One of the largest music festivals in the world, Reading Festival has been running since the 1960s pulling in nearly 100,000 music fans every August bank holiday for a three-day celebration of live music.
Over the years, every band you can think of has graced the stage at Reading Festival, including The Rolling Stones, Nirvana, The Stone Roses and Eminem. The site is right on the edge of the town centre, and just a short walk from our Caversham Bridge hotel.
It began life as a jazz festival in 1958 and is now a sprawling multi-venue festival taking place across two cities. The main stage hosts big acts spanning rock, indie and metal as well as dance and hip-hop curveballs, while the second stage – often hosted by NME or Radio 1 – hosts up-and-coming names who will most likely be on the main stage in the next few years. There’s also a dance tent hosting DJs and live acts, the 1Xtra stage for all your urban and hip-hop needs and the BBC Introducing stage which gives unsigned acts a chance to impress the crowd.
Held at the end of August across the bank holiday weekend, you’ll hear the buzz of everything from hip-hop to metal music from 11am to 11pm for three nights in a row, as Reading gets down to a world-class soundtrack. There are lots of pop-up bars and food trucks on the site providing everything from fish and chips to freshly made doughnuts. It’s an all-ages festival, but young children are discouraged. If you do want to bring them along, children under 13 are free, and an adult must accompany kids aged 15 or younger at all times.
The festival is also held in Leeds over the same weekend with the same line-up but on different days.
Festival tickets include camping options, but if you’d rather avoid the long-drop toilets and the queues – and enjoy the finer things in life, like a shower – then our Reading South hotel is 15 minutes away. You can get day or weekend car park tickets with your festival entry and shuttle buses run for car parks placed further away.
