Reading Festival: Drugs, Drunks and Dancing

If you ever feel like visiting a world that feels entirely like a different planet, go to Reading festival. It was a truly bizarre experience. Don’t get me wrong I had a very memorable weekend and parts of it I loved. I will never forget waiting two and a half hours for my favourite artist, being squashed up to the barrier and singing every single word. It was brilliant. But, can that justify the not so good elements of the weekend? I’m not quite sure.

Having not done anything quite like it before, I was not quite prepared for some of Reading festival’s most famous elements. Every third tent or so that smell of marijuana would just waft outwards onto the path. Every 10th tent someone would inevitably be loudly ejecting the 8 shots of vodka they had decided to drink before breakfast that morning. But, despite the downsides of putting 80,000 millennials and Gen Zs into a large outdoor prison, there were some benefits. These included but were not limited to: the ability to get absolutely plastered without anyone batting an eyelid, the incredible experience of an enormous chorus of voices screaming the lyrics to ‘Vossi Bop’ and the way that one group would play ‘Sweet Caroline’ on their cheap Bluetooth speaker and anyone in a 50m radius would join in immediately.

The Music started on Friday, but we arrived on Wednesday night. That meant there was plenty of time to put up tents, realise you put them up wrong, put them up again, drink, watch them fall down, kick them in anger and then put them back up again. Other than that we went on many adventures around different camps, bumping into all sorts of people. Drunk lads bellowing football chants, groups of girls in sparkly outfits along with their chorus of ‘Oh. My. God. I love your outfit!’ and ‘Please tell me where you got those shorts’ etc, etc. There were also families, drug dealers, stumblers and the severely sleep-deprived.

After Thursday, being an anxious, 17-year-old, I stopped drinking and focused on the music. Reading has definitely improved my music taste; I have a newfound love for Declan Mckenna. And obviously the acts I knew every word to like Girl In Red and KSI, were incredible. My favourite artist Maisie Peters did a surprise set at the BBC Introducing stage. It was announced about twenty minutes before and ended in a rush over to the stage and a very enthusiastic sing-a-long. But really, I found the acts I've never heard of before equally as incredible, such as Sports Team and Sam Fender which were surreal despite my lyrical ignorance.

Not unexpectedly, crowds of under 25s find interesting ways to entertain themselves. At Niko B’s set at least ten blown up, condoms bounced around the crowd. Groups of lads would attempt to ‘throw’ their friends onto people or create totem pole-esque towers on each other's shoulders, before collapsing like Jenga blocks on top of unlucky victims.

Moshing is an interesting concept. For those that aren’t familiar, it consists of a large number of drunk people in a crowd pushing outwards as far as they can, creating a big empty circle in the crowd, then suddenly all rushing into the middle as the beat drops. Seems like a fun activity but being tripped and trampled on during AJ Tracey’s set wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. Luckily a very tall, drunk angel lifted me up from underneath the arms back onto my feet. I guess that's all part of the fun. Regardless, mosh pits are extremely entertaining to watch. After that, we tried to get as close to the barrier as we could with the idea that if we were there, we couldn’t get too squashed or swept away: Becky Hill, Tom Grennan, Yungblud, Girl In Red and Disclosure, we were on the barrier.

The final night was definitely the best. Because who doesn’t want their toilets set on fire, tents slashed and gazebo thrown over the festival wall? I’m guessing as the smuggled in drugs, and cheap alcohol became rarer on the last day people needed to find other ways to entertain themselves. Despite this, by the end of the day, I realised I hadn’t really stopped laughing. I was, however, craving anything that wasn’t cheese sandwiches, salt and vinegar crisps or cider from the co-op tent.

From an outsider's perspective, I can see how Reading would come across as a complete catastrophe; Articles on the rubbish left behind at the festival quite literally littered my social media feed when I got home the words ‘self-indulgent,’ ‘lazy’ and ‘first world behaviour.’ flashed across articles along with some scary facts: ‘Every abandoned tent contains the equivalent of 9,000 plastic straws and requires 25kg of carbon dioxide to make – the same amount of pollution as a car driving 100 miles.’

As expected the number of overdoses reflected that of every other year and the medical tent was always full. The message sent out through the festival app consisting of something along the lines of ‘if you have taken a ‘Louis Vuitton’ pill please come to medical immediately’ was definitely an interesting moment. Another downside is obviously the inevitable extreme spread of COVID over the weekend. The number of positive lateral-flow tests scattered around the festival wasn’t particularly comforting.

Though I do have to admit being able to forget about the outside world of pandemics, masks, online school and A levels, was very much appreciated. Though I’m sure I’d have a different opinion if I hadn't come out unscathed by COVID, spiked drinks or a severe concussion (which was surprisingly common from flying bottles and empty vapes thrown around in the crowd).

But overall, despite not even seeing a vegetable, missing my own bed and desperately needing a shower, I really did have a great time. I love music; it was inspiring and you just can’t get the euphoric feeling of singing along in a crowd from anything else. Being someone who struggles with anxiety, it was a challenge going. However, despite not every moment not being 100% blissful, I am very glad I went and would recommend it. I just pray that I never hear another Tottenham football chant ever again.