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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

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