WELLINGTON boots have been flying off the shelves as the festival crowd swarmed the town this weekend.

Thousands of people arrived in Reading this week for the annual August Bank Holiday spectacle, the Reading Festival.

While some businesses were concerned about muddy footprints walking around their stores, others have welcomed the crowd.

Imogen Solly, office manager at the Range, said the Caversham Road store had already sold out of wellies by Friday afternoon, so staff had to fetch extra stock from another Range store.

Imogen said: “We have lots of things out specifically for the festival so that's really good for business. We have things like Paracetamol, wet wipes, pot noodles, all the essential camping things.

“Lots of people have come in to the shop, it has been really busy."

Derek Soper, store manager and Carters, said they too had enjoyed the influx of festival goers.

"It has been non stop since yesterday and our wellies are already sold out, said Mr Soper.

"We have been very busy.

"We are selling lots of essential equipment like water proof sheeting and sleeping bags, it's all going really well.

"It's always busy when the festival going on, the only trouble is that we lose a lot of our regular clientele who might spend £150 or £200 on walking equipment because they can't get into the shop, but we do very well with the festival crowd."

Mr Soper added that the staff at the Caversham Road store always find festival goers to be pleasent and they welcome them to visit the shop.