Reading Festival

[Elise72]

DD (16) is off to Reading Festival in August. I've never actually been to a festival before so can't give her any words of wisdom 🧐
Has anyone here got any hints or tips about festivals, especially any first hand experience of Reading that they would like to share?

Thanks lots😘

DD pays the extra for the showers/charging/lockers and thinks it's well worth it.

@IwouldifIcouldreachit I never even knew that was a thing!! Thank you 😊

Don't stay Sunday night. Pack up before the last act and then get picked up around midnight on the Sunday.

Reading was the first festival I went to 25 years ago!
been to hundreds since then..

Top tips to bring:

Wet wipes (lots)
Sanitiser
Snacks, pot noodles, mug pasta (Food is expensive)
Good shoes (she will walk for miles)
Suncream
Plasters, paracetamol
Bank Card (in case phone dies with Apple Pay)

There probably won’t be much (if any) phone signal over the weekend, so make an agreed place to meet friends if they lose each other.

Have fun! Nothing beats your first ever festival 🎉

Thank you so much, that's good to know about the signal too.....

A chair. A chair. A chair. Ds2 went for the first time at just 17 and wished he hadn’t laughed off my advice to take a chair. He came home buzzing and smelling of campfires. Loved it but would’ve been better with a fold up chair x

Everything that’s been suggested above but also give you a couple of her friends mobile numbers and write yours and a couple of friends on a piece of paper in her purse. My friends daughter lost her phone and wanted to come home but couldn’t contact her mum

its really quite bad down there in recent years , money and plenty of it , mine spent more than even they imagined , emergency contacts in a bit paper , reminders of the dangers of drugs , my sons best friend died of drugs there couple years ago , never had done any in his life before.
remind her to constantly have her wits about her of course it’s about having fun but safety is priority, if I knew what it was like I’d never have let mine go

Yes I came on to say about drugs as well they are rife at festivals. You can't wrap them in cotton wool but a reminder about the dangers. Im sure she'll have an amazing time ..lots of good tips here! Been to a few in my younger days 😄

My DD went aged 17, so 3 years ago. Her advice is leave on Sunday evening, if you can (she was very lucky, and her Daddy picked up her and two friends, with sandwiches and duvets in the car) and also don't arrive before Thursday. There's lots of pressure to get there Weds, to get a good spot, but then there is nothing much going on, and it gets a bit dull waiting for Thurs evening to roll around, esp if the weather is too hot, too wet or too cold.

I'd use a old phone with a pay as you go sim as so many phones are lost/stolen. Food and drink very expensive when you're their.

Wear some comfy walking boots (rather than buy new wellies like my dc did and end up with shredded feet)
Take warmer clothes than you think you need. Gets cold at night.

Agree with everything that’s been said already.

If she does take a smart phone rather than a burner, save her background on her phone as a screenshot of a note saying ‘if found please call friends who are with me at Reading: <name> <number>’ so there’s half a chance it gets returned

Take rubble sacks - like bin bags but thicker. They have a myriad of uses - bagging up stuff if it tips it down so stuff stays waterproof, can be used as seats on muddy ground in the arena, and can also fix up a slashed tent pretty well if you take gaffer tape too (my first Reading back in 2007 we got our tent slashed on Sunday night…)

On that note, hard agree with packing up in the morning and leaving Sunday evening, no good comes of staying after the last band on Sun!

Easy snacks: I mostly survive on Pringles at a festival 😄

Always stow away your camping chairs when you go in to the arena or they 100% will get nicked.

Stay hydrated if it’s sunny: don’t be like me at Glastonbury 2010 and pass out in front of Rolf Harris on the Pyramid Stage (god that’s a reference)

Oh and: don’t camp too near the loos.

take more socks than you could imagine you’d need

have a meeting point for the group at prearranged times

accept something will go wrong but that’s ok!!!

if you run out of something or think you will, go to the camping shop and get it immediately. Do not wait until Sunday, it will be sold out.

Re Sunday pick up, from memory Tesco’s car park is the best option.

Hundredth person to say leave on Sunday. Don't know who the last act is but unless it's dcs favourite, leave before the last act. Pack up early, morning if possible. Pack light and take nothing valuable at all. Cheap phone if you can. Nothing that matters if it get trashed, you never see again.
Agree separate paper with phone numbers written down. If going as a group, stick together and watch out for each other.
Bucket Sunhat, suncream and water bottle.

They have moved the field now, believe Tesco is that easy to get to. Xx

@Elise72
I was in your shoes this time last year with my 16yo DD.
She had an amazing and, more importantly for me(!), safe time.
She’s going back this year.
We agreed that she would check in with either a call, text or voice note a few times a day.

Yes there is a big Tesco's where you can pick up on the Sunday evening, lots of people walking in that direction.

Sunday afternoon I drove to the petrol station on the corner (it is near a casino) I had planned it and filled up the car (as that's the only way you can park) but filling up and paying gave enough time for them to put all their camping stuff in, grab the water and food I had brought and go back out.

I then parked up, found a lovely Polish pub (on the street behind Tesco ) and had dinner and waited. They were relieved to be going home on the Sunday night- despite not wanting to agree to it when the first arrived.

My friend has rented an AirBnB with some other mums so they can collect their 16r olds each night and drop them off the next morning. Quite rightly they don’t feel comfortable letting young girls sleep there.

Leave before Sunday night and the 'tent wars' start. Son's tent was burnt down last year!