Reading Festival will go ahead

Reading festival organiser Melvin Benn has promised that the event, which takes place in five weeks time, will not be affected by the severe flooding that Britain is experiencing. Yesterday, he went out to inspect the site at Little Johns Farm, Richfield Avenue.

Flooding from the River Thames had left 30% of the campsite underwater, but the arena was left relatively dry and Melvin remained adamant that the festival will proceed as planned. Speaking to the Reading Evening Post he said "There is no question. Reading Festival will go ahead but I will have to look at some serious reconfiguration of the site arrangements."

He went on to say, "I am sure this flood water will subside fairly quickly – we have seen it like this in the past. It was very wet in 2003."

Melvin did admit that by the time the festival arrived he expected between 10 and 15 percent of the campsite to remain unusable. One planned solution to this problem is to use part of the car parking area at Scours Lane for campers. He also plans to have campers pitch on land on the other side of the river at Mapledurham, and provide a ferry to carry them to the arena.

Most of the fields used for Reading Festival are owned by Mean Fiddler. There are two large fields at the center of the site that don't belong to the group, that have flooded. Mean Fiddler are believed to be interested in buying these fields, which are currently up for sale, and it is unlikely that any other potential buyer would get planning permission to build on the them because of the way it floods.

Melvin added that had the WOMAD festival remained in Reading this year, it would have been certainly been forced to cancel because of the flooding. WOMAD takes place this weekend, and announced earlier this year that it would be moving to a new site at Charlton Park, near Malmesbury in Wiltshire.

The Reading Festival site operators are due to move onto the site this week to prepare for the event, which takes place over the August bank holiday weekend (Friday 24th to Sunday 26th).

Many acts have been confirmed for the festival, including including headliners Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Smashing Pumpkins - click here for the line-up details to date.

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