Arcade Fire

[theramm]

This may only apply to Leeds....I saw the 1st half hour of Arcade Fire before heading off to watch Bad Religion then caught 'Wake Up' as we were walking out. They sounded fantastic & I would've quite liked to catch their set but I'm only a casual fan & friends really weren't bothered but....their crowd was tiny for them. Less than a quarter of the people who saw Libertines. Gaslight Anthem played to a bigger crowd much earlier in the day.

When discussing headliners on here the rule seems to be that if you can sell out an arena tour you're big enough to headline. Arcade Fire have done this (twice now) yet got the smallest headline crowd I've ever seen at any festival. I know Pendulum would've been a big draw but their seemed to just be a lot of people wandering around the village stalls?

[wehttamuk]

I had expected them to get a really small crowd, but I actually thought it wasn't too bad.....I remember watching radiohead and massive gaps forming around me from people leaving yet this didn't seem to happen for me for AF. They were never going to get the crowds of bands like GnR though

[Jaybles]

The biggest crowd in general was on the Sunday for Reading.

Guns n Roses had the smallest crowd out of the headliners. Arcade Fire the second and Blink the biggest

It was tight between The Libertines and Blink 182 for biggest crowd of the weekend.

[j-j-j-j-joe!]

Arcade Fire had a bigger crowd than Guns N Roses at reading!

[DaveElNino]

At Reading Guns N Roses had a bigger crowd at 9.30pm than they did at 10.30pm... just a shame they weren't on stage at that point.

With Arcade Fire I think a lot of the day ticket holders bought tickets for The Libertines and probably went elsewhere after they played. With the line-up also being less indie oriented this year it then meant there were probably fewer weekend ticket holders who were interested in seeing them than the other headliners.

Comparing them with someone like The Gaslight Anthem for crowd size is probably a bit silly though. At Reading it seemed pretty busy in front of the D whereas for Gaslight I was able to walk to the middle of the D without any issues.

[chubbz]

They were absolutely amazing though in fairness so glad I got to see them.

[liam]

At the front for every minute and loved it all! They actually said 'we have no idea what we're doing here; we haven't even had a hit record yet!' But how epic was it when they played Power Out going straight into Rebellion (Lies) before the encore!?

[thejimbola]

The biggest crowds at Reading were Blink, Paramore, Lostprophets, Limp Bizkit and Dizzee Rascal.

Libertines crowd was tiny compared to what I expected and it got smaller as people left halfway through. Arcade Fire was pretty small for a headliner, but I guess Pendulum, Ash and Bad Religion all have quite a big draw.

[dblythe]

They nailed leeds we were at the front loving it it was just a shame how the twats who where there for the libertines were acting though. "who the f**k are arcade fire" etc. but we loved it and was one of the 8-ish people who caught his tamborine, before being bitten and cut open from the cymbols trying to keep holda it!

[lharris92]

dizzee had a far bigger crowd from what i saw >.>

anyway i went out of the way to see Ash - very lively and were good

[Electricityscape]

I managed to get out from the front of Libertines then grabbed some food and watched AF from the hill. Just more relaxed after 2 hours of mosh pits and nuttyness. Thought they were brilliant, missed a little bit of their set because I went to watch Pendulum for half an hour.

[sjp_121]

Arcade Fire defiantly got the smallest crowd at Leeds of all the headliners.

Blink got the biggest...

Arcade Fire where still amazing, my friend came with me because she only likes Wake Up and doesn't like Pendulum that much, and we were near the front and she came out loving all of it.

[ViewFromTheAfternoon]

I was near the front at leeds for them, and i honestly thought that they were amazing

most of my mates went to pendulum, but i got someone to stay who had never listened to them much, but he thought they were amazing

i dont know why it was a small crowd to be fair

[the_mars_volta]

Simple really - the competition from the other headliners was really strong. I went to see Ash and I'm extremely glad I did because they were brilliant. An excellent alternative to the main indie headliner just like Manic Street Preachers in 2008.

Also, I don't know if this means anything but I saw hardly anyone wearing an Arcade Fire t-shirt whereas there were loads of Blink 182 and Guns N' Roses shirts all weekend.

[johnmcga]

The crowd at Reading was tiny - we wandered down towards the front five minutes before they were due to start and got well inside the second barrier.

It was a shame in some ways, cause they were one of the best things I saw all weekend. On the other hand, I got a good view for surprisingly little effort!

Most of my friends went for Pendulum - I heard the tent was completely mobbed. I don't get the fuss over Pendulum myself.

[lharris92]

The crowd at Reading was tiny - we wandered down towards the front five minutes before they were due to start and got well inside the second barrier.

It was a shame in some ways, cause they were one of the best things I saw all weekend. On the other hand, I got a good view for surprisingly little effort!

Most of my friends went for Pendulum - I heard the tent was completely mobbed. I don't get the fuss over Pendulum myself.

[micawber]

Arcade Fire were sublime. Kudos to FR for giving them their first major festival headline slot in the UK. Paid off big time.

[SomeDay]

I had wanted to see Pendulum since the first announcement, but on the day I decided (As Pendulum was bound to be busy, and I had a decent view of the stage from where I was) I would stay for Arcade fire. I only knew Wake Up so didn't really know what to expect, but they were amazing, Not the sort of band I would choose to listen to, but their live show was incredible, my best decision at Reading.

[lolbot]

Even as someone who doesn't like Pendulum, I can see the appeal of them over a band like Arcade Fire at a festival full of kids. Until the vocals come in, that is. Drum & bass & emo should be seen as an unacceptable combination even by kids.

[shoptildrop]

this is at Leeds wasn't really surprised by crowd size as they were up against some strong bands eleswhere... we got right near the front and thought they were amazing it was a great end to the Friday as that overall was best day for us

[sjp_121]

I would like to know the average age of the Arcade Fire crowd tbh.

I thought it would be a lot of the older people, and me and my friend would be the youngest there... but there was quite a few young people about for them.

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

Really got to give credit to FR for giving them the slot, and I think AF repaid the favour, several times over. Saturday night: Libertines followed by Arcade Fire, could have been a massive massive disaster for FR, but it worked out perfectly.

[Budweiser]

Arcade Fire were the first headliners to give me butterflies at Reading. Absoluteley amazing.

[mattl]

I was there for Arcade Fire, the sound was actually pretty good throughout the set. I thought the crowd was as low as Pixies in '05, but then again it's their loss, the combination of Neighborhood #3 (Power out), Rebellion (lies), Month Of May then Wake Up was truly a spectacular sight to behold.

What did strike me is how relevent and brilliant their lyrics are, Listening to the albums the lyrics didn't stand out to me, but live I noticed how brilliant they really are.

[rockinthecasbah]

Already mentioned it on another thread, but Arcade Fire were incredible. Felt it was a real step up for them, and should catapult them to the big league.

And they definitely didn't have the smallest crowd of the headliners at Reading, as that was definitely Guns and Roses. Even before they were late and people started evaporating, I was surprised at how small their crowd was. Besides, the general rule at Reading seems to be that the smaller the crowd are for a headliner, the better they are!