expect many will be put off going again...which is kind of sad. My daughter went last year and never wants to go again.

That’s what R&L has been for bloody ages. 

[Andre91]

6 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

yeah, ok...you don't think it's getting worse? I've only been to Leeds a few times, back in late 90s or early 2000s (can't remember), so I don't know about the last 20 years, and only experience I have now is through what my daughter experienced last year, and some of her friends this year, and it just sounds unpleasant and ruins the weekend for them...surely they need to do something about the sunday night trash the place thing

2008 sounds much worse than this year but people didn’t capture every incident on film back then. Was it 2002/2003 or something at Leeds which was supposedly the worst ever? 
 

The Sunday at Leeds in 2013 after Eminem had played was absolute carnage and the worst I’ve ever seen it. I don’t think a weekend of torrential rain and flooded campsites helped but it was chaos. Those were the days when I left my good phone at home and took a shitty old one with me, the same for many, many people, so we didn’t get to video all of the tents burning, or the gas canisters people had snuck in to cook with exploding, or the camping chairs being lobbed across the campsite…

Edited August 30, 2022 by Andre91

[Andre91]

I think that some people, especially people who used to regularly attend R&L but don’t any longer, are choosing to look back with rose tinted glasses and point the finger at ‘the younger generation’ who ‘have no respect’ or something like that. 
 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, the younger generation getting flack from the older generation, doesn’t it? 

[gooner1990]

29 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

yeah, ok...you don't think it's getting worse? I've only been to Leeds a few times, back in late 90s or early 2000s (can't remember), so I don't know about the last 20 years, and only experience I have now is through what my daughter experienced last year, and some of her friends this year, and it just sounds unpleasant and ruins the weekend for them...surely they need to do something about the sunday night trash the place thing

What I mean is its had a reputation as a post GCSE party for 20 years...possibly longer....I don't live too far away and its always been a popular destination once people get their results.

There used to be mass riots there every year on the Sunday....2000 was off the chart and was by far the worst I ever saw....but it kept going and then 2nd to 2000 was 2009 when in Reading again it was really bad.

They really clamped down hard on it after that, I stopped camping there in 2015 and have only been back on day tickets since...so not sure how bad it was at the weekend, that said what I have seen on Twitter doesn't look anywhere near what it used to be like.

[GeezLouise]

I attended 06-2010 (maybe longer) and can confirm that 06-08 was carnage at Reading on Sunday. Everything not packed was burned.  then they started having serious fire marshals (sp?) on the Sunday with a zero fire policy. 

[BenG92]

1 hour ago, andyrhodes24 said:

I didn’t get searched at all on the two occasions I entered the main Leeds fest gates, or any of the times I went into the arena, not even a pat down.

I forgot about this actually. We came to Leeds Sunday day and even though they clearly weren't busy at the gate he literally just looked at me and my bumbag and waved me through. 

Hard to complain when I'm always sneaking something or other in but that's probably not a good thing overall. 

[Nobby's Old Boots]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

I think that some people, especially people who used to regularly attend R&L but don’t any longer, are choosing to look back with rose tinted glasses and point the finger at ‘the younger generation’ who ‘have no respect’ or something like that. 
 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, the younger generation getting flack from the older generation, doesn’t it? 

So what about those of us who used to regularly attend, and still regularly attend? 

It isn't just the fires and everything that went on on Sunday, it's the atmosphere and crowd in general. I saw lots and lots of really unpleasant behaviour and heard first hand about a lot more, and whether you want to dismiss this as the younger generation "getting flak" is up to you, but all the stuff that I saw that makes me want to not return was behaviour by the younger kids.

I've been going a long time and not seen it like this before.

But dismiss it if you must.

[BenG92]

5 minutes ago, Nobby's Old Boots said:

So what about those of us who used to regularly attend, and still regularly attend? 

It isn't just the fires and everything that went on on Sunday, it's the atmosphere and crowd in general. I saw lots and lots of really unpleasant behaviour and heard first hand about a lot more, and whether you want to dismiss this as the younger generation "getting flak" is up to you, but all the stuff that I saw that makes me want to not return was behaviour by the younger kids.

I've been going a long time and not seen it like this before.

But dismiss it if you must.

Reading or Leeds? We went Leeds Sunday and it was the most chilled arena crowd I've ever seen at the festival. Not a single altercation. It's like the troublemakers were all in bed for most of the day on comedowns and only woke up to have another all-night party, I would bet that estimation isn't too far off. 

Point is mileage will always vary and a lot of the time it's just dumb luck. I've heard about some sort of overdose or stabbing or looting at nearly every festival I've been to bu thankfully never had it happen anywhere near me.

[Skip997]

6 minutes ago, Nobby's Old Boots said:

So what about those of us who used to regularly attend, and still regularly attend? 

It isn't just the fires and everything that went on on Sunday, it's the atmosphere and crowd in general. I saw lots and lots of really unpleasant behaviour and heard first hand about a lot more, and whether you want to dismiss this as the younger generation "getting flak" is up to you, but all the stuff that I saw that makes me want to not return was behaviour by the younger kids.

I've been going a long time and not seen it like this before.

But dismiss it if you must.

I've been to Leeds once, can't remember the year, but it was a good while ago.

I went as crew and only because I got paid very well. Fortunately I was parked up behind the main stage.

It's a disgusting event, I'm not prepared to call it a festival (i presume Reading is the same).

The behavior of the punters on Sunday was appalling and the security just stood back and watched.

Licensing needs to be refused, unless the organizers can sort out the behavior of the punters.

[Benj]

7 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

Reading or Leeds? We went Leeds Sunday and it was the most chilled arena crowd I've ever seen at the festival. Not a single altercation. It's like the troublemakers were all in bed for most of the day on comedowns and only woke up to have another all-night party, I would bet that estimation isn't too far off. 

Point is mileage will always vary and a lot of the time it's just dumb luck. I've heard about some sort of overdose or stabbing or looting at nearly every festival I've been to bu thankfully never had it happen anywhere near me.

The arena is not the issue, there’s never any mass trouble in the arena, or indeed anything that anti-social even on a small scale. The campsites are the issue

[andyrhodes24]

25 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

I forgot about this actually. We came to Leeds Sunday day and even though they clearly weren't busy at the gate he literally just looked at me and my bumbag and waved me through. 

Hard to complain when I'm always sneaking something or other in but that's probably not a good thing overall. 

They didn’t even have a dog on the main gate on Friday, just one on Sunday. Not complaining but equally having a greater security presence rather volunteer campsite wardens in hi vis vests would have stopped some of the chaos if only a little bit

[steviewevie]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

I think that some people, especially people who used to regularly attend R&L but don’t any longer, are choosing to look back with rose tinted glasses and point the finger at ‘the younger generation’ who ‘have no respect’ or something like that. 
 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it, the younger generation getting flack from the older generation, doesn’t it? 

I'm not blaming any younger generation, just that can't be right that this happens every year, people going round setting fire to people's tents etc. Surely that's a problem with the festival.

(but also, I went to plenty of illegal raves in my yoof which were pretty much lawless and hardly ever saw any trouble..decent drugs I guess)

[andyrhodes24]

1 minute ago, Benj said:

The arena is not the issue, there’s never any mass trouble in the arena, or indeed anything that anti-social even on a small scale. The campsites are the issue

What can they do in the campsites besides boost security? Only thing that will stop it is having police patrol the campsites but it’d cost a fortune for an event the size of R&L, it costs about £25k per match at Elland Road and they’re not usually as messy

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, steviewevie said:

I'm not blaming any younger generation, just that can't be right that this happens every year, people going round setting fire to people's tents etc. Surely that's a problem with the festival.

(but also, I went to plenty of illegal raves in my yoof which were pretty much lawless and hardly ever saw any trouble..decent drugs I guess)

There's still decent drugs about.

Alcohol is the problem.

[Nobby's Old Boots]

7 minutes ago, BenG92 said:

Reading or Leeds? We went Leeds Sunday and it was the most chilled arena crowd I've ever seen at the festival. Not a single altercation. It's like the troublemakers were all in bed for most of the day on comedowns and only woke up to have another all-night party, I would bet that estimation isn't too far off. 

Point is mileage will always vary and a lot of the time it's just dumb luck. I've heard about some sort of overdose or stabbing or looting at nearly every festival I've been to bu thankfully never had it happen anywhere near me.

Fair enough - I was talking about Reading and does seem to be the general consensus that Leeds was a much better atmosphere than Reading this year so we're coming at it from different angles. Some of the things I saw and heard about this year (at Reading) were infuriating honestly.