Reading Festival 2023 ... hints and tips.

We did an emergency pick up last year on the Sunday night. Ds and mates had just had enough, and there were rumours of a riot starting that worried them, so we collected them at about 1am on the Monday morning. It was absolutely rammed with kids and other parents doing the same thing.
Took us hours of sitting in traffic and waiting for them to show up.

But all was ok whilst they were there.

General tips were don't take anything at all of value, no expensive clothes, nothing that you don't want to lose.

Tents were robbed whilst people were watching the big headliners, so keep money etc on you all the time.

They Stayed in the 'quiet' field to get away from the hustle and bustle but I think it's a long way from the main events.

Phone signal was really bad, so don't be concerned if you don't hear from your kids!

DD took vodka in a bottle wrapped in her sleeping bag. She brought half home!
She and DS, the year before, left Sunday evening as it was all going a bit crazy and they were tired, over it etc.
Apparently the nearby Tesco has decent loos.
DS advises not to put tent near walkway as it is likely to get wee’d in 🤮 or a drunk teen may fall on it.

My DD needs to go later on Thursday than her friends (she will be enrolling at a different 6th form later in the day). Her friends plan to arrive at Reading about 12pm but she won't get there until closer to 4pm. Given the lack of phone signal, they are trying to make plans for how best to meet up. They are thinking about a plan A - to meet somewhere outside the festival site (around 4pm) and a plan B- to meet at Co-op (for example) at 5pm if plan A doesn't work. Does anyone have any thoughts of best location to meet? My DD likely going by train. She is confident and independent but is worried about this first part of arriving by herself and not being able to find her friends.

sorry, another question. Is there a single entrance point or a number of different entrances? I have found a help/well-being map on the website but this doesn't show entrance points. Thanks for any insight!

Oh can I join! I’ve been asked to collect on Sunday night. 5 of them and their kit so that should be fun. Any ideas where I can park and wait

He should take proof of ID with him- ideally provisional licence so he doesn't have to carry his passport- as they do ask some kids to prove they are 16.

Last night is the messiest- would recommend leaving before the end and not camping that night.

This is a site map from 2021 that shows the main entrances. Should still be valid. Weekend ticket holders have one entrance. Day passes have another. Can’t remember what the other one is.

Sorry I was wrong. Weekend wristbands can use both red and green (campsite) entrances. Day wristbands can only use green entrance. Red is the closest to town/station/drop off points. I guess green is better if it’s closer to where you’re camping.

Thank you so much @Rollergirl11 for the wristband info and the 2021 map. Hopefully it will be roughly the same this year. Having looked at the map, DD is thinking of asking her friends to meet her at Red entrance but I wonder how crazy busy that will be at 4pm on Thursday. They haven’t decided which camp site they’ll go to - think they are playing it by ear depending on where other friends from their school camp. I like the idea of a big bunch of them camping nearby each other. It’s so frustrating that DD and her 2 closest friends can’t travel down together but it doesn’t seem fair to ask her friends to wait 4 hrs for DD to enrol at her sixth form when they can go straight to Reading after picking up results from school at 9.15am!

Can her friends take her tent with them and set them all up together?

Yes, sorry I wasn’t clear. The two other friends will take the tent and get that set up (which is great). My DD will then arrive about 4 hrs later on her own by train so the issue is making sure she can meet up with them. I was worried about reports of limited phone network at the Festival and didn’t like the idea of them relying on messaging each other to meet up. I thought it would be better to have an agreed meeting place and time (like the old days 😂)

Place marking !

I can’t work out whether I am over-thinking the whole thing and phones will work and they’ll do their usual last minute arrangements for meet ups/google maps etc. Or whether I am right and they should have an analogue plan B which is “meet at Red Entrance at 4pm and wait there until you’re all together ”. And an analogue plan C which is meet at the CoOp on site at 5pm if you missed each other in plan B!! Like I say, I may very well be overthinking this! I am fine (albeit understandably slightly nervous) about the weekend but just want to feel comfortable my DD will actually meet up on the Thursday afternoon with her closest friends with whom she is sharing a tent.

Thanks. Yes her friends are sensible and will definitely want to do the right thing and meet up with DD. But I guess I worry that usual sensible-ness gets slightly lost at Reading!

Weather isn’t looking great which is a shame.

Yes, weather forecast not great. Think DD will need to buy some wellies. By the way, I finally found the detailed site map on the Reading Festival app - does look like entrances same as the map you kindly posted. So DD is arranging a time for her mates to meet her at Red Entrance when she arrives. Anyone know if there are long queues or if it is quite quick to get the wristbands?

When I used to go, it was a long time ago, they used to sell bags of firewood so you'd have all the random campers around you with big fires going all night

my advice is agree a meeting point as soon as they get their and check in every couple of hours. How many are going? They all aren’t going to want to see the same things so will split up and phones die or get lost. Better they check in somewhere

oh and if there are any problems get them to tell someone, think st johns are usually there or security, don’t try and fix things themself

We are off to do the big shop today. DD and her group are totally not prepared. DD is still waiting on outfits to be delivered. I think she will be packing at midnight tomorrow at this rate. Weather for the weekend is changing day by day. Not looking quite as bad at the moment. Fingers crossed it doesn’t get any worse.

Checking in on this thread. DS v excited, I’m apprehensive. Thank goodness I found you all!

He’s going on the train, apparently that’s part of the fun. He’s packed & ready to go 🤣. I feel like a really shit parent for helping him disguise alcohol. My DD’s filthy secrets are coming out - when she attended she dyed some vodka blue & hid it in a mouthwash bottle.

EarPods for silent disco booked, he has a good idea of timetable, locations, equipment. I have the Alan Partridge of teenagers, he has packed plasters, wet wipes, vitamin tablets and diarrhoea solutions, but I’m worried about the vaping spiking thing and about dodgy substances. It doesn’t help that when DD went I was having a breakdown & was pretty ill. I will be relying on you to keep me sane this time.

GCSE results on Thurs & other dramas, too. Urk.

Don't leave anything valuable in the tent, my friend got robbed and that was 20 years ago. God I feel old now! Loved Reading I first went at 17 and it was so much fun!

@Briefhistory tell me about it. Last year DD had 3litres of vodka hidden in her bag and challenged me to find it! She did a good job as I had no idea. Yep they had Apple sourz in mouthwash bottles. She had vodka in Micellar water bottles and then 2 big bottles of Evian hidden in a secret compartment.

DD says the key to smuggling your alcohol in to the arenas is to have it in a 50cl water bottles in the back zip of your cross body bag and then have another bottle of coke or something on top in the main section to disguise the bulge. Security will ask to check the bottle of coke and hopefully miss the bottle at the back/bottom.

I live in Reading, and am a Street Pastor here also.

Please let the young people know about the Street Pastor tents. They are open 24/7 and offer hot drinks/snacks as well as help/advice/shelter or someone to talk to if needed.

I also live 200m from the festival site, so if anyone needs any help or their child is in trouble please send me a message.