9:41am Monday 1st September 2008
By Tom Letts
Last weekend was Reading weekend. A certain percentage of London’s jubilant/distraught teenage population, exam results in hand, made the pilgrimage to the music festival.
Just walking to the bus stop yesterday morning I couldn’t help but notice cohorts of skinny-jeaned festival goers, in dozens of different factions, making their ways to Finsbury Park, many of them buckling under the weight of their bags.
I have to say that as they waddled along the pavement, jeans ripping at the seams, I didn’t have even the slightest pang of longing to go to Reading.
The music festival has become a rite of passage for teenagers, middle aged hippies, trendy left couples and feral children, and for good reason - weather permitting you will always have a fantastic time and they are certain to provide you with some unforgettable memories, to the backdrop of live music. A good line-up will sell tickets, and lots of them, but in my humble festival-going experience, the music is the least thing to take into account.
With crowd pullers come crowds, and with crowds come all the horror stories we’ve heard from Reading. People being sick on other people’s tents, people being sick in other people’s tents, people getting lost in the labyrinthine campsights, people slipping in the toilets and getting an arm covered in recycled fast food….I need not continue - the list is endless, catastrophe is rife. But then that’s half the fun.
My personal preference is towards the smaller festivals, WOMAD, The Big Chill, and others of the same vein. They feel less obstreperous and ultimately more relaxing. But that’s what I want, rather than a sleepless 3 nights. But then I’ve never been to Reading. I did Glastonbury, which was fantastic, but in the future I’m sure I’ll be inclined to return to Womad or Camp Bestival, a little festival I went to this summer.
I’d be interested to know what other people think - what do people seek in a festival, and are Reading and the other several-hundred-thousand people events a bit too big and beer soaked, or is that just an unfair impression I’ve got?
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