Reading Festival

Reading Festival Review

Think of the Big Day Out festival in Australia, then think about three whole days of the Big Day Out and you have Reading Festival. Located about 45 minutes outside London, the Reading festival is held at the end of August in the lovely town of (You guessed it) Reading. This year it was host to some amazing acts such as Kings of Leon, The Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead. Unfortunately, we only managed to nab tickets to the last day but what a day it was.

The best thing about going to a three day festival on the last day is that you have all the energy in the world. Everyone around you has probably only managed to get about 4 hours sleep the last two nights and they haven’t seen a shower since they left home a few days ago. We were fresh and it really showed as we walked into the huge gates and past the compostable toilets.

With only a few clouds in the sky (a pretty nice day by English standards) we witnessed our first band of the day, ‘Noah and The Whale’. They provided some lovely relaxing tunes to accompany the first cider of the day.

Representing the Australian contingent of the festival, The Living End hosted the main stage. It was a pity that no one knew who they were. We managed to find a few stray Aussies that were going nuts to ‘White Noise’ and ‘Prisoner of Society.’

The dance tent was burning up with the sound of Canadian DJ Deadmau5 ringing in everyone’s ears. He is sure to have one of the biggest dance hits this year with ‘I remember’ repeating on radios all across the world.

A quick scoot over to Metronomy proved that they are a band to watch in the coming months with the boys playing some fierce tunes to an eager audience.

Mainstage then saw Vampire Weekend throw out some awesome renditions of Oxford Comma, Campus and A-Punk. As the sun set to the sounds of one of the most underestimated indie bands in years the weather certainly got colder.

The crowd slowly warmed up with the aid of scarves and beanies whilst some preferred to continue running around half naked. Karen-0 from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs however took to the stage in a hot little spacey number. A few costume changes later, she had managed to punch out ‘Zero’, ‘Gold Lion’ and ‘Phenomena’.

Britain’s Reading favourite’s Bloc Party had the job of warming up for Radiohead but they could have headlined on their own with the performance they gave. The band formed in 1999 at the same festival, so the night underscored a special 10-year mark in their career. Kele made a touching announcement half way through the set. "Ten years ago I asked this guy (Russell Lissack) to play guitar for me -- this song goes out to all the young kids in bands out there,” he said.

A long wait followed Bloc Party while the stage was cleared and huge white pipes were pulled down from the roof to cover the entire stage. The extremely long wait in the pending rain was definitely worth it just to hear the crowd roar as the legends that are Radiohead entered the arena. It was a lyrical, emotional and visual rollercoaster as the band took everyone on a journey as far back as The Bends and Hail to the Thief. Their renditions of classics like ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ and ‘Karma Police’ had the whole crowd in a giant sing-along. The band took to the stage one more time, finishing with an epic encore of ‘Paranoid Android’. I feel like writing a bunch of words just isn’t enough for what went down that night.

Reading festival certainly proved to be an epic experience I would recommend it to anyone who loves the vibe of a big festival like the Big Day Out. There’s certainly something for everyone. And for those of you who don’t like the crowds. Please stay at home.