READING 2013

Heya Blog Readers!

Since Monday I have been in post-festival recovery mode (still coughing choking dying from festival flu now) after coming home from Reading Fest 2013! But maan, this illness is manageable seeing as it was exchanged for one of the best weekends I have had all year, and deffo the best festival I have ever been to. My weekend was jam packed full of everything I could want, and to write down everything would be ridiculous (especially seeing as I only have half hour spare now to write up my blog post) so I thought I would share with you my Reading 2013 highlights!

HEADLINERS

EMINEM

Eminem seems to have been around for AGES and has released some absolute CLASSICS. He hasn't done anything recently so this was a performance that I was sort of like hmm could go either way, but I have to admit it was a good performance all round. He put on a good show and had the crowd rapping along, and lets be honest, seeing Eminem live is something that just HAS to be done. Despite being harassed by some horny teenage boys, I still had a great time, there was this insane guy standing with us who knew EVERY word to EVERY song, that is what I call dedication. It was a class way to end Saturday.

BIFFY CLYRO

MON THE BIFF. I love Scotland. I love Simon Neil. I love Biffy Clyro. After seeing Biffy on their tour in March at Birmingham, I must admit that I was very very very excited to see Biffy headline Reading on the Sunday. I was not disappointed at all in any way shape or form (not that I could ever be). The wait for Biffy to come on stage was eternal it felt so long, but was made a lot better by some lovely scottish students that we chatted to :) When Biffy came on stage finally there was a glorious moment as everyone sung along to Different People and we knew we were in for a good show. The set list was just about perfect and included classics like Many of Horror, Bubbles and Mountains and their newer stuff Biblical and Stingin' Belle (The only thing that I thought was missing was Victory Over The Sun boo I really want to hear that one live!) And then the magical moments of Folding Stars and Machines (aaaaaah there's nothing better than hearing everyone around you singing along to an acousticy song) The stage was great, and included a lot of fire (and Simon setting fire to his guitar) and then fireworks at the end. If I'm completely honest I can't think of a better way to end my festival experience. Biffy were on top form, music quality was superb and Simon's energy just radiated everywhere across the crowd.

OTHER ACTS WHICH I LOVED

SKRILLEX - In the NME tent. Wow, okay so I must admit that I wanted to see Skrillex just for a laugh, but actually once I got there I realised that I was in for more than just a laugh. Skrillex actually put on a really good set. Plus the whole experience of thousands of people crammed in a tent skanking it out around me was something I have never experienced before. It was soo hot, crazy hot, sweating ravers everywhere. I took a couple of cups of beer to the face, was temporarily blinded by booze, and carried on raving it out, however I wasn't strong enough to stick it out till the end (only Chloe survived out of our group until the end, HERO)

BRING ME THE HORIZON - I thought I would quite enjoy seeing this, when in fact I LOVED them. Like BMTH were probably one of the best acts I saw all weekend. Oli's screaming is just as legit in live concert as it is on the albums, plus there were some pretty awesome things that happened. A wall of death between the whole festival crowd, and a circle pit around the VIP tower, which when I watched back on Iplayer actually looks so cool! Yep. BMTH have definitely earned themselves a new fan here.

FALL OUT BOY - Excuse me but if it wasn't your childhood dream to see Fall Out Boy live in concert you are lying to yourself and everyone around you. Having been a very happy Rachel when FOB brought out new music this year (which is great new music) I was an even happier Rachel when i found out that I was going to be seeing them LIVE at reading! Woohooo! They played a mix of their old stuff and their new stuff, and I even had the chance to get on this sweet guys shoulders for the Phoenix (which was my ambition from the start of their set, it felt AMAZING). Fall Out Boy were just wow. A lot of attitude and sasss from Patrick on stage and from the crowd around me belting out the words to the songs we have loved (my fav moment was turning to some guy also on someone else's shoulders and us both just screaming at each other "I don't care what you think as long as it's about me")

TWIN ATLANTIC - Ahh, back to my love of scottish bands, we have Twin Atlantic. A highlight of everyone turning around and yelling "FREEEEEEE" and making a beast of themselves;) And you can't forget the beautiful moment of everyone singing Crash Land together, perfect

IMAGINE DRAGONS - When they brought their album Night Visions i fell in love with it. An album that I can genuinely listen to from start to finish and love every song, so I was deffo not going to miss them at Reading. Having nearly died during the wait (due to a lot of surges of pushing which resulted in being crushed on the floor, but luckily having a lovely bloke pull me back up to my feet) I really enjoyed the whole set. They played all the songs I hoped they would and there was a lot put into the performance by the whole band.

So these are my main highlights, I may come back and add some more. Of course alongside these acts I experienced all the weird and wonderfullness of campsite activity, spoke to a lot of drunk ranodms and had to deal with the dreaded toilets.

Oh well, see you next year Reading!

Thanks for reading (thats reeeed-ing not red-ing) ;)

xxx