Day One - Friday The anticipation for Reading Festival is always too much to handle, and when the day finally arrives, nothing can get you down. Although, arriving at Reading Festival this year wasn’t quite as exciting as I had originally hoped for. We had a half an hour walk to the venue in the pouring rain; to then find out we had to queue for three hours to get. Everyone was agitated and cold by the time we received our wristbands, but by the time we got to our campsite, everything started to look up. The sun came out, and we were with our friends, and new people, therefore all our moods instantly brightened up.
For the rest of Thursday, we did what everyone does at a festival, and we partied until the early hours of the morning. Everyone drank too much, and one of our close friends indulged herself in some crack (which none of us agreed with), but it made our first night memorable.
We all woke up Friday morning, feeling a little worse for wears, but decided that the best way to drag ourselves through the day would to have a couple of beers and party on. Before the bands started, a close friend and I decided to do a slight bit of shopping in the village situated ten minutes away from our campsite. If you’ve never been to a festival before, you would not expect to be able to go shopping there, but alas there are many clothes shops, including a vintage shop where I managed to bag myself a few goodies.
The first band I saw were a band called Frankie and the Heartstrings, who I stumbled across whilst getting something to eat. They were the first band playing on the NME stage, and I only hear approximately three songs, but they were highly entertaining. They had indie riffs, with a beat that made you want to get up and dance all day long. The crowd seemed to be thoroughly enjoying them, as everyone was jumping around and dancing away.
After that was A Day To Remember, who were playing in the Main Stage. I’ve seen them a fair few times before, but have never had the time or patience to buy/download their music. I couldn’t say they were amazing, as they were just average, but I could see fans of their music most definitely thought it was a better show than I thought.
Billy Talent were next to be watched, and as a dedicated fan to them for many years, I knew they were going to be amazing as usual, and surprise surprise they blew me away. Playing mainly their heavier songs, they managed to get the crowd going and everyone was jumping away to them. I would recommend going to see them any day.
I’ve never been huge follower of Lostprophets and after their first album ‘thefakesoundofprogress’, I was never impressed by anything they brought out and therefore did not listen to them. Therefore, I didn’t have particularly high standards for Lostprophets set, and I’m glad I didn’t, as they weren’t up to standard. Playing mainly new songs, I immediately wasn’t interested, but not only this, I was disappointed with the lack of crowd interaction they had.
Following Lostprohets was infact the outstanding Biffy Clyro. I have seen Biffy Clyro many times, supporting other bands, and I never took any particular notice of them, until they played at Reading. Since previously seeing them, I knew a few songs, but Biffy Clyro most definitely know how to put on an outstanding show. Every song they played was pitch perfect, and by the end of the set, they left me in awe of them, and most certainly wanting to see them again.
Last of the day to play was Queens of the Stone Age. Since I was fairly young, my father has always been a large fan of this band, which caused me to grow an attachment to them, and have a high interest in their music. Opening with one of their first ever written songs, it was already the best show that was going to be seen that weekend. They played only songs from their first album, and a couple of most popular songs, and they were phenomenal; everyone in the crowd was stoked to be witnessing such a perfect show. There was not one part of their set which was in the slightest not to the highest standard possible. I can definitely say they were the best band of the entire festival.
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