DD17 ...Reading music festival

[MonkeyTennis34]

DD really wants to go to this next August when she will have just turned 17.

A big group of her friends, all 17 too, will be going.

She's going pay for the ticket herself with money from her Saturday job.

16 year olds and above are allowed unaccompanied.

I keep running different horrendous scenarios through my head.....

Need some advice. Should I let her go?

Lots of good advice here.

Id suggest it depends largely on your daughter. Will she be able to make good decisions in the face of lots of drugs and alcohol, will her friends?

I agree to suggest they leave Sunday evening, that night is the worst bit!

I am in my 40s and my memories of the summer I turned 16 and went to my first festivals with friends are among the best memories of my life.

Freedom, risk, sunshine, mates - its just such an incredible feeling. Finally shaking off constant adult interference.

I feel very sad for modern kids, blocked from so much independence already as their generation spend far more time indoors/ in their rooms than we did - or unlike previous generations actually playing outdoors for hours with friends.

Let them enjoy it! let them balance risks, have fun - you only get to be 17 once, let them make the mistakes of youth.

it's really common for 16 year olds to go the summer they get their GCSE results, so a year before yours. As a PP says, it's a rite of passage between school and 6th form/college.

Ohhh why is Sunday the worst bit?

It's within walking distance of a major town. The site is a field but it's not really that isolated. Lots of kids go to celebrate the end of GCSEs, so they're will be loads of 15-17 year olds there. It's a good introduction to festivals for teens.
Plus the fact if she works and pays her way then I don't see why you should stop her.

If it makes you feel better, my son and most of his friends (male and female) are off to Magaluf or Zante this summer as an end of school holiday. The vast majority will still be seventeen when they go (no, I'm not looking forward to it, but also have to let them go...)

Dd described it as a load of drunk and drugged up idiots (at the last hurrah of a lonnnnng weekend) running around the camping fields jumping on tents, some opening tents and peeing/defecating in there!
Not my idea of "fun".

It frightened my dd and her mates so they rang to be picked up.

It's a right of passage! My daughter went post GCSEs and then said she felt 'too old' to go at 18 and went to Boardmasters instead.

You don’t really have a choice. I’d be pleased that she wanted to do this and work for it, and try to hide my worry !

DD went at 17 but for the day as GPs live super close and she hates camping! As others have said, main thing is avoid Sunday night as that's when it generally gets majorly feral. Take a very good battery charger for phone - I have one that will charge my phone 4 times fully.

By her age, I'd cycled around Holland with a mate (age 15), had a motorcycle, a car, and lived on my own, and had been to Reading and Donnington festivals.

It's a fantastic time, and way better now than in the 80s. Music was and is a huge part of my life.

105,000 teens attend Reading (and its parallel festival Leeds) every year after picking up their GCSE results.

Yes, many will drunk too much, they won’t eat sensibly, no sleep, they will return filthy… but elated.

It is a worry for us parents but that isn’t a reason to stop them.

If she and her friends are generally averagely sensible, just go through a safety check list: stay together, look after each other, remember that alcohol creeps up on you and if you drink fast you will end up legless before you realise you have had enough.

Also tell her that if she needs help, or picking up, you will come and get her and wil not be cross, or judgemental whatever has happened.

Sunday night is the main headliner night! Don’t pull her out of that unless she isn’t interested in those bands.

My DD went to Leeds this year, she turned 17 the day before it started. She had a ball, hated camping, loved the music and she came back stinking and knackered but said she felt safe.

It's manic and non stop, but they did have plenty of chill time in the tents with her friends.

Let her go, she'll be fine!

Worked medical there for decades. My advice? In your situation I'd go through safety advice and drum it into her;
No gas canisters or BBQs in tents or on fires
Ask the group to leave no person behind
Camp in the quieter areas
Beware of Sunday nights
No spirits or drugs
Keep in contact

Dd went aged 16 in a group . We live near enough to pick up and drop off - so avoided the camping.

Wasn't aware that Sunday night was the worst - thought sundays were the dadrock day.

My DD went after GCSEs like most of the DC at reading

She went again this year age 17

She's not going next year because she says they'll be too old at 18

Reading is jam packed with 16 year olds

They have more security than ever and loads of welfare places to go to

You went for 'the day'. It's the nights that are bad at reading, especially Sunday night.

id consider other festivals, but not Reading, especially the Sunday night.

It's not the same as it was 10 years ago.

I'd far rather they go to magaluf/zante than Reading festival (especially the Sunday night).

In fact they went to Zante this year, but after IB exams.

@MonkeyTennis34 I was at Glastonbury in the 1991 festival with the shooting (was watching Bjork!)

I agree she is definitely old enough to go and should be fine - I also agree that Reading is definitely one of the rougher festivals and can get extreme quite quickly. It also has much less of the other festivally stuff, it’s all about the bands.
Somewhere like green man or latitude has a much friendlier and eclectic vibe.

mine went a couple of times. She and her friends preferred to park in the far field (white zone?). It had its own entrance so less far to walk when drop-off/picking up, was quieter, far enough away to minimise the tent idiots and apparently the loos were slightly less rank

Mine is going to be 17 and has a day tickets and I’m not remotely worried about that. I’d not want her there on the last night though if she’d chosen camping.

It’s a right of passage.
she needs to know what to do if things are uncomfortable or she feels unsafe.

Maybe between now and then you need to give her chances to go out out.
and to see how she approaches that.

you should make sure she has a really chunky battery pack.
and one that she should only use in an actual emergency.

Shes 17 not sure you could stop her? It’s absolutely fine assuming she is broadly sensible and has decent friends.

Dd went this summer and said it felt far safer and in control than Boardmasters.