Reading Festival Weekend

As you will notice a lot of the rumours were correct. What a great line-up this year!

Friday:
Main Stage
Kings of Leon
Kaiser Chiefs
Placebo
Fall Out Boy
Deftones
Funeral For A Friend
New Found Glory
Alexisonfire
Madina Lake
Sonic Boom Six
NME/Radio 1
Faith No More
Jamie T
Friendly Fires
Florence and the Machine
Jack Penate
The Horrors
Little Boots
The Airbourne Toxic Event
The Virgins
Manchester Orchestra
Dananananaykroyd

Saturday:
Main Stage
Arctic Monkeys
The Prodigy
Maximo Park
Ian Brown
The Courteeners
Enter Shikari
Eagles of Death Metal
The Rakes
Fightstar
Mariachi El Bronx

NME/Radio1
Gossip
Glasvegas
White Lies
The Maccabees
You Me At Six
Patrick Wolf
Metric
Spinnerette
Delphic
Dinosaur Pile Up

Sunday:
Main Stage
Radiohead
Bloc Party
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Vampire Weekend
Brand New
The View
The Living End

NME/Radio1
Lost Prophets
AFI
Gallows
The Gaslight Anthem
Crystal Castles
Passion Pit
Metronomy
Frank turner
Lethal Bizzle
Incase of Fire
Broadway Calls

To see full line up visit Here

Buying your ticket

Getting a ticket for Reading Festival is harder than you would think. Although there are many places to buy them from, the growing popularity of the festival is making it harder every year. Tickets are usually released on the internet first on the main website and other ticket selling sites (make sure they are a trusted site before you buy, i will list some well-known ticket sites later on). The tickets are released in batches, the first batch is released on the 30th of march at 7pm. The first batch usually sell out with in a couple of hours so you have to get in quick. A lot of people find they can not even get on the websites due to them being so busy. I would recommend you use the fastest computer available to you. Ticket touts tend to buy many tickets and are a real pain in the backside for genuine music lovers but as long as you are willing to pay a bit (sometimes a lot) more you should be able to get one. If you check Ebay a couple of hours after the tickets go on sale you will find many tickets already on there. So if you miss out first time there are always back up ideas on offer. On most ticket selling sites they have a limit on how many tickets they will sell in one transaction, this stops touts buying thousands in one go and ruining it for everyone. You will usually find that the weekend tickets sell out first as msot people want to camp and stay the whole weekend and gain the most out of their festival. The single day tickets aren't too far behind but do take a bit longer to sell out. You will need a weekend ticket if you want to camp. The second batch is realeased a few weeks later. Some branches of HMV sell tickets (see below for list of HMV branches which sell reading Festival tickets) but again you will need to get to the shop a long time before it opens as there are always huge queues of desperate people who didnt manage to get their ticket off the internet and want to get one at face value instead of having to pay twice as much for one off a tout. On sale with the regular tickets are Early Bird tickets. These tickets allow people with a weekend ticket to enter the campsite a day before everyone else gets there.

Last year thousands of people were scammed by dodgy websites claiming that had tickets after th event was sold out. These websites never had any tickets and were just out to cash in on peoples desperation for Reading Festival tickets. Some of these sites would not have a maximum amount of tickets tha you could buy in one go so some people would by many and lose thousnads of pounds to the scammers. When people realised thier mistakes and tried to contact the companys they wouldn't be able to speak to them at all. So my advice would be to make sure that the website you buy your tickets from one of the recommended sites below.

Trusted Websites To Buy Tickets

www.readingfestival.com
www.festivalrepublic.com
Lastminute.com
Ticketline
Ticketmaster
Gigantic
SEE Tickets SeeTickets

Voyagenbus.com (France)
Reading Arts & Venues Box Office - The Hexagon
Official telephone booking line- 0871 2310821

HMV Branches

Bath, Basingstoke, Bracknell, Bristol Broadmead, Guildford, High Wycombe,
Kingston, Newbury, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading Friar St, Reading Oracle,
Slough, Southampton, Staines, Swindon, Winchester, Windsor, Woking

Unauthorised Websites claiming to sell Reading Festival Tickets. Although some may actually have tickets, they would not have been supplied by the event organisers. My advice would be to avoid these websites.

www.readingleeds.co.uk
www.readingfesty.org
www.gumtree.com
www.viagogo.co.uk
www.viagogo.com
www.seatwave.com
www.stubhub.com
www.play.com
www.bookmetickets.com
www.craigslist.org
www.sostickets.com
www.double8tickets.com
www.londonticketshop.co.uk
www.londonticketshop.com
www.paperticket.co.uk
www.britishconcerts.com
www.premierevents.co.uk
www.totaltickets.co.uk
www.tickex.com
www.mostwantedtickets.co.uk
www.getmetickets.net
www.getmetickets.org
www.getmetickets.com
www.tickettout.com
www.no1soldoutevents.com
www.no1eventsltd.co.uk
www.westminsterevents.com
www.splendidtickets.com
www.ticketssoldout.co.uk
www.ticketssoldout.net
www.soldouteventtickets.com
www.soldoutentertainments.com
www.anyworldwideevent.com
www.worldticketshop.com
www.ticketsukltd.com
www.ticketsolutions.co.uk
www.ticketsolutionsltd.com
www.londonticketmarket.com
www.londonticketbrokers.co.uk
www.clickfortickets.co.uk
www.hertsboxoffice.co.uk
www.xclusiveticket.com (My friend had a very bad experience with this website, lost over £600!)
www.summerfestivaltickets.com
www.ticket4-you.com
www.euroteam.net
www.everysell.com
www.anyticket.com
www.showtimetickets.co.uk
www.tickco.com
www.londonticketsexpress.com
www.theonlineticketshop.com
www.ticketnetwork.com
www.ticket2bethere.co.uk
www.TixDaq.com
www.warnfestivals.co.uk
www.redcircletickets.com
www.frontrowtickets.com
www.contactmusic.com
www.coasttocoasttickets.com
www.ticketluck.com
www.ticketsinventory.com
www.tickettriangle.com
www.ticketnest.net
www.tickethold.com
www.ticketstub.com
www.gotickets.com
www.ticketnova.com
www.onlineseats.com
www.sportscityevents.com
www.seatexchange.co.uk
www.threechings.

What Should I Take to Reading Festival?

Essentials

Water Proof Jacket

Water proof Tent

Sleeping Bag

Lighter

Toilet Roll (save space and take a half used roll)

Wet Wipes

Water Bottle

Tooth brush/paste

Washing Stuff

Towel

Deodorant

More socks than you should need (assuming there may be a lot of water about)

Wellies

Comfy shoes

Warm Clothes (bearing in mind the evenings and the english weather)

Hat

Sunglasses

Suncream

Money (how much depends on how much food you intend on buying, bearing in mind the food and drink prices in the arena are extremely high. A burger and chips will cost £6 and above.)

Torch (wind up wont let u down in the night)

Bin Bags/Liners (Can be used for so many things, even if you just sit on it instead of mud, saves your backside from bein wet for the rest of the day. I have even used one when i found out my waterproofs weren't actually waterproof and managed to wear one, it didnt let me down!)

Pen Knife ( if you take one, you will end up using it at some point)

Seat (for around camp is always nice, maybe buy a cheap one, if you get it home again, see it as a success)

Paracetemol/Painkillers/Personal hangover cures (can stop an otherwise ruined weekend)

Pro Plus (expect sleepness nights, all part of the fun!)

Food Snacks for your tent

Non Essentials (but could make the weekend that bit more special)

Camera

Disposable Barbecue (cook some food or helps get your camp fire going)

Music System/speakers

Book

Timetable for Acts and Stages (they sell timetables but are usually £10, save the pennies and print off your own. I will add a link when i can for you)

Booze!

What Should I Avoid When I'm Picking A Plot For My Tent?

It is a good idea to set up your tent as early as possible. If you purchase an Early Bird ticket you will be able to enter the campsite on the Wednsday morning and have the whole campsite to choose from. You may want to go as close as possible to the entrance to the arena or you may want to be further away and nearer some trees. The choice is yours but i have a few tips and warnings for those who are unsure. It is alway a good idea to be near a toilet but if you get to near then you will definitely regret your decision. 90,000 people eating junk food and drinking nothing but beer all weekend are going to need the toilet alot and the facilities are not brilliant so after a couple of hours the area around them begins to smell a lot! If you go to set up your tent very late on then you always run the risk of having to be by a toilet or if the weather is bad then the only areas left maybe completely water-logged or just a muddy pit. Going too close to bushes is another thing to avoid if you can but not as essential as the other two. Basically people don't always make it to the toilet facilities when they need to go so a bush is the next best thing and it can begin to smell again if you are down wind plus its just not a very nice thing to wake upto in the morning knowing someone is having a wazz 20 inches away from your head. So the EarlyBird ticket is a good idea in my book if you can. If you live around the Reading area like i do, i have gone up after work on the Wednesday set up my tents and gone home for a preparation good nights sleep and gone up the next day with all my stuff. Things have been known to get stolen out of unattended tents so anything you leave is at your own risk. Its a good idea to ask the group next to yours to keep an eye on your tents. A lot of people see the Early Bird ticket as an excuse to spend another day having a great time with mates infront of the camp fire not worrying about a thing

The wrist band collection site moved in 2008 to along by the river instead of being inside the grounds. This is annoying if you are carrying lots of stuff as its quite a walk from anywhere that a car can drop you off from. Once you have collected your wristband you are free to walk in and out of any entrances and exits. You cannot get into any other entrance without a wristband so my advice would be to head straight for the river (follow the flow of people) and collect your wristband before you do anything, go in and set yourself up and then you can do anything else that you have to do afterwards, hassle free.

The Sunday night at Reading Festival is known to be a little feisty at the best of times. If you are planning to get a lot of sleep this night then errm well my advice would be don't expect much sleep! In 2008 the sky was filled with smoke and every minute or so you would here the boom of a gas canister exploding in a fire followed by the roar of the watching crowd. I also experienced a set of toilets being set on fire then tipped over by fellow festival goers all working as one to cause as much destruction as possible. Although there is an atmosphere of pure savagery, i am yet to see any fights at all as everyone is happy.

Me and one of my mates decided that we wouldn't even bother trying to go to sleep so instead tried to keep our fire going all night by each going off in our drunken state to find anything that will burn. This proved great entertainment and also stopped anyone coming to steal anything out of our tents. The greatest find was a huge empty bag of what used to be horse manure. We chucked it on the fire and to our amazement we had 6 foot flames within a matter of seconds. Luckily we managed to lead the trailing flames away from my sleeping mates tent just before we woke him up in a rather nasty way. We then amused ourselves by slowly collapsing the tent of a mate whilst he was sleeping like a baby. We managed to completely dissemble the tent before he woke up and he actually thanked us for it when it came time to packing up as we had done the hard bit for him. We decided to leave at about 6 o clock in the morning to beat the mad rush of everyone leaving at the same time. Luckily I live in Thatcham which is only about 30 minutes away in the car but the car was miles away so we had about an hours walk with all our gear to endure first.

Silent Disco

In the evening when the live acts have stopped rocking your world, the music does not have to end however. If you head over towards the fair end of the site you will find yourself a silent disco. For those who do not know what a silent disco is, it is a big tent and when you walk in you get handed a pair of headphones. Say goodbye to your friends as all you have in store for the next however long it is, is a bit o' boogie. As its at Reading Festival, its not just any music however, top djs will play their best sets for your ears. To anyone not wearing headphones its an extremely strange site and the thought of it sounds weird to anyone but suprisingly it works pretty well and you can have a great time.

The headphones are free and given on a first come, first serve basis and then 1 out and 1 in.

The times will be announced on here as soon as i know. Dance away!

If you cant be bothered to set up your own tent after carrying it all the way there and are looking for a lazy and more homely way to camp during the festival, there may be an alternative for you. You can now have your tent set up for you, all ready and waiting for you to arrive. Not only that, it will be a luxury tent with more room than the usual tent and will have an air bed in it. They will take apart your tent when you are finished and all the parts are either re-used or completely recycled so you will be doing your bit for the environment aswell. The luxury pads are situated in a special area of the campsite which has its own seperate well maintained toilets and showers, they also give you a locker to put your valuables in! Security guards stay around the camp all day and night to look after everything They are even slightly raised off the ground just incase it floods, they really have thought of everything. It is a good alternative if you love music but the camping bit ruins a festival for you. Lots more home comforts and a better nights sleep. Checkout www.tangerinefields.co.uk if you fancy spending a bit more but having a slightly cleaner, more comfy time at a festival.