All ears on Reading
It’s Reading Festival weekend and this year it looks serious. Seriously big, that is, for 250,000 people are expected to make their way to the festival site (quite remarkable as the town’s population is 144,000). Amazingly, all tickets earlier in the year were sold out in one hour, breaking records.
The Evening Post has described the music event as the most significant in the country:
With Glastonbury taking a break this year, the Richfield Avenue extravaganza is unarguably the biggest music attraction in the UK.
The Guardian has also got excited about Reading, praising the festival in its Leader column.
But is bigger…better?
Organisers are concerned that things might just get out of hand. Drunken idiocy is now a national sport played in town centres across the land, and it is feared that scenes of disorder might erupt out of a potent mix of teens, booze, drugs and provocative music.
Now, anyone making a nuisance this year may, for the first time ever, receive a so-called festival Asbo. I think that the festival Asbo should be extended to those over-enthusiastic about Christmas (drunk and sober people alike), but that’s a debate for another day.
Now, I don’t have a festival ticket, but I can listen to the music from my flat. Yes, I know, I know, it’s not the same. Or I can just make my way to the town’s bars - the Purple Turtle is always an exciting place to be when the festivalgoers roll in. But if there are any readers out there who are going, send me a picture or two (they don’t have to be too tasteful; far better to capture the true essence of the event) and I will put them on this blog!