So I’m currently sitting on my sofa, wrapped up in fleecy blankets, wearing a dressing gown whilst eating comfort food and drinking tea.
So I’m currently sitting on my sofa, wrapped up in fleecy blankets, wearing a dressing gown whilst eating comfort food and drinking tea. But no, I am not ill or recovering from a bad spat of tummy bugs.
No, I have just come home from Reading Festival.
Food
The first year I went, the food was great. Think up and coming street market food making you feel like you were in a bustling place. Yes it’s expensive but yum it was worth it, however this year, not so much.
For breakfast, imagine fatty raw pink meat basted in salt. Lunch, (well if you’re lucky) think maybe potato wedges and cheese. And finally dinner, maybe more potato wedges. The best food I ate was a Domino’s pizza but that was on the way to Tesco and I mean come on, it was Domino’s. The mash potato tasted like slop, the scrambled egg was tasteless and don’t even get me started on drinks. I nearly had to take out a bank loan just to get some cold water. Towards the end of the week, you also enter the mind state of ‘is that food really worth an alcoholic drink… No.’
Music
So Green Day, Biffy Clyro and Eminem were the headliners. But I’m afraid for me, the headliners have to be Wiley, Chase and Status and Kate Nash. It took Eminem a full hour into his set to begin singing his old classic songs and frankly when Dido came out, she was so much better. Wearing army printed clothes, he looked like he had stepped out of the 1990s and really just needed to cheer up. Wiley was absolutely amazing as well as Chase and Status and I will be looking out for future concerts for them.
Bastille and the Blackout failed to get the crowd excited and yet again Iggy Azalea pulled out of a summer 2013 festival. Not impressed Aggy Iggy.
Weather
We left our homes with the forecast of the best bank holiday weather yet, we arrived with great sun (which gave me a horrendous ‘racer’ back suntan due to the dress I was wearing) but soon our hopes were drowned literally as the rain pelted down. It may have been okay if you had a rain mac but ah one morning I awoke and found that my raincoat had been left outside all night, in the rain.
Camping
Okay I am not a regular camper. So there we were, me and my friend, really happy that we had set a tent up in under 20 minutes and it wasn’t one of these pop up ones, no. It gets to Saturday and everyday our tent has got droopier and droopier. We then realise the poles aren’t in properly—my bad. Camping on the whole is okay when it doesn’t rain (and it does), and if your tent is good (it’s usually not) and if your area is clean (it’s never) then you will be okay. Security and wardens are constantly coming round, just have a laugh with them and they really will look out for you.
People
Reading this year was full of gobby, over confident annoying 17 year olds and I’m pretty sure I wasn’t like that when I went. People try to tape off their camping area so you can’t walk through and the amount of times you walk through (as this if the only way out of the area) and you then get shouted out like ‘OI WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, HOW OLD ARE YOU?’
The amount of times I was asked how old I was by some skinny little girls who think they are ‘hard’ because she’s drinking too much away from home. And ALL of the time, I was definitely older. Also, make friends with the people next to you. This is the one time YOU ARE actually allowed to talk to strangers. The security wardens are all nice unless you mess with them and generally people there are all there to have fun and have a laugh.
I think I’m done
Overall I think I’m done with Reading Festival now. I’ve been twice and it’s becoming a younger, underage drinking crowd (even though they pride themselves on not letting underage people bring drink in).
Fair enough, if the line-up for you is amazing and there are lots of people you want to see, then it is definitely worth it. However with the rain, it just isn’t for me but then again I am comparing it to Benicassim Festival in Spain.
Don’t get me wrong. I had a great weekend and have got some memories that will last me a lifetime.
What’s your take on the Reading festival? Have your say in the comments section below, on Facebook or on Twitter.
