The unbelievable day at the Reading festival

I just got back from Reading festival today and am completely exhausted. But I am happy and satisfied. More than that! I am thrilled! I saw so many so brilliant bands and had such a great time that it just tightens all my muscles when I start thinking about it.

My day started really early - I got up at about 05:30. Packed my bag and started cycling to Weston. When I got to Banwell I discovered I have a flat tire and couldn't cycle on, because the tyre started coming off. I called John and he came and picked me up and took me to the train station. He also promised to fix my bicycle. Bless him! I've got such nice co-workers!

When I got to Reading I walked to the festival area and got my wristband. Then I got myself a festival-hat and walked to the main stage. It was pretty early and there was about an hour 'til the first bands came on the stage, so I had some lunch and explored the area. At 12 o'clock I went to the Lock up stage to see the first band which was called Fighting Fiction. They were pretty good and I think I might add them to my music collection. They did indie-rock kind of music. They were on stage for about 30 mins and then after a short break came Spycatcher. They were really cool. The singer swore a lot but encouraged the audience, who in most cases didn't know any lyrics, to sing along or at least hum along. I liked them, too.

Then after they finished I went to NME/Radio 1 stage to see a band called Best coast. They weren't too good. I guess I'm not into females singing too much, so I wasn't that happy with them. They were indie-band but all the songs seemed too similar to me.
After they finished a band named Cage the Elephant came on the stage. I had had a listen of couple of their songs previously on Youtube so I knew they would be good. And they were good. I knew some of the songs from radio (e.g. Ain't no rest for the wicked). The singer danced on the stage (looked a bit drunk, to be honest). He did crowdsurfing and the audience went wild. I was in the beginning of the performance quite in front of the crowd, but because of my camera I had to back off. When the singer started to surf the crowd, then some people from the audience did the same. So there were about 5 people altogether in one place on top of people. And the people tried to surf towards the singer and hug him while surfing. It looked painful for the singer because he was upside down in the audience sometime and was just twisted all the way. The security did their best to try to get him out of the crowd but it was complicated. When the singer finally managed to come out of the crowd he climbed one of the barriers which fell down under his weight. Crazy! But I loved it. And the songs were good. Definetely a band to go to my music-list. After Cage the Elephant I decided to have a break and eat something and then I discovered that CTE is doing singing in the signing tent. So I went there and got the autographs from the whole band as well! Hehe, brilliant!

After I got the autographs I went back to the same stage. I saw a little bit of the band called Warpaint. They were quite enjoyable.
But then- after they finished Panic! At the Disco came on stage. The crowd went mad, it was so cool! I was jumping around and humming along to the songs (I didn't know the lyrics) and when they were playing "Nine in the afternoon" I was sooo happy! finally a song I could sing along to! Cool! They played for about an hour. I decided that I have to download more of their songs rather than just have this one song.

After P!ATD finished I went to the Main Stage to get the best view by the time MUSE came on the stage. I saw a band called INTERPOL and they were pretty good. I just saw couple of songs but I enjoyed it. And during their performance there was a big whole rainbow reaching exactly from the lefthandside to the righthandside of the stage. Beautiful!

After Interpol, a band called Elbow came on the stage. Well, I was amazed. They were so good! They involved the audience all the time- encouraged us to raise our hands and wave and hum along. And the music was enjoyable. I just closed my eyes sometimes and listened to it and swayed in the place I was standing. A beautiful evening. It was sunset also at the same time. Lovely! Definetely a band I will download now. Out of all the bands that I discovered, Elbow was sure as hell, the best one.

Then after they finished, there was a half an hour break. During that break I managed to talk to a girl in front of me so that she let me stand next to her (there was a barrier in the middle of the crowd and I was standing on the second row after the barrier and was worried about the camera, the place was really good- not too far from the stage and still far enough to survive the crazy crowd). So I had a perfect location to see the next band.
There were curtains on the stage to prevent us from seeing the stage before the main act came on the stage. And then when it got dark enough it started. Firstly we saw some figures on the curtains and the band playing. Well, the band was called MUSE and the figures were the ones they have on the "Origin of Symmetry" album cover. Then the curtain was lifted and the crowd went wild. MUSE was really really brilliant! I loved every second of their performance. The quality of the music was really good- they are amazing when playing live. The show itself- well, there aren't enough words to desribe the brilliance of it. There was a huge screen behind the band where all kinds of figures, patterns, videos were shown. They looked cosmic, matrix, amazing! There were lazers, fire cannons, steam cannons, fireworks, lots of lights, special effects. It was just lush! It seemed like a big cartoon. And the crowd sang along to all the songs. It takes more than just words to describe the feeling I had while MUSE was on the stage. Ahh, just fucking amazing. I sang along to as many songs as I knew. And the most interesting part was that in lots of cases you couldn't guess which song the band was going to play the next because they made jamming for the introduction! And oh yeah, Matthew Bellamy smashed one of his guitars during the performance. And the guitars they used, had lights on. One of the guitars looked like a piano. And in the beginning of one of the songs he sang into a rupour. And he played piano and everything! Just lush! I would go to see them again anytime. They were just amazing!

After they finished all the crowd went to the campsites. As I wasn't camping I went to the cinema tent. It was the Lock-up stage and we had to sit on the ground. It was dirty and covered with trash. But all the people were just sitting there and wathing the movie called "Inception" (didn't like it at all) so I just sat there and tried to sleep a bit. But it was too cold so I couldn't sleep much. I felt like a homeless person. After the cinema tent finished with the program at around 3am we were all kicked out of the arena so my only option was to try my luck and go to the train station in the hope that it will be opened. And it opened just as I got there. Loads of people from the festival were also there, sleeping on the floor. The station looked like a shelter for homeless people- everybody were dirty, had big bags with the camping stuff with them, the place was covered with mud and everybody were just sleeping there. Quite an amuzing view. And I was one of them. Tried to sleep a little bit, but it was chilly so I gave up after half an hour. My train from Reading to Bristol was at seven so I had some breakfast in the station and drank some tea and then just sat and waited. I was cold all the time and shivering.

I couldn't sleep in the train much either when I was there so by the time I got to Weston I was really exhausted. And then I collected my fixed bike from John's place and cycled home. It was a nice and sunny day and the cycle was enjoyable. When I got home I wasn't tired at all in the beginning but in about 5mins time I felt I could just fall into winter sleep. So I slept about 4 hours and then discovered that we have no heating and warm water. Blimey.
And it seems that there is something wrong with the electricity, too, because Timi told me that I had used so much electricity that she couldn't believe it. But the thing is- I haven't used much electricity. I usually use it less than her.... Mystery. And I wasn't home all the time either.....

Tomorrow we will go to see our managers about it.
Because I'm still dirty and the only way to stay warm is to stay in the bed under the duvet or have loads of clothes on.

Anyway,
I love festivals! It was the best festival experience ever! I'm just so happy about it!