Reading Rock Festival - August 25-27th 2006
I just saw news online that Pearl Jam has been confirmed as one of the headline bands at the annual Reading Rock Festival. See the official festival page for more details.
Back in the autumn of 1988 my parents moved to Reading. I would travel from the University of Surrey (in Guildford) up to visit them - a journey of about an hour. They’ve since moved out of Reading but our habit of visiting the town remained firmly in place - we’d feel bored with the same old shops in Guildford and take an afternoon trip up the Reading. (not to mention the multi-screen cinema in Bracknell that would take us roughly half-way to Reading anyhow).
One time when we were visiting we thought, “Wow, Reading town centre looks way more busy than usual, whats going on?” and then we realized - it was the August bank holiday which falls at the end of August. The town had been invaded by about 40,000 rock festival goers and our quiet walk around town turned into a combination game of “dodge the drunk” and “spot who doesnt have the bodyart”. We swore and declared (every year) “next year, we’ll avoid rock festival weekend” and the very next year we were back in Reading for the August bank holiday. We took extreme steps in May of 1998 to avoid going to Reading for the weekend - we moved to the USA!
So, good luck all visitors to Reading this year. It’s estimated that about 100,000 rock fans will converge on the town as the huge Glastonbury festival isnt going to occur this year. Im sure the end of August would be a great time to find somewhere else to be!