A Weekend at Reading Festival

I haven’t been to Reading Festival for years.

The last time I went, I was a teenager with so much to learn. I was just about to finish my A-Levels and was excited about going off to uni.

Having had such a good time at Glastonbury back in June (see my posts here and here), Jo and I decided to get hold of tickets for Reading to satisfy our festival withdrawal symptoms.

We were a little worried about feeling old thanks to the swarms of teenagers we discovered who were doing just what I used to. But luckily we met plenty of older people up for doing just what we wanted to – party!

After all, a festival is exactly what you want it to be.

Once we’d set up camp, we began a cider-fuelled evening with some lovely Welsh boys who were our ‘neighbours’ for the weekend…

We had a great time, watching dance acts including AlunaGeorge, Duke Dumont, and Gorgon City.

We then met up with some guys we knew from back home, and partied even harder…

We had a great time watching Annie Mac sat on shoulders, before setting off to the Main Stage to watch Queens of the Stone Age headline for the evening – they were fab! Check out their set here.

Luckily for us, the guys had backstage passes for the guest area of Reading, and they managed to sneak us in. This meant a cool cocktail bar with candles and tablecloths, a Relentless nightclub, and luxury toilets (dreams!)

The next morning, we woke up with slightly sore heads, but nonetheless got pumped ready for the day ahead. After some stodgy food, we set off to see some more bands.

We watched The Hives…

Foster The People and Imagine Dragons…

We waited patiently for Jake Bugg who played some incredible acoustic songs to the sunset before cracking out the electric guitar to turn it up a notch at night. He even managed a smile! Watch him here.

We then anticipated the arrival of… The Arctic Monkeys!

They are a band I’ve always been a fan of but just never managed to get round to seeing.

Their set is definitely worth a watch – check it out here.

And Alex Turner was, of course, effortlessly cool…

After the bands, we grabbed some food and headed back to the campsite.

It was absolutely FREEZING! 1 degree in August is just crazy if you ask me… particularly if you’re camping! So we were very glad of the boys’ campfire.