Reputation?

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Most, if not all, of the other big UK festivals seem to focus on the lineup on the main stages - clearly this is what gets the punters in. As my musical tastes don't seem to stray too far into chart band territory this does not appeal to me. Glastonbury in the only big festival with Leftfield, F of A, Greenfields, Spoken Word et al and I'm happy to pay big festy prices for the ability to wander round these alternative attractions; the smaller festivals will only have one or two stages so not much choice. If what you want is U2, Pulp and Radiohead then I would have thought there is not much to distinguish Reading, IoW and Glastonbury.

Latitude has been described to me as "for Radio 4 listeners" and that by somebody who goes every year, so a shade too sedate for me.

[Spindles]

Evidently at that time, Glastonbury wasn't "set up financially on the basis of selling out".

Is it now? I don't know.

[verrymerry]

[Random Circle]

The roots of Reading is as a biker festival. Back in the day...all the bands were 'biker' bands and the photos show row upon row of black leather jackets leaning against their crash-lids in front of the stage. Interesting how these roots still show, I think.

A really good friend of mine: stunningly pretty and stunningly cool and a little less than half my age, says: 'I'd never dream of going to Glastonbury - I'd much rather go to Reading..'

I reply: 'I would never, ever go to Reading; I always wanted to go to Glastonbury..'

We look up and laugh at each other. If you saw us both, it would make even less sense, I expect.

[eFestivals]

The roots of Reading is as a biker festival. Back in the day...all the bands were 'biker' bands and the photos show row upon row of black leather jackets leaning against their crash-lids in front of the stage. Interesting how these roots still show, I think.

completely wrong. It's roots are as a Jazz festival.

It then turned into a rock festival, and has since become indie-pop.

[strudders]

Is that why 40% of the tickets are still available? Reading when it was run by Marquee was brilliant, lost it's way a fair a bit after that.... Still it is good at what it does, but I think others are now snaapping at it's heals... It's not Glastonbury and you can't compare the two really in my view...

[mrtourette]

A lot of older folk in Reading still call it 'Reading Rock', so it still has that image from the past. It certainly has more rock and punk elements than Glastonbuty, V, T and IOW but there's so much crossover amongst the major festivals as well that any image based on that gets diluted, especially with Sonisphere and Download claiming that image themselves.

[ukslim]

I got the feeling that ME was quite happy to just have a party even if it cost him some money in the early days, that's certainly the response he was giving when the festival was losing money, unpopular with the locals and something of a fringe event.

[Theodore]

I heard V festival was the festival in the UK, whats all this jabbering about Reading Vs. Glastonbury JOKING.

whatever floats your boat, the atmosphere at Reading and Glastonbury is completely different, I am yet to go to Leeds but have had friends said that has a better atmosphere than Reading.

[BlackHole2006]

Unpredictable, controversial and obviously getting some incredible reactions out of people.

If carlsberg did trolling.

Edited July 13, 2011 by BlackHole2006

[Swinning]

completely wrong. It's roots are as a Jazz festival.

and has since become indie-pop.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Swinning

[Spindles]

You have to take everything ME says in public with a pinch of salt. I believe he's a good man, but he's also a bit of a politician when he needs to be.

There's a telling moment in the Julien Temple film, of him being interviewed prior to the first festival -- "Well, I had to do something; the farm isn't making money".

[Spindles]

Since the 70's it's been a Blues, Rock, Punk, Indie Festival predominantly... not Pop? most shit pop muisc would last 20 minutes max if put on at Reading.

[rexclark]

I saw Jack Penate at Reading in 2008. He went down a bomb. I love Jack Penate, but he IS shit pop, in a can, with a label on, that says "shit pop, look inside"

[Perks]

Since the 70's it's been a Blues, Rock, Punk, Indie Festival predominantly... not Pop? most shit pop muisc would last 20 minutes max if put on at Reading.

[Swinning]

Dude, not quite correct - I was at Leeds in 2008 Dizzie Rascal played.....shit pop music, everyone loved him. I had to leave the 'arena', shame there was really nowhere else to go,....whereas when dizzie played Glasto I had loads of alternatives...see I like Reading / Leeds fests, have always enjoyed them, but they don't compare to Glasto, for every band you don't wanna see at glasto there are a ton of things / acts you will find that you'll love..bands, comedy, theatre - its all there, that's what makes it the best of the best for me. But that's just my personal opinion

[Swinning]

I can have a shit, shower and shave in a 5 star hotel and lunch at L'ortolan Restaurant in Reading, you can't do that at Glastonbury!

[Perks]

That's rubbish, there are plenty of other stages you could have gone to at Reading, without a long walk (unlike Glastonbury) and to avoid Dizzie Rascal. Have you not seen the Comedy stage at Reading? What comedy do you have at Glastonbury apart from the Pyramid bands and all those pathetic DJs?

If you just want a holiday, why don't you go somewhere sunny..

[TwistedReligion]

Have you not seen the Comedy stage at Reading? What comedy do you have at Glastonbury apart from the Pyramid bands and all those pathetic DJs?

[Bisque]

The comedy at Reading is ropey at best, too small for the "big" names & they only get very short sets.

Pathetic DJs at Glastonbury??? Haaaaaaa. Orbital playing on Arcadia, Sasha on Glade, 'nuff said.

Dizzee Rascal & Lethal Bizzle always go down very well at Reading. Dizzee has one of the biggest crowds I have ever seen at any festival last year. Deadmau5 had dance stage rammed. Even Chipmunk didn't get bottled & had a fair crowd.

Plus the sound is pretty faultless & loud on all the stage at Glasto, the same definitely cannot be said for Reading.

[Ian_Mackay]

I can have a shit, shower and shave in a 5 star hotel and lunch

at L'ortolan Restaurant in Reading, you can't do that at Glastonbury!

[mrtourette]

Reading is exactly as indie-pop as Glastonbury is.

Everyone pretends it's a dirty word and lowest common denominator music but without it each festival would struggle to maintain it's current status. Glatonbury folk would like to maintain that the festival is all about the extras but without those attracted by indie pop music (and the TV money and coverage that they bring) it wouldn't be able to put on those extras on the current scale that it does, and Reading folk would love more rock and punk on the main stages but if it concentrated on that it would be in even more competition with Download and Soni than it already is and would struggle even more. Yeah there is proper pop stuff on at Glasto that wouldn't last 5 minutes on a stage at Reading and stuff at Reading that Glasto has no interest in putting on but generally neither can afford to be snobby and look down on a form of music that actually benefits each festival.

I would disgaree with Crouchy about the sound quality point, but even though I love Reading the OP is being a grade A jerkwad making Reading look even worse than it already does to most Glastonbury folk.

Although to be honest that's probably his intention, I doubt he's even been to Reading.

Edited July 13, 2011 by mrtourette

[eFestivals]

Have you not heard of the Lock up stage?

It was a jazz festival but that was along time before moving to Little John's Farm, before Glastonbury even existed by the way!

Since the 70's it's been a Blues, Rock, Punk, Indie Festival predominantly... not Pop? most shit pop muisc would last 20 minutes max if put on at Reading.

It's not Glastonbury, V or T4.

Check Wikepedia if you want to compare line up history, Reading makes Glastonbury look like a festival where your mum & dad chose the lineup.. Glastonbury's not even in the same league, Reading has far more history and consistantly better bands.

Are you a hippy?

No, I'm not a hippy. Just someone who is correcting your wrong statement with a right one.

Reading very definitely has oodles of pop on its line-up nowadays, and the crowd laps it up. How has that passed you by?

As far as the strength of line-ups go between Reading and Glastonbury, it's horses for courses - neither can be said to be 'better' in any objective sense. Along with that Reading has a line-up that you can pretty much guess every year, it's extremely predictable (this year's trendy indie-pop acts, plus a few 'heritage' acts), while Glastonbury has the obvious as well as acts whose performance rarity and class puts them in a different league - even tho your average Reading attendee doesn't even know of their existence.

'History'? What is "far more history" meant to mean? .... they both started on their present sites in the same year, so have the same amount of 'history'. But as far as talking about each's history goes, there's little to say about Reading - it has bands on stages every year, and that's about it. Glastonbury has far more going on that has a reason to be talked about.

Which is better is a matter of personal opinion, but the fact that Glastonbury is nowadays regarded as the premier UK festival (a title that Reading had until the late 80s) gets to show where the majority of opinions stand.

[eFestivals]

What comedy do you have at Glastonbury apart from the Pyramid bands and all those pathetic DJs?

a full line-up of major names every day from 10:30am until 1am, not a token couple of hours of acts. And that's just in one tent - there's more in other tents.

So while Reading wins as a comedy festival, it has by far the lesser comedy.

[eFestivals]

Reading is exactly as indie-pop as Glastonbury is.

True. Tho Reading only has indie-pop, while Glastonbury has everything else too.