For several years now I've wanted to be able to say i've been to Reading Festival and now finally I can. To think only a month ago I was still counting down the days until my train left the station and headed towards what will be end up being some of the best few days of my life. And now you get to read about it - or at least how it was for me.
We left at the crack of dawn on Thursday with too many bags and not enough arms. The train journey dragged on, which was especially painful due the many glares from other passengers after we bashed just about every one of them with our abundance of bags. Once we arrived in Reading we hopped on one of the shuttle buses but even that wouldn't save the pain of walking around trying to find somewhere to pitch our top quality Asda tent. After walking for the longest hour of my life we gave up and ended up in, well, a ditch. But really how much more of Thursday do you want to hear about? We were drunk, we went to the funfair, we took obnoxious photo's, I gained a bruise the entire size of my arm and we fell asleep and struggled to wake up the next morning.
However, it was Friday. The one day we needed to wake up early because Friday was the day Paramore were signing in the NME tent. We still don't quite know how but we managed to get in the queue by 11:15. The next 5 hours were the most painful of my life. Sitting around for 5 hours with no food, no drink and hundreds of people cutting through the queue to get to the actual NME stage was awful. I'm impatient and fidgety and so by the time Paramore were due to be signing I couldn't quite work out why we thought it was a good idea to queue all that time especially as we had already been told by the security guys that it was unlikely we would get in. This was surprising and yet not for us. We were fairly near the front but at the same time I could never imagine meeting them.
Then the screaming began. Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor had arrived. Earlier on we had decided to 'group up' with 3 other girls who we had been queued with all day, so if one doesn't go in none of us do. As you can imagine people who had been on the outskirts on the queue decided to cut in, shoving a lot of us much further back and as a result causing around 50 people who would have got in, and had been waiting all day, to be turned away in tears. After 15 minutes (Paramore were only signing for half an hour) we made it through the first lot of gates and after 5 more the second gate. At this point you are pretty much guaranteed to meet them but none of us wanted to believe it. We were right not to as well.
The 5 of us were the very last people put through the gates and they weren't going to let us through. The security guy at our gate, who I think was a Paramore fan as he was taking photo's bless him, wanted to let us through. He asked me if I can whistle to get the Big Boss Security Man's attention and I said not very loud so I instead opted for screaming "whistle whistle". It worked he turned around and Paramore Fan Security held up 5 fingers and Big Boss looked at his watch looked at us and then after 5 painstaking seconds nodded his head. And then I died there and then.
Well, obviously not really but I think I nearly had a heart attack. We were going to meet Paramore. From the age of 9 they have been my favourite band and so explaining what they mean to me would be impossible but just understand this - never in my life ever did I imagine meeting them and it was never supposed to happen.
The people who didn't get through gave us a book they had made and letters for us to give them and that is what did it. Our determination not to cry went out the window as we flipped through the book and then felt like the most rotten people on earth that we were getting to meet them and they weren't. So, now we looked a mess we went in to meet them and before I had even looked at Jeremy properly he said to me "Hey, you've got awesome hair hi-five for that" and then held his hand up and I really couldn't quite believe (still don't, actually) that this was happening. I then made my along the table hi-fiving them and whisper-screaming I love you. I gave the book and the letters to Taylor and the look on his face was so cute. But there you have it. The one thing in my life I dreamed but never imagined to happen did happen. After, the guys who wrote the book came up to us crying and hugged us and then we all just stood there hugging and crying for whatever reason. Then we ran to the toilets and I called my dad and he just said "why are you crying it's just a band". I then cried more. As you can imagine this was the highlight of my weekend and is definitely one of my top five moments in life.
As we were the last people through we just made it to the main stage in time for England's very own You Me At Six. This would mark the 4th time seeing them since their tour with Paramore back in 2009 and as always they were brilliant. We talked to a lot of people in the crowd who were all very entertaining making the experience 100 times better and of course Josh demanding us all to take off an item of clothing and swing it around our heads was always going to be entertaining (Note: I took off a sock). Next up was Bombay Bicycle Club. I don't really listen to them and I don't think they should have come between the You Me At Six lads and Paramore but they did and they weren't bad just not my cup of tea. Now for the moment we had been waiting for. Paramore's return to the stage. It had been almost 2 years since I had last seen them and I could not wait and of course they didn't disappoint. I only have 2 things to say that I wish I could change and that is I wish the crowd knew Renegade better and I wish the girl who was chosen to sing on Misery Business did more than just stand there.
By now we were positive we were going to drop down dead from lack of food and drink as we hadn't had anything but vodka since Thursday afternoon and it was now late Friday night so we left the crowd in a hunt for food we could eat. Eventually we found the Fry's vegan and vegetarian stand and I had the best vegan burger ever whilst sitting watching The Cure do their thing.
*Saturday, Sunday and Monday to come at a later date as college work is dragging me down.
Then the screaming began. Hayley, Jeremy and Taylor had arrived. Earlier on we had decided to 'group up' with 3 other girls who we had been queued with all day, so if one doesn't go in none of us do. As you can imagine people who had been on the outskirts on the queue decided to cut in, shoving a lot of us much further back and as a result causing around 50 people who would have got in, and had been waiting all day, to be turned away in tears. After 15 minutes (Paramore were only signing for half an hour) we made it through the first lot of gates and after 5 more the second gate. At this point you are pretty much guaranteed to meet them but none of us wanted to believe it. We were right not to as well.
The 5 of us were the very last people put through the gates and they weren't going to let us through. The security guy at our gate, who I think was a Paramore fan as he was taking photo's bless him, wanted to let us through. He asked me if I can whistle to get the Big Boss Security Man's attention and I said not very loud so I instead opted for screaming "whistle whistle". It worked he turned around and Paramore Fan Security held up 5 fingers and Big Boss looked at his watch looked at us and then after 5 painstaking seconds nodded his head. And then I died there and then.
Well, obviously not really but I think I nearly had a heart attack. We were going to meet Paramore. From the age of 9 they have been my favourite band and so explaining what they mean to me would be impossible but just understand this - never in my life ever did I imagine meeting them and it was never supposed to happen.
The people who didn't get through gave us a book they had made and letters for us to give them and that is what did it. Our determination not to cry went out the window as we flipped through the book and then felt like the most rotten people on earth that we were getting to meet them and they weren't. So, now we looked a mess we went in to meet them and before I had even looked at Jeremy properly he said to me "Hey, you've got awesome hair hi-five for that" and then held his hand up and I really couldn't quite believe (still don't, actually) that this was happening. I then made my along the table hi-fiving them and whisper-screaming I love you. I gave the book and the letters to Taylor and the look on his face was so cute. But there you have it. The one thing in my life I dreamed but never imagined to happen did happen. After, the guys who wrote the book came up to us crying and hugged us and then we all just stood there hugging and crying for whatever reason. Then we ran to the toilets and I called my dad and he just said "why are you crying it's just a band". I then cried more. As you can imagine this was the highlight of my weekend and is definitely one of my top five moments in life.
As we were the last people through we just made it to the main stage in time for England's very own You Me At Six. This would mark the 4th time seeing them since their tour with Paramore back in 2009 and as always they were brilliant. We talked to a lot of people in the crowd who were all very entertaining making the experience 100 times better and of course Josh demanding us all to take off an item of clothing and swing it around our heads was always going to be entertaining (Note: I took off a sock). Next up was Bombay Bicycle Club. I don't really listen to them and I don't think they should have come between the You Me At Six lads and Paramore but they did and they weren't bad just not my cup of tea. Now for the moment we had been waiting for. Paramore's return to the stage. It had been almost 2 years since I had last seen them and I could not wait and of course they didn't disappoint. I only have 2 things to say that I wish I could change and that is I wish the crowd knew Renegade better and I wish the girl who was chosen to sing on Misery Business did more than just stand there.
By now we were positive we were going to drop down dead from lack of food and drink as we hadn't had anything but vodka since Thursday afternoon and it was now late Friday night so we left the crowd in a hunt for food we could eat. Eventually we found the Fry's vegan and vegetarian stand and I had the best vegan burger ever whilst sitting watching The Cure do their thing.
*Saturday, Sunday and Monday to come at a later date as college work is dragging me down.
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