Published: Thursday, 28th August, 2008 12:00
Leader: Festival brings town alive
By Reading Chronicle, the Voice of Reading
Comments (0)
Print Article
THE READING Chronicle website has this week been inundated with contributions from people who had a bad experience at this year’s Reading Festival.
We cannot ignore these grievances. To have been caught in the stampede as tickets went on sale last Wednesday must have been genuinely terrifying. And to have been scammed by unscrupulous ticket websites – having paid all that money, planned your itinerary to the last second, met with friends, and mapped out a whole weekend of sheer joy – must have been a terrible disappointment.
Yes, the organisation left much to be desired in many ways, and some people will have had their weekend ruined as a result, but this somewhat understandable anti-festival fit of pique surely loses sight of the magnificent event we are so fortunate to have on our doorstep.
The Reading Festival makes our town come alive. It is that simple.
There is no other event that comes anywhere near generating the buzz of 80,000 people intent on having the time of their lives, no matter the weather, no matter the cost, no matter the lack of every home comfort.
The reason those who were the unfortunate victims of ticket fraud or who missed out in Wednesday’s queue are so upset is that they know exactly the kind of occasion they are missing; the kind of occasion when you can get within tantalising distance of your heroes and see them sweating, crouching, leaping and preening before you, soaking up every last drop of adoration from the thousands of people around you who feel exactly the same. It is the kind of occasion that sees an apparently unwieldy mass of people unified by a common experience.
Nothing else that happens in Reading can hope to achieve that.
The festival is fundamental to Reading in so many ways, not just in terms of its on-going cultural relevance as a town. For many shops and cafes near the site, festival weekend is the making of their year. No other event brings as many people to Reading, spending that much money.
The organisers know, and take-up of 2009 pre-sale tickets shows, that people will continue to flock to the Reading Festival.
But there can be no excuse for taking fans for granted and Festival Republic must do everything in their power to make next year’s event even better for every single person lucky enough to get a ticket.
Further Details
