Best crowd in a while?

[Guest]

Is it just me or was the crowd at reading the best its been in quite a while? Much fewer knobheads this year and everyone seemed really up for it for most the bands? Certainly a pleasant change from previous crowds. This is baring the muse army who have got to be the most annoying fans in music and i like muse.

[kibble]

Thought there were more knobheads this year than last, the inner circle was full of them

[Englishdragon]

I dunno, there was plenty of young idiots at Leeds. Infact I couldnt believe the amount of people there who just went to get pissed and not care about the music, why pay 200 quid to get drunk?

Some of the stupid quotes I heard last weekend

Near the main stage - "I thought this was a dance festival"

At the barrier for Offspring, "who is this band playing?" I reply "the offspring", he says "I f**king hate the offspring I only came here for The Streets"

Walking though the campsite on the Saturday, girl turns to her friends "I dont want to go back to the arena, I only came here because I was told Kings of leon are playing, Im staying here and getting pissed"

Edited August 29, 2011 by Leeds_Brett

[Jackosity guy]

I dunno, there was plenty of young idiots at Leeds. Infact I couldnt believe the amount of people there who just went to get pissed and not care about the music, why pay 200 quid to get drunk?

Some of the stupid quotes I heard last weekend

Near the main stage - "I thought this was a dance festival"

At the barrier for Offspring, "who is this band playing?" I reply "the offspring", he says "I f**king hate the offspring I only came here for The Streets"

Walking though the campsite on the Saturday, girl turns to her friends "I dont want to go back to the arena, I only came here because I was told Kings of leon where playing, Im staying here and getting pissed"

Edited August 29, 2011 by Jackosity guy

[Rudzkii]

The amount of people I saw with "Leavers '11" hoodies on from comprehensive school spoke volumes. So many pissed up dickheads I came across this year. I'm praying for a much heavier lineup next year otherwise I'm not going.

[DaveElNino]

It did feel like there a lot of first-timers there this year, but similarly it did feel a bit calmer than in previous years. The lack of a bollocks chant was a bit disappointing - as it seems to have just degenerated into a random roar. I didn't notice a particular proliferation of idiots - quite possibly because I was at the stages they weren't for most of the weekend.

[Rudzkii]

Oh and to top it all off whilst watching The Strokes a group of 16 year old girls started fighting behind me.. And I don't mean shouting and pushing, proper fighting. There must have been about 8 or 9 of them in the melee.

Then the drunkest of the lot tapped me on the shoulder and said.. "Funny that wasn't it, that'll teach her not to bang in to me while I'm on my period... Who's on after The Streets?"

[VCK]

I was at the Tesco in Seacroft on Friday and in the Subway was a huge queue of people who had got the bus from the festival. Made me realise how old I was (and I'm only 20!), most of them seemed to be 18 at the oldest. Most wearing skinny jeans, trucker caps, sports hoodies and facepaint, and thinking they're "proper lads" for speaking in regional accents.

[Welshyyy]

Leeds:

Sunday while watching The National, randomly stood there watching the band, a guy behind me (20-25 years old) got jumped by 14-15 people aged around 18-22... no matter how much of the crowd got involved we all got pushed away, until the stewards come and they all run off.

[Mariner]

I thought it was pretty similar to any other year. About 50% of the crowd were dickheads.

The amount of knob head children wearing those 'onesies' spoke volumes. I wanted to punch every one of them in the mouth.

[Beccorr]

I thought in general the crowd was pretty alright. I mean, there was a fight in the crowd for Two Door Cinema Club, but that was only 2 people and the amount of people who tried to break it up really stood out more.

BUT, we were camped next to these 15year olds or so and they managed to piss on our tent steal all the alcohol in the tent our fire log and chair. When we confronted them they denied it, then finally admitted taking the chair, we found the fire log and have no idea what happned to the alcohol. Idiots!

[mattl]

There was a decent amount of people in Reading that Liked the music, had a fun time and were very kind.

But the group all around ours came to the Festival because, and I quote, "It's a festival, innit?!?" and were there to "get mashed and bring the banter".

I think they watched 3 bands all weekend, started complaining on thursday night that Mumford and sons wern't on the line-up and that the festival was "crap" because of it, and generally sat around drinking all day and night.

Why these people spend so much money to do this is beyond me.

[brettredmayne]

Leeds at the main stage was dead I thought, more people wanting to just get drunk at campsite

[pablopablo]

I'm 16 and but i definitely dont fall into that "just got GCSE results, lets go burn stuff' stereotype.

I saw around 25 bands over the weekend and had a pretty amazing time, however I was pretty shocked that most my of my friends didn't really see any bands bar Ed Sheeran and The Midnight Beast and seemed to have paid £200 to get pissed and sit around in a field!? I'm just glad I didn't spend that much time with them and met some new people instead.

I agree with what someone else said it seemed to be about 50% 'music fans' and 50% drunken knobs. It's a shame as the second lot can ruin it for the rest

The worst group I saw were these five chavy 20 odd year olds, stood watching seasick steve but talked loudly about there holiday to Ibiza and were singing different songs throughout, then complained that people were either boring for not dancing or weird for "doing that head bobing thing". Respect to the guy who told em to shut up. Guess who I ended up sitting next to on the train home

P.S I have one of them leavers hoodies

[Dermot]

It's bad to hear so many people had a bad experience. I had a brilliant time at Leeds, saw 25 bands and not one was bad. I thought the crowd was decent and didn't see any trouble at all. Friday's rain was miserable though!

[mr_monkey]

went to reading just for the sunday for the first time in 4 years and it didnt seems as busy as i remember and was able to move around the stages relatively easily but the one thing i did notice was the number of 18 year old girls who thought it was acceptable to sit on people's shoulders throughout muse (we were quite far back by the sound desk/vodaphone vip thing) and even when i yelled at them they didnt get down... selfish pricks...

plus the small number of people for dfa and hot water music was disappointing (but awesome for me as i got to the front)

[mrtourette]

Definitely fewer dickheads.

[bennyk]

Leeds:

Sunday while watching The National, randomly stood there watching the band, a guy behind me (20-25 years old) got jumped by 14-15 people aged around 18-22... no matter how much of the crowd got involved we all got pushed away, until the stewards come and they all run off.

[shoptildrop]

This will be my 4th Leeds and I thought the crowd was more mixed than usual defo more older people than ever which might have contributed to the different atmosphere - I really thought is was calmer than normal (even with the a***s who can't handle their beer/drugs) but i felt much happier in the site and thought it actually was the best atmosphere yet

Must say not sure if I could ever camp there as cheat and stay in hotel (as I'm the wrong side of 30) but defo will be buying tickets for next year as had a great time this w/end

[Ed209]

The amount of people I saw with "Leavers '11" hoodies on from comprehensive school spoke volumes. So many pissed up dickheads I came across this year. I'm praying for a much heavier lineup next year otherwise I'm not going.

[johnmcga]

I thought the Reading crowd was definitely better this year than last. Generally friendlier and fewer dickhads.

However, I do wonder if that might be down to the bands I chose to see. Often I found myself closer to the front in smaller crowds (DFA1979, 2ManyDJs, The National, for example) while there were bigger crowds at other stages.

[The Mean Bean]

I went to Offspring on my own thinking there'd be loads of people there up for a dance, got there and the crowd was utterly dead, I managed to find one guy who was pretty smashed and going for it, cleared ourselves a little space and got our rave on, the boring basterds in the crowd just looked at us like we were mental just for enjoying ourselves.

[she bangs the drums]

I'm 37 and camped on Brown at Leeds, it was probably the quietest camp site I've ever stayed on, even quieter than Family Camping at Glastonbury, in fact I think I had more sleep at this festival than any other as you could have a lie in without being woken.

[she bangs the drums]

Though I would say that I felt really old as the average age seemed to be 16-22, not many people let on and there did seem to be more people coming back toward the Arena after the bands had finished than those coming out, it did seem that many thousands just went to get pissed around the camp site and enjoy the night life.

[DJL]

I think this was my tenth reading and, whilst I didn't camp, I would say there were definitely less idiots. You can say it is down to the acts you go and see but my taste hasn't changed. I think it was a slightly older crowd than recent years - it's been full of sixteen year olds for as long as I can remember and I think I didn't notice quite as many... £200 is a lot at that age, particularly at the moment!

We definitely met better people at the fest than we did walking through the town centre afterwards - saw a girl pi$$ing in the street outside the night club she'd just left, classy.

Edited August 29, 2011 by DJL