rain won't stop play at Reading Festival

Melvin Benn, managing director of the newly re branded Festival Republic, has written a message to Reading festival goers detailing the effects that the weather has had on the organisation of the festival, and the necessary changes that have had to be put in place.

Benn wrote that it has been a very difficult month for organisers, and they have been forced to change one car park into a campsite due to waterlogged areas of the site.

Benn said "We have recovered to a large extent but not fully and a fair amount of the site is still not campable today."

This is the current status of the camping areas of the site:

Red Campsite is pretty much OK.
Green A is mostly unusable but not fully.
Green B C and D are not and are unlikely to be.
Green E will be partially unusable as will Green F G & H.
Yellow A B C D & E are all good but F & G are pretty boggy.
Brown A B C & D are all patchy but partially useable.
Brown E & F are less likely to be useable as they are still very very wet
Brown G H I J & K are mainly useable but have some largish wet patches.
Brown L & M are mainly useable as is most of purple.
White is 90% useable.

What was Orange car park will now become a campsite, and all the parking that would have been in Orange has now been redirected to White, where there will be ample car parking space.

The boat operations have been improved "considerably" and Benn is sure they will be able to transport 2500 people per hour. On the Wednesday and Thursday that will be straight over to Brown in order to maintain speed. For show days the boats will go to and from White to Brown but also to and from White to Green so there is less walk to the arena.

Benn also went on to say that at the moment the main arena is in pretty good condition, and the weather forecast for the weekend is actually looking quite good.

Reading Festival takes place next weekend at Richfield Avenue, Reading, at the same time as Leeds Festival which takes place at Bramham Park, Leeds, with the bands swapping venues over the course of the weekend.

The line-up includes headliners Razorlight, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Smashing Pumpkins, as well as many more acts on the bill - click here for the line-up details for Reading, and here for Leeds.

Tickets are sold out.

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