History of rioting at Leeds?

[sharkeybmelody]

Next year they but the toilets in metal compounds. In my camping field people tried to set fire to them on the Saturday night. Sunday night it kicked off again. The toilets in my field were the first to go, so the rioters moved from field to field. From where my tent was I could see another two camping fields and a huge block of toilets on fire near cars and food vans. the riot police were there trying to keep people away as car windows were exploding but kept being attacked.

The next year all you heard all weekend was people getting excited about the riot. In my camping field I saw a burger van get ransacked while it was opened and staffed but there were that many people they did not stand a chance. In our field had security guarding the toilets all weekend again in a metal compound. When it started kicking off they locked themselves inside the compound. It was truely shocking people throwing petrol bombs over knowing there were people in there. When the fire got going they started throwing light bulbs over which they had pulled down when trashing the lighting and generators. The crowd then got a scaffolding rig you know the one security sit on and used it as a battering ram to get into the compound.

[Chihiro Cheeks]

So it had a sort of snowball effect? People from other camps going to another to smash shit up and then people from that camp joining in?

Yeah, well I can imagine it must have been a lot scarier back then than in 2008. But I disagree with the last sentence. I heard about quite a few people having to fight for their tents due to morons.

Another question - Which was the calmest last night of Leeds fest? From what I've heard, it seems to be either 1999, 2003 or 2006.

[sharkeybmelody]

2006 was only calm due to the fact it was so wet no one could start fires!

[Elie]

2002 was the scariest thing ever - first year I'd been, I was only at 16 and had to move my tent in the middle of the night to avoid getting burnt!

Since then we've left every year on the Sunday night. Saves a lot of hassle (and traffic!)

[Chris12345]

Since then it's been OK at Bramham ever since really. Just that year of the Carling trucks getting ransacked and some security being heavy handed, but other than that it's quietened down a lot. Just as well really cos if it carried on like it did a Bramham I don't think there'd be a Leeds Festival!

[Chris12345]

I swear too much. Apologies!

[Ben94]

I've been five times since it moved to braham park and the riots are terrible.

The five times i've been i have stayed in the guest V.I.P area and there was no riots there, but my brother stayed in the normal area and he told about it. he said there ar people throwing gas cannisters on fires so there is constantly explosions. there is also alot of tent jumping so no one can get any sleep on the sunday night. not as much happens on the other nights, it is mostly on the last night. i even seen a communication pole get burnt and snapped down. it is really dangerous on the last night its a terrible way to end a great festival in my opinion.

[Trani on 10]

Hopefully, if it happens again, I'll be away from it in a campervan/tangerine fields/myhab area...

[MoonBuggy]

I think the newer security company (was it '08 that they switched?) understand much more about how to deal with the whole thing. People started some huge fires early in the night, sure, and it's wasn't particularly safe but it seemed relatively good-natured to me; more of a rave than a riot.

At that point in previous years the security came in at full force, put out the fires (which is obviously sensible in itself) and dispersed the crowd - problem was that just made a lot of people take it as an 'us and them' thing so it got a lot worse overall. By tolerating the fires in 2008 they left everyone in a relatively cheerful, if slightly dangerous, situation rather than a battle.

[Chris12345]

Yeah, f**k the SS... so glad they got rid of them!

I've never been happy to see someone get a beating, except when one of the guys from a TX unit got separated from his van and then absolutely battered by someone he thought it'd be funny to whack with a Maglite...

Grrrr, it makes me angry just thinking about it...

[Kill]

05 definitely the worst ive ever witnessed. The Stewart security were bascially running around asserting martial law on the festival. Countless innocents were beaten with mag lights,pissed on, punched, kicked etc.

[miss_swan]

05 was the only year ive been yet. (had tickets last year but had to pull out. going this year)

i tried to sleep in my tent when it was all going on and my boyfriend at the time stayed outside keeping an eye cause i had the drive home to aberdeen the next day to do.

before id gone into the tent i had seen a security guy smack my mate in the face with a shield for comnig up behind him to see what was going on.

we were quite close to the carling truck so i kinda wished id got out of the tent to see the sights of it being robbed and the cider tent on fire. but im kinda glad afetr reading this that that year was appaerntly bad. was starting to panic about this year. id actually forgotten about the rioting.

[Crouchie]

It started in the nearest campsites to the arena and they just moved from campsite to campsite when they had successfully destroyed everything they could.

[Airlyeth]

The more I read, the more I think it would be best if I left on the Sunday night, especially since there are only three of us going.

[craig-g]

gas cannisters are banned now so there shouldnt be any exploding on fires this year. i was there in 2000-2002 when there were riots, was pretty mental, never seen anything quite like it anywhere since and have found things to genrally be getting better with each year that passes, so hopefully this trend will continue.

[mandypants]

My experiences and POV of the situation:

My first Leeds was '05 and I'd had the time of my life until we got back to the tent, we were camping in Green, not too far from the divide between green and orange. On the way back to the tent I saw nothing untoward, but shortly afterwards we started hearing explosions and noise coming from where we had just passed. Fortunately our group were all safely back at camp but I hear that some people got caught in the trouble as they tried to pass Piccadilly circus. This is quite possibly why they put extra entertainment on around that area now. It was scary as hell, one of our group stayed up all night to make sure it was safe, but it never got that far so we were ok. I only saw what happened once we'd got home and I saw people's photos online of stuff that had gone on, the burned out and ravaged Cider bar, the trashed Carling exchange etc. It put me off going again for ohhhhh.... a couple of hours I remember a lass called Mandyque starting a thread on here (I've been a looooooong time on/off lurker!) which gave Zee the idea for Love Not Riots, which was a fantastic idea.

'06 was very quiet as the rain started during Arctic Monkeys and continued through the night. Not ideal weather, but it certainly put paid to any shenanigans. The change in security company helped a huge amount too, no ominous looking black vans full of mean c*nts driving around certainly allowed the atmosphere to be less unsettling. Seeing people with Love Not Riots tshirts and badges made me feel all it seemed that the majority of Leeds goers were totally on the side of wiping out the trouble and reassured me a great deal. Camped in green again that year, no bother at all on Sunday night. One of our gang had money stolen from him.

'07 I moved up to Red which was a great place to camp until the Sunday night. I did panic somewhat because there was a large bonfire built right near our tents. No riots, just a few idiots doing what they do best I packed up about 1am and went to sleep in my car, although it was so cold I decided in the end to drive home and go to bed.

'08 In red again, fairly similar to '07 really, a few idiots burning stuff close by, but I didn't feel as threatened this time so I stayed till Monday. I don't know if there were more robberies but 4 of my close neighbours had stuff stolen and I caught someone trying to get in my tent after we'd gone to bed on the same night. He apologised, said he'd got the wrong tent and went off shouting JONNO!

This year I'm considering going back to green. There's only going to be two of us this time, compared to a big gang for the last 4 years, so I think I'd feel safer down there, it's not that far to walk really.

[miss star]

i havent been to leeds since 05, went to all the early ones where all the big riots happened then went to 05, but found myself feeling a little to old, so im giving it another go this year but ive just read that gas canisters are banned..

usually at festivals i cook most of my own food, surely they cant ban gas canisters because it means people have to buy there food then?

[mandypants]

i havent been to leeds since 05, went to all the early ones where all the big riots happened then went to 05, but found myself feeling a little to old, so im giving it another go this year but ive just read that gas canisters are banned..

usually at festivals i cook most of my own food, surely they cant ban gas canisters because it means people have to buy there food then?

[Dropkick Murphy]

They have banned gas canisters and there are a couple of threads discussing alternatives that you might want to read. There are ways and means if you don't want to buy food from the vans there.

[Dropkick Murphy]

Cold cans of stuff, i.e beans and sausage, all day breakfasts, ravioli etc.

I think you can still take BBQs, so that's always good for the first day and if you can be bothered going to Tesco each morning for fresh meat then that's a subtitute for a gas stove.

Also, you can get Trangia stoves, which run off meths...

[miss star]

these stove look like a really good idea as the run off solid blocks,

http://www.therange.co.uk/invt/238105

no mention of replacement fule on the site but maybe in store there will be

[mandypants]

Just read the other post, if you want to cook food you can only use BBQs. So i guess there'll be lots of BBQs on Wednesday/Thursday, after that people will have ran out of meat (unless they sell some onsite, which i doubt) - I can't see many people bothering with Tesco every morning!

Cold cans it is then!

[thriftybeatnik]

2001 / 02 put me off festivals for a while but its mainly quite peaceful nowadays from most reports x

[petrol face]

i havent been to leeds since 05, went to all the early ones where all the big riots happened then went to 05, but found myself feeling a little to old, so im giving it another go this year but ive just read that gas canisters are banned..

usually at festivals i cook most of my own food, surely they cant ban gas canisters because it means people have to buy there food then?

[rexclark]

I've been to nearly every Leeds and I would say 02 and 05 were the worst. The security in 05 was a joke, the campsite looked like a scene from Apocalypse Now! It seems to have calmed down a bit but it's stilll ridiculous. Setting fires isn't cool and the people who hang around the fires cheering like a retarded monkey really need to get a life.

I notice this year the organisers are perhaps planning a bonfire, I really doubt this will stop the idiots burning things, it's all about trying to "rebel". Sad little f**ks.