Reading Festival is one of the most iconic festivals in the UK and priced at over £100 per day ticket, festival goers expect to get their money’s worth.
So when this year’s festival, held just 40 miles from Swindon, saw global artists drenched in water, hit with sound issues and finishing sets early, it’s no surprise that some fans were disappointed.
One Renee Rapp superfan said she travelled from Finland to see her hero perform a 45-minute set on Sunday but was left “heartbroken and disappointed.”
The American singer had to restart due to a broken microphone and was then drenched in water twice when rainfall that had collected on the stage roof poured down onto the artist and her electrical equipment.
Rapp was forced to leave the stage after performing just three songs (only one uninterrupted) and later took to Instagram to give the middle finger to Reading Festival.
Others having a less-than-good day were Catfish and the Bottlemen who had to pause the set due to sound issues, while headliner Liam Gallagher finished a whole 15 minutes early.
Saturday was also plagued with sound quality issues on the main stage for Lana Del Rey who started late due to setup and had to ask if the audience could hear her, and Raye was possibly the only festival act I’ve been to where I thought ‘could you turn it up a bit?’
The weather risk management of festivals in the UK is often very unsafe and met with attitudes of “the show must go on!” and “just deal with it!” without any proper planning or attention to forecasts.
Most of Renee Rapp’s team’s equipment was completely drenched in water and presumably ruined. Whilst it’s fine for the festivalgoers to make their own decisions, when it’s thousands of pounds worth of electrical equipment - the event organisers really should know better.
They make it sound like this is new.
I remember going to Reading festivals in the 90’s where tents were literally washed away in rivers (96?).
You don’t go to a festival on the August bank holiday without expecting a complete washout.
With weather getting more extreme, this is only going to get more common.
“held just 40 miles from Swindon” lol