THERE are two ways of looking at the legendary Reading festival which takes over Berkshire every August bank holiday.
On the one hand there is always superb music, with the discovery of new bands and the chance to see some old favourites doing what they do best. It’s a fantastic experience that everyone should have at least once in their life.
But on the other hand it can be a dangerous and terrifying place to be, and there is a strong possibility that you’ll either be robbed, assaulted, badly burned – or worse. It’s a nightmare scenario that could end in disaster.
This year saw scores of bands hit six stages across three days, with alternative acts, movies, dancing and comedy thrown in for good measure.
More than 80,000 people paid upwards of £150 each for the pleasure of camping in fields surrounded by fans of almost every kind of music imaginable.
Among the opening acts at noon on Friday was Biffy Clyro, who performed a short surprise acoustic set on the BBC Introducing stage, playing Mountains for an audience of millions live on Radio One, followed by a version of Killing In The Name by Rage Against The Machine who would headline the main stage later that day.
That set the tone for the rest of the opening day, with the likes of Dizzee Rascal, MGMT, Jack Penate, Pennywise, Ida Maria, Serj Tankian, Babyshambles and The Wombats all vying for attention and adoration.
Meantime the beer was flowing, the noodles and pizzas were going down well and the atmosphere was electric. There were crowds for as far as the eye could see in the main arena and the noise was deafening with one band after another taking to their own respective stage.
Never Mind The Buzzcocks regular Phill Jupitus was one of the big hits of the Alternative Stage, treating a packed tent to improvised audience-led comedy with the help of three circuit pals including Whose Line Is It Anyway? regular Steve Frost.
Towards the end of the day’s proceedings Queens of the Stone Age stormed the Main Stage, despite questionable sound quality, and had the audience eating out of the palm of their collective hand with an impressive back catalogue.
But it was Rage Against The Machine who stole the show with a blistering set regarded by many as the show of the festival.
Marching on stage in orange jumpsuits and performing their opening number ‘Bombtrack’ with black hoods over their heads – a reference to what they see as a humanitarian catastrophe in Guantanamo Bay – they spent the following 90 minutes captivating a jam-packed arena (full review to follow shortly).
Saturday saw a dozen vehicles go up in flames thanks to an ill-placed barbecue in a corn field car park to the north of the site but the music carried on in the same vein as Friday, with Hungry Ghosts, Black Kids, Elliot Minor, Cancer Bats, Gallows, The Ting Tings, Manic Street Preachers, The Automatic and Editors, among many others, attracting large crowds for their own brand of musical genius.
Bloc Party in particular played an amazing set, with singer Kele Okereke jumping down from the main stage to greet the front rows of thousands of adoring fans.
They were followed by Saturday headliners The Killers who played hit after hit, punctuated with pyrotechnics, before eventually sending the delighted crowds back to their tents to continue partying into the night.
Sunday, however, was a shambles on the main stage.
With masked metallers Slipknot pulling out earlier in the week and Avenged Sevenfold following suit with just hours to go, the schedule collapsed in an undignified heap.
The only information passed on to the festival-goers was a sign about Avenged Sevenfold at the entrance, and the rest was left to guess-work alone.
Mindless Self Indulgence, who were due to open the main stage at noon, didn’t appear until much later in the day, meaning many fans missed the opportunity to see them play live. Previously unscheduled Bring Me The Horizon were brought in to open the Main Stage, much to the obvious disappointment of many, and the listed times were quickly rendered absolutely useless. With little – if any - information being given out to the masses a crystal ball would have been more accurate than the programme if plans were to be made to see what you wanted.
Over on the NME/Radio One stage, drum ‘n’ bass behemoths Pendulum practically tore the tent down with their pounding set, attracting far too many people for the capacity and resulting in the huge tent quickly becoming impenetrable.
As they finished, and again contrary to the schedule, Tenacious D took to the main stage for an hilarious show with Hollywood funnyman Jack Black and sidekick Kyle Gass proving that they’re the greatest band on Earth, even if they do say so themselves. Costumes and comedy reigned as the pair battled a giant metal monster and Satan himself all for the sake of entertainment.
But Metallica, arguably the most important heavy metal band in history, proved that every band before them (barr Rage Against The Machine) were nothing but warm-up artists as they closed the festival.
For two hours the four-piece stunned the crowd with their most popular tracks, keeping the newer material to a minimum for maximum impact (full review to follow shortly).

But the pyrotechnics during ‘One’ weren’t the only explosions to be heard over Reading during the weekend.
Despite the superb music and endless entertainment, the flip-side is a much darker one and something which, if there’s any sense among organisers Festival Republic, should threaten the future of the event and perhaps its Leeds counterpart.
With 80,000+ music fans being on site between 6pm on Wednesday and noon on bank holiday Monday, pockets of trouble are unavoidable. But this is trouble on a mass scale.
For thousands of people between, say, 14-or-so and their early 20s, the Reading festival is an excuse to down as much booze as humanly possible, take as many illegal drugs as they can get their hands on, destroy as much property as they can find and burn everything which isn’t nailed down including toilets, lighting gantries and tents whether they’re occupied or not.
Behind the glamorous front of Reading is a lawlessness that quickly descends into total, unadulterated chaos. Don’t believe the glossy front that BBC Three puts on it during its highlight shows. This is utter, utter mayhem.
With tents crammed so tightly together that it’s impossible to step between them, the fields of the festival would be described as slums anywhere else.
From first setting foot on the site it becomes apparent that there is little in the way of law or order, with police and security officers being a rare sight during the whole weekend.
Incredibly, fires are permitted in the camps and this gives rise to perhaps the biggest danger of all as rubbish – of which there is tonnes - is burned along with piles of wood on sale at camp shops.
As the weekend progresses tents end up on the fires along with gas canisters and aerosols.


(The above YouTube video was not shot or uploaded by the Worcester News)

Meanwhile, following an hour or two of precious sleep amid the deafening racket, the occupants of many tents awake to find they have been robbed of cash and other belongings. Doors have been slashed, pockets rifled through, beer stolen and bags gone missing.
By the final night the descent into mayhem is complete. Toilet blocks which have previously been trashed are burned out, marauding gangs are storming across tents and setting them alight.
Fights are commonplace, sex attacks not unheard of and people are unconcious everywhere.
The official message forums for the festival are rife with angry tales of the weekend’s happenings, but there are also those who love the fact that they’ve helped destroy the experience for as many as possible.
It’s a shameful side to what should be an incredible event and it serves only to show how disgraceful a minority – not a small one either – can act when the reigns are loosened just a little.