Skip to main content

My Time at Reading Festival!

After picking up my exam results on Thursday, last week, a few of my friends and I jumped in the car and travelled to Reading Festival. You have no idea how long I'd been counting down the days until this event so I was very, very excited. When I was 12, I went to Glastonbury Festival (Under 13's go free!) and that still remains to be one of the best weekends of my life but I hadn't been to a music festival since then so I had mostly forgotten what they're like.
Music festivals are phenomenal. 
From the second I received my turquoise Reading wristband, to the moment I bid the site farewell, I had an incredible time. Admittedly, before arriving, I had been a little apprehensive of what to expect. I'd been told my previous festival-goers that Reading is full of aggressive, in-your-face people, who clamber into your tent in the middle of the night and steal your sleeping bag with you still inside it. However, this was not the case in the slightest.
The majority of people at the festival were super-friendly, music-obsessed and there just to enjoy themselves. Obviously, you do get some odd exceptions who decide that they can't hold on and relieve themselves over a friend in the middle of Vampire Weekend (yup, that did happen...) but that's the same for any event (but perhaps not in the middle of Vampire Weekend). 
Most people arrive at Reading on the Thursday of the event, and the music starts on the Friday. Therefore, the first night was probably the craziest one of them all as there wasn't a lot going on so people just sat by their tents and drank any liquid that wasn't water. Every so often, there would be a 'Mexican Yell', which is like a Mexican wave but a scream that started off on one side of the entire site and gradually passed through the thousands of tents to the other side. That was kinda peculiar...
So, on Friday, at around noon, my friends and I walked from our little home in Brown camp to the Main Arena, where all the fun happens.
The Fat White Family

Jimmy Eat World (if you hadn't worked that out already...)

Vampire Weekend

We... Are... Paramoreeee

Queens of the Stone Age

Gotta love the lasers!

Marmozets (fun fact: Marmozets is made up of two sets of siblings- so cute!)

The Hives (and their terrifying backdrop)

Imagine Dragons

Jake Bugg

Arctic Monkeys

The Neighbourhood

The 1975

Disclosure

And that isn't even all of the artists I saw!
Although the ticket is quite pricey (£202.50 + booking fee for a weekend pass), I saw 28 different acts across the weekend, and I wasn't even pushing myself to see as many as I could. 
Out of the acts I saw, my Top 5 are....
  1. Arctic Monkeys- I was already a pretty big fan before I left for the festival and this group did not disappoint! Throughout the whole weekend, hundreds of supporters were wearing AM t-shirts and, when performing, the entire crowd knew every single lyric. My highlight of the set? Their performance of 'When the Sun Goes Down'. Incredible.
  2. Disclosure- I've always been a lover of dance tunes and siblings Guy and Howard Lawrence couldn't have ended the weekend in a more perfect way! Although I was completely, and utterly, crushed during their set by the males surrounding me, I still managed to have an awesome time.
  3. Paramore- The Most Professional Act of the Weekend Award definitely goes to this lot. Despite twenty minutes of no sound due to a technical fault, the group were not fazed and instead performed an excellent acoustic version of one of their many hits. Also, Hayley Williams is the coolest gal. Serious hair-envy.
  4. The Neighbourhood- Before my friend said that she wanted to see these guys, I had never heard of them. This act were so lively and seemed to be really enjoying themselves, which is always nice. One of their songs, 'Honest', was on the soundtrack for The Amazing Spiderman 2. Pretty awesome, don't ya think? At the end of their set, Jesse Rutherford (vocalist) threw his waterbottle about 90ft across the crowd- I was impressed. Check these guys out.
  5. The Fat White Family- okay, okay, I did intentionally only go and see this act so that I could say that I'd seen someone with their name but they were so, so good! Judging from the volume of singing created by people watching, the Fat White Family have a very dedicated fan base. Definitely worth a watch!

 Overall, I honestly had one of the best weekends of my life. I really hope that it's not too long before I get to go to another music festival as it truly was SO good. Tickets for next year are already on sale so get yours now!
Talk soon, Florrie x

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: 'The Band' at the Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield

Full of charm, wit and heartwrenching emotion, the Take That musical is simply divine. The musical follows the lives of a group of 16-year-old schoolgirls who have bonded over their adoration for 'the band'. The girls’ dream becomes reality when they have the opportunity to see the boy band live but tragedy strikes and their friendship breaks apart. 25 years on, a competition win could rekindle the girls once more. Featuring all the Take That classics from ‘Never Forget’ to ‘Rule the World’, this is a musical no 90s fan can miss. www.thebandmusical.com 'The Band' are made up of the five winners from BBC One's Let It Shine AJ Bentley, Nick Carsberg, Curtis T Johns, Yazdan Qafouri and Sario Solomon who make up pop group Five to Five. The sublime quintet is on stage for the majority of the production, touchingly representing the fact that, deep down, the boys are there wherever the girls go. Each performer offers vocals just as strong as the other a
Post a Comment
Read more

Interview with ‘Sick’ scriptwriter and performer Shey Hargreaves

From hunting down a patient’s lost teeth to witnessing someone turn down potentially life-saving treatment, scriptwriter Shey Hargeaves’ experience of working for the NHS was eye-opening to say the least. Reflecting on her time in a hospital, Shey shares tales of resilience and humour in her hour-long show Sick . “It’s scary!” Shey exclaims as I ask what it has been like leading a one-woman show for the first time. “You're totally on your own out there. But, it's quite nice because you're in control. That means you can play off the audience more. I think that makes for quite a warm, responsive kind of show.” The stories behind Sick are authentic accounts from the four-year period Shey spent within the NHS. Having completed a Master’s in Scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia, Shey was looking to find work when she came across a receptionist position for an Emergency Medical Assessment Unit in 2013. “If I had to be in a reasonably low-paid job and pay t
Post a Comment
Read more

'Dr Faustus'- Duke of York's Theatre, London

If you're one of the literary buffs who has heard of Christopher Marlowe's 'Dr. Faustus', you'd probably be surprised to hear of a theatre production of the play involving full-frontal nudity, rape and a whole lot of bodily fluid. Recently, I watched The Jamie Lloyd Theatre Company's adaptation of the play and, yes, that is exactly what it entailed.  'Dr. Faustus' follows the aspirations of academic Dr. John Faustus, who, in exchange for 24 years of power, wealth and honour, agrees to sign his soul away to the Devil. Lloyd's modern rewrite of the play intelligently mixed old with new; instead of presenting heavy criticism of the Catholic Church, the play focuses on the dark side of celebrity. The titular role of Faustus was performed by none other than Kit Harington (aka Jon Snow of 'Game of Thrones'), who, you'll be pleased to know, was very much alive at the Duke of York's Theatre, London. For those who know the plot of
Post a Comment
Read more