As part of our tribute to the summer festivals around the world, we are going to have a two-part presentation of the Reading & Leeds Festival, the most historic and, together with Glastonbury, one of the most important rock festivals in Europe.
In the first part of the presentation, we shall deal with this year's event to be held between the 28th and 30th August, and next time we are going to try to give you a taste of the festival's atmosphere through personal experiences from visits to Reading between 1992 and 2006.
This year's headliners on the big stage are Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead. Appearing at the same stage, we also have Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Kaiser Chiefs, Prodigy, Placebo, Fall Out Boy, Ian Brown and Maximo Park. However, what makes the Reading & Leeds Festival the most important of Europe, for my money, is the plethora of less commercial, yet excellent bands that can be found scattered around the three smaller stages (NME/Radio 1, Festival Republic, Lock Up Stage / Dance Tent - the names of the stages change over time according to the sponsors). These acts are announced closer to the dates of the event so at present we see only the tip of the iceberg: Gossip, Glasvegas , White Lies, Jamie T, Friendly Fires, Florence And The Machine, Lost Prophets, AFI, Gallows , Billy Talent, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, Thursday, Bronx - music that caters to all tastes.
As you may know, the airline ticket for a trip to London (from where Reading is half an hour by train) is not very expensive - at this time, a ticket for the end of August costs around 160 euros. The problem with this particular excursion lies elsewhere - finding tickets for the festival. They are all gone! They disappeared within the first day of circulation, about a month ago. If someone nevertheless wishes to go to the festival regardless of cost, there is viagogo, the site that is recognized by the organizers as the official partner for the resale of tickets - as to say the official mediator between the supporters and the touts. How else would you describe those who rushed to buy tickets just to auction them off the next day, when the official site of the festival said sold out? Here, you can find tickets for all days with prices starting from 120 pounds, when the official price of a daily ticket was 70.
Next week, in the second part of our Reading & Leeds tribute, we shall travel back in time to present some of my personal highlights from Reading - from Nirvana, the grunge invasion and the mud of 1992, to Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Raconteurs of the sunny 2006.
More information on this year's Reading can be found here.
Song of the week : "Date with the Night" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the festival of 2006 (somewhere in that crowd, left of the stage, is your humble correspondent). The band returns this year to Reading & Leeds - on the day headlined by Radiohead - and with a disc like "It's Blitz!" they are expected to steal the show.
In the first part of the presentation, we shall deal with this year's event to be held between the 28th and 30th August, and next time we are going to try to give you a taste of the festival's atmosphere through personal experiences from visits to Reading between 1992 and 2006.
This year's headliners on the big stage are Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead. Appearing at the same stage, we also have Bloc Party, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Vampire Weekend, Kaiser Chiefs, Prodigy, Placebo, Fall Out Boy, Ian Brown and Maximo Park. However, what makes the Reading & Leeds Festival the most important of Europe, for my money, is the plethora of less commercial, yet excellent bands that can be found scattered around the three smaller stages (NME/Radio 1, Festival Republic, Lock Up Stage / Dance Tent - the names of the stages change over time according to the sponsors). These acts are announced closer to the dates of the event so at present we see only the tip of the iceberg: Gossip, Glasvegas , White Lies, Jamie T, Friendly Fires, Florence And The Machine, Lost Prophets, AFI, Gallows , Billy Talent, Anti-Flag, Rise Against, Thursday, Bronx - music that caters to all tastes.
As you may know, the airline ticket for a trip to London (from where Reading is half an hour by train) is not very expensive - at this time, a ticket for the end of August costs around 160 euros. The problem with this particular excursion lies elsewhere - finding tickets for the festival. They are all gone! They disappeared within the first day of circulation, about a month ago. If someone nevertheless wishes to go to the festival regardless of cost, there is viagogo, the site that is recognized by the organizers as the official partner for the resale of tickets - as to say the official mediator between the supporters and the touts. How else would you describe those who rushed to buy tickets just to auction them off the next day, when the official site of the festival said sold out? Here, you can find tickets for all days with prices starting from 120 pounds, when the official price of a daily ticket was 70.
Next week, in the second part of our Reading & Leeds tribute, we shall travel back in time to present some of my personal highlights from Reading - from Nirvana, the grunge invasion and the mud of 1992, to Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys and Raconteurs of the sunny 2006.
More information on this year's Reading can be found here.
Song of the week : "Date with the Night" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the festival of 2006 (somewhere in that crowd, left of the stage, is your humble correspondent). The band returns this year to Reading & Leeds - on the day headlined by Radiohead - and with a disc like "It's Blitz!" they are expected to steal the show.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Date with the Night (live, Reading 2006)
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