Published: Thursday, 21st August, 2008 08:00
Frustrated fans in festival stampede
By James Kell
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Security lead an injured fan to safety
Pic by: Nitu Mistry
READING Festival got off to a chaotic start yesterday (Wednesday) as angry punters stampeded past stewards, leaving some revellers hurt and badly shaken.
Frustrated fans had been queuing from the early hours to get their hands on remaining last minute 'earlybird’ passes or to pick up pre-ordered tickets, and a huge crowd crushed against barriers at the main entrance next to Rivermead Leisure Centre.
The Chronicle was on hand to record the mood of early festival arrivals, which was initially good-humoured until around 12.30pm when fans broke through railings and began climbing an embankment to avoid security staff, triggering a mad rush for the ticket office.
Eighteen-year-old Lauren Butler from Woodley suffered a panic attack and had to be dragged out of the crowd as staff lost control.
Lauren had been out celebrating her friend’s 18th birthday and had been queuing with him since 4am.The second year TVU photography student said: “I’ve been to the festival before and this is the first time I’ve seen it like this.
“When it started I had a panic attack and I was sick and shaking, and then I blacked out. I don’t know how I got to the other side.
“There’s no organisation. They could have just opened the gates at nine this morning and got it over with rather than keep everyone waiting. I’ve had one bottle of water and nothing to eat because there’s nowhere to eat and once you’re out of the line that’s it, you have to go the back.
“They’ve changed the way they organise it and it’s a mess. People are just tired and hungry and thirsty and the staff coming up to the front every two minutes and then walking away. It is just winding everybody up.
“I just want to go home now and have a shower and a sleep.”
Auden Leeke, 17, also from Woodley said: “I’ve got a balance disability and about three rows of people came from behind me and knocked me over. It was really scary.”
A girl was taken out of the crowd in a 'fireman’s lift’ by security staff and another group were shouting for a medic when one of their friends fainted.
Standing outside the crowd looking down from the embankment, Reading man Ali Parkinson said: “They’ve got everyone in a big cow pen and left them there. I’ve been before and it’s never usually like this.”
Noel Painting, deputy festival director at Festival Republic said: “We had a lot of people come very early, more than we had expected, there were several thousand people there.
“What we did was manage the situation, but it’s something we will look into for next year. We had a much higher than anticipated early arrival.”
People had travelled from far and wide to get this year’s festival. Pierre Petit and his friends Hannah Riley and Ben Backhouse had flown from Guernsey at 5am and taken a train from Southampton to Reading.
Pierre said: “There’s nine of us here now but there’s a group of about 22 of us coming in total. We’re here for the whole weekend and we can’t wait for it to get started.”
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