Scanning the crowds milling about in the afternoon sun at Reading festival, one could easily mistake it for a large school playground – albeit one with a pie stand and stalls selling tie-dye T-shirts. Even for a music festival, the youth contingent continuing to flock to Reading and its northern counterpart, Leeds, every summer is overwhelming.
“It’s a bit like a creche,” joked Terry Milward, 61, one of the few festivalgoers at Reading who was born before the turn of the millennium.
Despite the vast number of music festivals that have emerged across the UK, particularly over the past 10 years, Reading and Leeds have managed to retain their status as a rite of passage for teenagers celebrating, or resolutely forgetting, their GCSE, AS- and A-level results.
This year is no different. Swaggering across the field, tops already off, a group of six 16-year-old boys from Birmingham are enjoying the festival. There is a rounding chorus of grunts in agreement at the suggestion that Reading is still a rite of passage. For five of them, this is their first music festival experience.
“We’re definitely here celebrating,” said Ollie Ridgeway. “We’ve had this planned because we all wanted to go away after our GCSE results and this seemed like the funnest place to go. This was just the most talked-about festival among everyone we know so we thought why not give it a go.”
His friend Ben Leadum added: “It’s mainly the experience we’re here for – and a bit of music on the side. Everything comes together nicely.”
For Chloe Bayliss, 17, this is her second year in a row. She said Reading seemed to be more centred around young people than other music festival.
“Reading is still such a rite of passage,. I was here last year after my GCSEs and it is this big moment, that big hurrah after your results. I love the atmosphere, it’s because of that that everyone can relate to each other and even if you don’t know people, everyone is friendly and chats. That never happens back home,” she said.
While the crowds may be young however, the headliners this year will be familiar to anyone who has been to Reading over the past decade: Biffy Clyro, Foals, Fall Out Boy and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, who have headlined twice before. Notably, they are also all men.
Research by the Guardian last year showed that at 12 UK festivals, 86% of performers were men. Looking at the Reading lineup this year, the lack of female artists is, again, stark. On Saturday, the main stage will not play host to a single woman. It comes at a time when other British festivals such as End of The Road have been sellouts with all-female headliners, and this year have an almost 50-50 split of men and women performing.
Speaking to the Guardian last year, organiser Melvin Benn made it clear that a gender balance was not a priority when booking Reading and Leeds. He said: “Why do you think we book the same male acts again and again? Because they sell tickets. Trust me, if there was a female headline act in the rock genre that sold the same amount of tickets as any one of the headline acts this year, I’d book them.”
Suzie Beaumont, 19, said while she had never noticed it before, the lack of women was “pretty disgraceful”.
“I know that this is a rock festival, so there are probably more men who are in the bands, but it does show how male-dominated the music industry still is,” she said. “And look around, there are as many girls who have come here as boys. Why should we just have to listen to guys for three days solid.”
Yet in among those on a summer holiday high, there were a few ticketholders whose teenage years were more of a distant memory. Sitting leisurely under a tree was a group of four women from Epsom who had day tickets so they could come and see what all the fuss was about.
“None of us have ever been to a festival so we thought we’d come along,” said Kathleen, 48. “This is our girls’ day out. We’re next to the bar, what more could you want. We’re off to find some glitter in a moment.”
“We’ve told our daughters they’re not allowed to hang out with us,” added Andie, 45, while Anne, 50, said her daughter would probably pretend not to see her. However, this was a day outing and all four shuddered at the thought of sleeping overnight. ““Have you see that campsite?” shrieked Andie. “For a start, the tents are all on top of each other.”
Having an equally enjoyable time was Paul Beddow, a 44-year-old festival veteran who, sporting a red Viking hat, said he brought his two teenage daughters with him to give them a taste of real life.
“It’s the sort of thing I used to do years ago, going out raving at Glastonbury and going to the acid house parties in the early 90s,” he said. “Because I’ve split with their mum, I thought it was a nice idea to show the children what life is all about, expand their minds a bit rather than just sitting at home on a iPad.”
Reading is just one of the many festivals he plans to take his children to over the coming years. “Now I’ve got an excuse to re-live my youth through my children,” he said, “which is pretty great.”
