Hi guys, final review of Reading Festival!! yay!
So by this last day, I had sort got into a proper routine now, I knew exactly where I was most time (except later that night which I will explain nearer the end of the post) and I knew all the secret places that make surviving at the festival a little easier *cough* the church by Tesco has nice toilets and serves cheap breakfast *cough*. Unfortunately it was the last day (even though I left the next morning), so I was incredibly sad when I got home (but also relieved since there were some not so great parts about it which again I will explain later).
Anyway onto the bands! First band I saw were Haim, who'd I'd been really looking forward to the whole weekend, and they didn't disappoint. I especially liked their new song "The Wire", but of course songs like "Falling" and "Don't Save Me" were crowd favourites too. Next was Fall Out Boy, who I didn't really watch from the crowd because I wanted a good view so I was fairly far a way and looked a bit weird jumping around to some of their songs as no one else was, and I think the 8 year old me would have slapped myself for not trying to get right to the front or something because she liked that kind of music a lot more than I do now even though I only knew a few songs, but anyway it was a great set and was kinda surreal (as was Green Day and Eminem from the previous days). the straight after that were Nine Inch Nails, who I hadn't listened to before so I didn't quite know what to expect but they were pretty good! Also managed to get really close to the front of the main stage this time which made it even cooler since I could see all the cool smoke and effects they used, the only thing is is that their songs seemed to get progressively worse as the last few seemed to all sound exactly the same: just a heavy bass line which gave me a really bad headache (I sound like a grandma). And then Biffy Clyro. Again, hadn't really heard of them and just assumed they'd be some quiet folky hipster type band from the music that was played while the stage was being set up, but obviously, I don't think I've ever been so wrong in my life. Me and my friend actually decided to leave the front of the crowd after their third song since the moshing was the most violent of the whole weekend, including a guy on top of a guy's shoulders with another guy on top of his, and naturally they all fell down and the guy at the bottom of it all got a concussion. The annoying thing was that I'd just made friends with a nice person and his friends and then these loud albeit very funny nice guys and a couple girls too ran in front and pushed us far away from them, but we had a good chat with those people too anyway (including the question: "what language do you speak, I speak Christian" they were super drunk). So, back to the band, I was intrigued by them so I will check them out as unfortunately due to the fact that me and my friend left pretty early I don't really know if I'll like them or not. We also then proceeded to get lost in the dark and go to Tesco to find that it was closed. (yay.)
Anyway, I'm just gunna go say all the other things which I haven't mentioned about the festival as these three posts have mainly been about the bands: Camping was fun and horrendous at the same time, as it was freezing at night and someone decided to "mark" our tent which was lovely but it rained so hopefully that washed off, I didn't once use the toilets at the camping sites as they were like the pit of hell itself so me and my friends either used the toilets at the arena, Tesco or the church we found. The thing I regret is not forcing more of my friends to come with me and not actually taking any details down from any of the people I met, and for being a bit reserved when it came to talking to new people at the start of the festival. It was only really on the Sunday that I found my confidence with new people, and found myself having a conversation with a person through my tent about Game of Thrones even though we couldn't see each other and sharing food my with random people and just chatting and giving people high fives and hugs.
So to conclude, it was one of the best experiences of my life and as long as the line up is good next year, I'm definitely going again. This years line up wasn't as good as some of the previous ones (especially the 2011 one- The Strokes, and Muse playing "Origin of Symmetry" in full, I would have killed to see that, I'm not joking) as it was trying to cater to a slightly wider audience and they should probably just stick to the normal demographic or it loses its identity a bit, but I still loved it. Recommend you go 9/10! (would have been 10 if it was the 2011 line up!)
Yas xx
P.S. if you are confused about my sudden enthusiasm for Muse, its because I have recently rediscovered them and now they're my second favourite band and my fave band for the moment (that changes every few months, recently it was tame impala, and before that was the vaccines etc.but I think Muse will be my favourite band for a long long time, but The Strokes are still my all time favourite band). Anyway I'll probably do an updated
top five bands or maybe ten in the future.)
