Lana Del Rey was everywhere – and she wasn’t on the bill. And the same went for Donna Summer …
1. The number of public blowjobs that happened during Eminem’s Saturday night headline set was zero
For that may we all be thankful. No-one wants a repeat of the double standards and slut-shaming/stud-praising that followed the #slanegirl incident that took place during Mather’s Slane Castle show in Ireland earlier this month.
2. Lana Del Rey is queen of festival fashionistas
She may have been absent from the esteemed line-up this year, but LDR’ fashion steez were noticeably visible amongst the multitude of young girls rocking denim cut-offs and muddy Hunter wellies. Floral crowns – à la Born To Die – were ubiquitous.
3. 90s alt metal still rules
We knew this already, but it bears repeating because the on Friday night, headliners Deftones set a standard for the rest of the weekend that was hard to top. A rather cheery (see: quite possibly inebriated) Chino Moreno led the band through a rip-roaring set, surfing the crowd with microphone in hand before retuning to the stage with a torn shirt and a Hawaiian flower garland (fished from around a fan’s neck) for his troubles. The Sacramento crew ran through numbers from their 2012 album Koi No Yokan and finished up with the still-ferocious 7 Words – but not before dedicating a stirring performance of Change (In the House of Flies) to their late bassist Chi Cheng, who passed away in April.
4. System Of A Down are Donna Summer fans
Eagle-eared fans will have noticed that the fourtet worked up into an instrumental and humalong not unlike I Feel Love, before segueing into the groupie-shaming Toxicity track, Psycho. Never thought we’d hear that in a circle pit. According to Twitter, they weren’t the only ones to sample the 1977 hit – Franz Ferdinand also got in on the action.
5. The average Reading 2013-goer was too young to know the joys of Dookie
Much to the chagrin of older Green Day fans, who had the pleasure of pogoing/singing along to every word of the trio’s much loved 1994 album, which the Cali punks played in its entirety, the youngsters were unimpressed. Billie Joe Armstrong and co gave a pumped-up, stage-hopping performance – free of freak-out moments like the one that infamously marred their I Heart Radio performance last year and ledf Armstrong to rehab – but the feeling around the campfire was that the energy was sadly unreciprocated by the crowd, which was made up largely of school-leavers celebrating/commiserating their A-level results.
6. Dance acts get the wildest response
Earlwolf set off car alarms and shook portaloos with their bass-heavy, expletive-laden set, and Friday night headliner Skrillex managed to work up a predictable hubbub over at the NME/BBC Radio 1 Stage, but nothing prepared Reading goers for the mayhem that ensued at Chase and Status’s Saturday night main stage show. The duo were forced to suspend their set three times, pleading with the crowd to simmer down. Unlike the mosh pit etiquette evidenced at System of a Down’s show (which, it might be said, included a fair proportion of older, more veteran festival heads), plenty of attendees fell victim to the crush, falling to the muddy floor and left unaided, trampled by their fellow revelers. This roving reporter spotted at least one semi-serious casualty in the first aid tent nursing a deep, weeping gash on her forehead. Talk about bass in your face.
