Before three days of live music, thousands of festival-goers wearing bum bags and bucket hats poured at Reading Festival this morning.
Reading, along with its sister festival in Leeds, is one of the most well-known events on the music calendar and is anticipated to draw more than 100,000 guests over the course of the weekend.
This year’s concert will feature a plethora of well-known chart-toppers, including rapper Dave, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion, and Arctic Monkeys.
Before the first performances hit the stage this afternoon, many more fans arrived this morning than did earlier in the week, setting up camp in great locations on the campsite.
Many people were seen sporting bucket hats and bum bags, which were popular in the 1990s because to the popularity of bands like Oasis and The Stone Roses.
Teenagers and senior citizens alike were streaming into the festival grounds during the bank holiday weekend to enjoy the performances. They had large suitcases packed for the three-night camp.
In addition to the stages, the festival arena was crammed with stores offering zany festival attire, jewellery, a variety of foods, and even a “oxygen bar” that promised to provide clean air for the user to breathe. Additionally scattered across the area were stands for alcohol, tobacco, and phone charging.
Since its founding in 1961, Reading has developed into a multi-million pound colossus and became one of the greatest events on the music calendar.
Even if weekend tickets from the festival’s main website sold out months in advance, potential guests can still get resold tickets for about £260.
This year, several guests were seen sporting the divisive mullet hairstyle in addition to the customary assortment of day-glo face paint, glitter, and costumes.
In contrast to those who made an early trek to the concert field yesterday, who woke up to flooded tents and soaked shoes amid a downpour of morning rain, festival-goers arriving today morning were greeted with sunshine and clear sky.
Young partygoers faced a rainy start to the celebration inside the camp site, where a sea of tents were seen barely propped up on the soggy grass.
Yesterday’s rainfall followed a period of oppressive heat that saw drought declared across large portions of England, parched grass and struggling crops, streams drying up, low river, reservoir, and aquifer levels, and the introduction of hosepipe bans for millions of people as heatwaves increased demand for water.
Only 46% of the average monthly rainfall for August had fallen in the entire United Kingdom as of Wednesday.
It’s anticipated that the bank holiday will be mostly dry with pleasant sunny periods, while it might rain more in the North West.
According to the Met Office, depending on how the high pressure develops, temperatures might reach 30C (86F) or the mid-20s.
“We’ve switched from the hot and dry regime to something that has rain in the forecast,” said spokesman Grahame Madge.
While the downpours will cause this month to “catch up a little” in terms of rainfall totals, he predicted that August will be dry throughout the UK.
And he added that from the middle of June until last week, some places have not experienced any major rainfall.
It will require a stretch of above average rain to make up for the long period of below average precipitation, he cautioned.
Just a few weeks prior, Reading Festival was embroiled in controversy when headliners Rage Against The Machine announced they would not play.
In addition to cancelling their 2022 European tour dates due to medical advice, the band stated they will not be attending the event as scheduled. This includes their anticipated appearance at the Leeds Festival.
Along with The Arctic Monkeys, Dave, and Halsey, Rage Against The Machine, noted for their songs “Killing In the Name” and “Bulls on Parade,” was scheduled to perform as the opening act at Reading.
Later, the pop group The 1975 took the place of the rock band.
Who will be performing, how to purchase tickets, and everything else you need to know before the weekend at the Reading and Leeds Festival in 2022
The Reading and Leeds Festival is held when?
From August 26 to 28, both festivals will take place in Leeds’ Bramham Park and Reading’s Richfield Avenue.
Both locations’ campgrounds are open round-the-clock, and partygoers with early bird tickets can enter starting at noon on August 24.
On August 25, those with weekend tickets may arrive as early as 3am. The campgrounds will then close on August 29 at noon.
On Thursday, August 25, the Arena will be open from 5 p.m. till 3 a.m. For the remainder of the weekend, business hours will be between 11 am and 3 am.
What artists are the key ones?
There will be a total of six stages at the Reading and Leeds festival, including two main stages and the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage.
This year, a diverse variety of performers will take the stage at the twin events, featuring well-known acts like Dave, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion, and Arctic Monkeys.
Several well-known chart-toppers, including Bastille, Bring Me The Horizon, Little Simz, and Halsey, will perform on stage.
Wolf Alice, D-Block Europe, Circa Waves, and All Time Low are also on the stellar lineup.
The festival’s organisers said last week that they were “saddened” that Mneskin and Jack Harlow had withdrawn from the lineup and that AJ Tracey and Charli XCX would take their places.
When festival headliners Rage Against The Machine announced that they, too, would not perform, fans were enraged.
You can find the complete lineup here, along with a synopsis of each stage for both Saturday and Sunday.
The stage times for each performance have been made available on the official Reading and Leeds website in advance of the festivals.
What kind of weather might we expect?
According to the Met Office, festival-goers should expect a reasonably sunny weekend with a few cloudy periods and light showers.
Leeds will reach a high of 22° and Reading will reach a maximum of 24°. Each site is expected to experience some light wind and a gentle breeze, with the heaviest rain expected on Thursday.
How do I purchase tickets?
Both Reading and Leeds festival tickets have already sold out.
On Ticketmaster, a constrained number of resale tickets are accessible.
Concerning the Reading and Leeds Festival
The older of the two festivals, Reading Festival, is the oldest continuously running popular music festival in the entire world. Over the course of five decades, many of the biggest bands from the UK and around the world have performed at the festival.
Rock, indie punk, and hip-hop have often been the three main genres represented in the line-up since the current two-site arrangement was inaugurated in 1999.
Festival Republic, which was separated from Mean Fiddler Music Group, is in charge of organising the festivals.