Reading Festival food review: Expensive but good options

However, when you’re buying food at a festival as a vegetarian, you’re never really sure what to expect.

At Reading Festival this weekend, I was pleasantly surprised to find there were a whole host of food venues available.

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From burritos and noodles to American pancakes and fajitas, if you were craving it, the festival probably had it.

Veggie and vegan stand (Image: NQ)

This certainly makes a change from the festival in previous years, where my colleagues have commented on the lack of options and one festivalgoer claimed he was living on ‘trail mix and bananas’ for the course of the weekend.

However, as a vegetarian, despite the amount of food options available you do have to squint at each and every menu board praying there is a meatless version of whatever it is you’re craving.

For the most part, many places did have their token vegetarian or vegan meal such as Margherita pizzas, halloumi burgers or dirty fries without ‘the dirt’?

But nothing really stood out as an amazing meat-free alternative lunch. Though, who am I to complain having chosen this diet?

READ MORE: Recap: Reading Festival day two

In the end, I opted to buy lunch at a designated vegetarian and vegan food stall which I’ve seen crop up more and more over at festivals over the years.

I wish I could say I was shocked at the prices (£10 for a vegan chilli hot dog?) but that was the average price of any meal at any stall throughout the festival.

Vegan chilli dog - £10 (Image: NQ)

Events like this are always expensive, in my personal experience, so I can understand why so many festivalgoers opted to walk the long towpath into Reading Town Centre in search of cheaper meals.

I opted for the vegan chilli dog and this is when tragedy struck. Only compostable food containers are allowed at the event, which I wholeheartedly support, however, the compostable food container did NOT wholeheartedly support my lunch.

Within minutes, the packaging had melted through the bottom and my vegan hot dog was on the floor.

Pancake stand (Image: NQ)

I know many of you may joke that that is where a vegan meal belongs but I, for one, was devasted.

Then came the difficult decision of remaining hungry for the rest of the day or breaking the bank for round two.

I opted to give it another go, despite cries from my bank, and bought £7.50 American pancakes with Nutella and Oreos.

Pancakes with oreos - £7.50 (Image: NQ)

Thankfully, they were light enough that the packaging remained intact and were delicious, albeit sickly.

A few hours later, a friend bought me some chocolate-covered churros as she could see I was still mourning the loss of my chilli dog.

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Churros - £? (Image: NQ)

I was unsure of the price of these but they were also tasty and the packaging remained solid (which was good as I was in the middle of the crowd watching Inhaler – I doubt people would have been pleased if they were moshing and slipped on a churro!).

Overall, the food options were plentiful albeit expensive. My advice would be to order lighter food that won’t break the packaging OR to scoff it as quickly as possible.