Reading Festival Overview

Been a little while since the festival since it was the end of August bank holiday weekend, but somehow I'm only just getting around to writing as I've barely recovered still! And to be honest I'm way too lazy to go in-depth this time. I blog more for me than anything else, so it's just to remember who I saw. Pretty much every band I saw was really good!

I arrived around midday on Thursday & met Marie at the station. We have fairly similar taste in music so we ended up spending a lot of time together. On Thursday evening we ended up going on a big fail pub crawl, for some reason.

Friday
Friday morning didn't start as early as I had planned, but I caught the last half of Andrew O'Neill's History Of Heavy Metal since I missed it at Download. It wasn't as funny as I'd have hoped, by good nonetheless. Neck Deep were next on my list, followed by tagging along with Marie for a bit of a chill outside Lock Up for the of Vant followed by God Damn and The Bots. I then went solo to Main Stage for Panic! At The Disco, All Time Low, and Bastille, before meeting up again at Lock Up for Modern Life Is War and The Bronx.

Highlight of the day for me had to be Limp Bizkit at NME. I even managed to persuade Marie and Greg to join me somehow! Although I did bribe them with the 2 Jager shots I'd smuggled in. I didn't get any photos though since we stood outside the tent for bar and toilet access!

I had intended to see the end of Mumford & Sons since I do like their singles, but ater one song I knew and half of the next song which sounded exactly the same, we bailed and went to see New Found Glory instead. Because Lock Up is easily the best stage, haha!

Saturday
I guess it doesn't mean a lot when the line-up this year was awfully poor, but Saturday was always the stand-out day and I'd probably have just done the one day had that been feasible. And mostly Main Stage!


Babymetal were first up, and I went all-out with my outfit (a red tutu, a black tutu, pleather peplum top, megitsune mask, red lippy...the whole shebang). And they really rocked! I've always loved J-pop, and while it took me a little while to warm to their music (Buono! will always be my favourite...), I really got into them recently. I already picked up a ticket to the Wembley show next year because I want to see them again. And hopefully with friends because I felt awkward being one of only a handful of people who knew more than "Gimme Chocolate!".

After changing into shorts and my Babymetal vest back at camp, it was back to Main Stage for Marmozets. They supported Muse on that surprise tour they did, which is why I was extra-specially annoyed that my dad went without me even though he'd have missed the announcement had I not told him! But hey, I got to see them eventually, and they lived up to expectations. Afterwards I saw Modestep for the third time this year, and it was probably the set I enjoyed most all weekend because their music is just so fun.

It must have been around this point that it started raining. I'm not a fan of Pierce The Veil at all, but I was sat in my poncho and I had a nice dry bit of ground under my butt, so I wasn't going to move. Alexisonfire rocked, and was much better than the time I saw them when I was 15 because I didn't get a split lip this time. I had intended to see Pvris at The Pit, but the stage was running madly behind so I had to skip them in favour of Royal Blood, whose set I had missed last time they played Reading.

The Pit running behind wasn't all bad though, as it meant I could sneak down there to catch Atreyu. I was delighted that they played "You Give Love A Bad Name", even if they did play it compeletely out of tune.


Bring Me The Horizon were another of my highlights. They sound really good live, I loved their last album and the singles from their new one. Even if I hate to admit it! I was glad of the rain and my poncho though as Oli Sykes was wearing a Babymetal shirt cut into a vest and a red checked shirt, the same as I was! I had to make a hasty exit during their last song however, as the on-screen graphics were awfully migraine-inducing.

I have obviously gone off of Twin Atlantic as I didn't enjoy their set at NME much. This probably wasn't helped by only vaguely knowing older songs, and the crowd being all children who only knew the new crap. Afterwards I caught the rest of Metallica's set. Objectively they were very good, but it was a little boring as all the songs go on forever and it was cold and too wet to sit down. And naturally they played "Enter Sandman" last, and it was the one song everyone was waiting for. I didn't have the nerve to dance the Macarena to it by myself though...shame on me!

Sunday
We had breakfast in town in the morning which was expensive and disappointing and made me miss Milton Jones. Boo.

So my day ended up starting quite late with Against Me!, and it was nice to see a decent punk band on Main Stage. The Gaslight Anthem followed there, before The Pit brought us Turbowolf, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, and Beartooth. After a wander around the clothing stalls, we stopped by Festival Republic for the end of We Are The Ocean before Manchester Orchestra (who are in fact, not an orchestra at all). A short jaunt to The Pit for Cancer Bats and a search for food filled our time before the headliner of our night.


Who was of course, Frank Turner. To be honest I was pretty disappointed. I really enojoyed his solo set at Bristol, but solo sets just don't work in such a bit place. You can't really dance around to acoustic music, and at once point The Libertines were drowning him out from the Main Stage. I also had a woman behind me with a baby strapped to her front, and she kept jabbing me with her baby. I mean, seriously? I ended up joining Marie outside after a while as I got too hot and the crowd were so ignorant about any of his older songs which annoyed me a bit! But I guess a bit of an acoustic old favourite was really the perfect wind down at the end of the weekend.

Overall... I didn't enjoy the festival much. I always knew the line-up would be weak, but I just couldn't afford enough alcohol to get any more enjoyment out of it! And I ended up sitting through most of the sets to preserve energy that I then didn't need for Frank Turner. The weekend needed more drinking and dancing!

But I did have a good time, I enjoyed getting to know old camp-mates better, and I wish I could see them all more than once a year. It's just the expense that makes me cry. But at least my train back home wasn't affected by the strikes, I guess, as that would have put a huge dampener on things!

NASS Festival

When I was 14, I wanted to go to NASS Festival but wasn't allowed. Now, ten years later, I finally got to go! It's a small festival just down the road from me with more focus on skating/BMXing and DJ sets than live music, but this year my beloved Enter Shikari were headlining on the Friday. So naturally I had to go.


Getting there was easy since I got a lift from my grandparents (literally too about 20 minutes), but I was queueing to get in for almost 2 hours, I think. The day tickets went through the VIP queue, but there were very few checkers and they were checking bags VERY thoroughly. Was super annoying as I was really thirsty and had no water on me as I knew I would get it taken off me on the way in. Generally not well organised as I was also sent through the camp site on the way in AND out even though I shouldn't have been there on a day ticket. Useless!


After buying a programme and a drink and getting lost and annoyed, I spent most of the day at the vert ramp as live music didn't start until 5pm.


Whenever I got too hot I went to the dirt ramps to sit under a tree. I'm glad I took a book with me to read (Fight Club) as it kept me occupied.


Back at the vert I could see some guys posing for photos but didn't think much of it. But then when I looked properly I realised it was only bloody Enter Shikari so I had to go muscle in on the action for a bit nand have a chat and a pose. Grinned like a mad thing for a solid hour afterwards.


At abvout 4pm the skateboarders came off the vert and it was BMX time.


Live music started on Main Stage at 5pm, where there were also invisible toilets.


The first band was Bare Knuckle Parade, who offered a kind of folk punk mix of goodness. Think Mumford & Sons, but with an accordion. They're also from Bath which means I should be able to go see them again some time too!


I'll admit to being a bit distracted during their set as Rob Rolfe and some Shikari crew were playing frisbee to the side of the stage...


Black Peaks were next, with some good clean wails.


Spotted some guys with Enter Shikari balloons at this point. Apparently Rob took the skies as soon as they arrived.


Near the end of their set I spotted Rory C, but waited until the band had finished playing before going to say hi and get a selfie. I'm glad I waited as he seemed to have really enjoyed Black Peaks. I'm still fangirling a bit now to be honest...


Decided to get some nachos which looked terrible but tasted amazing. Managed to make a friend who wanted to watch me eat as it's 'good to see skinny girls who actually eat', who then proceeded to assume I was a lesbian as I hadn't noticed any hot guys (apparently they were everywhere?), and tell me that she smuggled mkat in via the vajayjay. Uh huh haha.


By the time We Are The Ocean took to the stage, it had become very obvious that this isn't a festival for music lovers. There were less than 50 people watching, and I had considered them to be a fairly big band. I had seen more people at Sika Studios watching a DJ earlier that day. Sheesh.


Last trip to fill up my water bottle and grab some drinks at the bar (two-fisted style) allowed me to see some inline skating. Makes me want to buy a pair and give it a go again!


Even though only a small crowd was gathering, I hurried to the barrier before Modestep to guarantee a good spot for later.


I enjoyed them much more than at Download and had a good dance, although the dumb girl behind me was recording herself and screaming "NASSHYPE" intermittently for the whole set and kept smacking me in the head, and someone tried to grab my hat off my head and was surprised when I swore at them for it. One of the staff told her to stop though and checked I was okay afterwards, even warning me that Shikari crowds were well known for being rough and crowd surfers...lol.


My panic on placement was for nothing, as the crowd cleared before filling up again for Enter Shikari. My balloon friends even ended up next to me on the barrier with their backpacks on their fronts stuffed with pillows to avoid pain (I wish I'd thought of that...).


The setlist was pretty much the same as the night before, aside from the unfortunate strict curfew that cut them off a few songs short of the end so we were all left hanging. I thought that was pretty ridiculous considering the fact that we were in the middle of the bloody countryside and the DJs would be just as loud until 3am+...


Rory crowdsurfed right by me haha luckily not on me or I'd have been crushed. A couple other crowdsurfers went over me but I'm short enough to just duck below the barrier and shield my head with my arms until they're over!


The staff wouldn't give us any setlists, but I did convince the nice lady from before to get Rory C's #NASSHYPE paper plane for me! I mean, I have no proof whatsoever that he made it, but shhh.

Overall it was an odd festival. It definitely would be much more fun in a group, but I have no friends so I had to go by myself. Chilling in the sun with a drink watching skateboarding was good fun, but could have used some chatter. Most of the people there seemed to only care about getting drunk, taking drugs, and DJs. I would probably go again if there was a good live music line up though, as it was nice to get to the front with minimal effort or injury and to meet my favourite guys in the world again.