Reading Festival drop off

[Post18]

Dropping my son and friends on Friday morning. They are going for the day.

I’ve seen the drop off car park mentioned on the Reading 2025 website - Hill Meadows RG48GH. More than happy to drop there but wondered if there was a smarter option so I’m not caught in local traffic getting in/out of car park.

We are travelling from the Midlands.

I was thinking perhaps there is a local station I could drop off at and they could do a shortish hop on the train to the festival site station (Reading?) where I see they can walk in or pay for a shuttle.

Does anyone have any recommendations for local stations for me to drop at? Or should I just stick with the official drop off car park?

Also, is the traffic generally horrendous? Trying to work out what time I should leave for a usual 2 hour journey.

Traffic is always horrendous, yes. Can’t help with local stations as not sure if you can park at Reading West and Green Park doesn’t have that regular a train service. Earley is on the wrong side of Reading if you’re coming from the north. Pangbourne maybe? Worth checking out…

Chester street car park in Caversham would be closer to festival site than Hills meadow (though not by much) but is unofficial and small. Traffic around Caversham is bad without the festival on tbh. But if you were driving in from the north/Oxford direction would make sense and would cut out the journey to hills meadow where it is like to be crawling slowly

And yes it is Reading station that is very close to the festival

I would suggest Twyford Station, it's just off the A4 - I'd head to M40 J4 High Wycombe, head right on A 404 towards Maidenhead Marlow and A4, exit right at the roundabout onto A4 and head towards Reading, follow the signs on your left into Twyford & the station, either turn right before the bridge for the ticket office/ticket machine or you can cross the bridge and turn right if you already have tickets, there's stopping space outside as it is generally pretty quiet, & there is plenty of room to drop off outside, either Station Road or Hurst Road side. Tickets could be bought in advance or at the machine/ticket office, the platform you want is over the bridge (whichever side of the station you stop). Takes about 10 minutes, and the cost is about £5.50, and very frequent (every 15m or so I think?) because of Elizabeth Line.

(I'd avoid Pangbourne as to get there from the north could be messy with the Mapledurham camping north of the river, and avoid anything in Central Reading frankly you'll spend ages driving in and getting annoyed, we avoid!)

Edited to add if journey from you to Central Reading is 2 hours, this will cut off 20-40 minutes of normal driving time (depending on traffic), if this Friday you could save yourself an hour plus of a likely 3 hour + journey. So put them on the train at Twyford and quite possibly you'd probably be home before you'd have got out of Reading.

I would also suggest Twyford station, or go through Pangbourne and drop them at Tilehurst station.
Reading itself is as nightmare during festival, I would avoid it completely. Traffic in Caversham is bad anyway but in festival it's ridiculous

Also @Post18 there is a free river taxi to the site from Kings Meadow (Green Car Park) to Green Gate. Exit station to the north (Caversham) side.

Heading to Reading Festival? Did you know there's a completely free boat shuttle service running all weekend, operated by Thames Rivercruise that takes you from Kings Meadow (Green Car Park) to Green Gate, where you get onto the festival site
Weds 20: 13:00 – 22:00
Thurs 21: 08:00 – Midnight
Fri 22: 08:00 – 01:00 (Saturday)
Sat 23: 08:00 – 01:00 (Sunday)
Sun 24: 08:00 – 02:00 (Monday)
Mon 25: 08:00 – 14:00
Boats will run both ways, so no problem if you need to get back to your car
The Caversham Princess and Alexandra (pictured) are the only official shuttle boats – for your own safety, please don’t use any other boats offering unregulated/illegal rides

Edited to add : if you're looking for something to do while you wait to pick them up (from Twyford?) - I see you said they're there for the day , consider exploring Marlow or Henley or both. They have lots of independent shops and great food outlets.