The , officially called the '''Carling Weekend''', are a pair of annual
Music Festival s that take place in
Reading and
Leeds in
England . The events both happen on the
Bank Holiday weekend in August (on Friday, Saturday, Sunday), and share the same bill (usually with one or two exceptions.)
They used to be strongly
Folk -oriented festivals, now more
Alternative /
Indie /
Punk /
Metal . The festival will typically have the following stages:-
- Main stage - major Rock / Indie / Rap acts
- NME / Radio 1 stage - less well known and breakthrough acts
- Carling stage - emerging acts
- Radio 1 Lock Up Stage - underground Punk /hardcore acts. Due to demand, this will take up 2 days in 2006, as opposed to 1 day in previous years.
- Dance tent - Dance Music acts, on the day that the above stage does not run
- Comedy tent - comedy and Cabaret acts
The festivals are run by
Mean Fiddler Music Group (now controlled by the entertainment conglomerate
Clearchannel ), and are currently sponsored by
Carling . For promotional purposes they are known as the ''Carling Weekend Reading'' and the ''Carling Weekend Leeds''.
In 2005 the capacity of the Reading site was 60,500 and the Leeds site was 57,500. The Reading festival is held at Little John's Farm on Richfield Avenue in central Reading, near the
Caversham Bridge . The Leeds event is held in
Bramham Park , the grounds of a historic house. Campsites are available at both sites, weekend tickets include camping. Day tickets are also sold.
The line-up for the 2006 festivals was officially announced on
BBC Radio 1 on
3 April 2006 , with tickets going on sale on this date. Headliners are
Muse ,
Franz Ferdinand , and
Pearl Jam .
The Reading Festival originates from the
National Jazz Festival , which was first held at
Richmond Athletic Ground in 1961. This festival, in turn, took inspiration from events held in
America . Throughout the years, the festival changed names and moved around sites a few times, being held at
Windsor Racecourse ,
Kempton Park and
Plumpton , before finally reaching Reading in 1971.
The line-up settled into a pattern of
Prog Rock and
Heavy Metal during the
1970s . It did dabble with
Punk Rock in 1978 when
The Jam ,
Sham 69 &
Penetration played. The festival attempted to provide both traditional
Rock acts and new punk bands, leading to clashes between the two sets of fans. Although
The Ramones played the following year, the festival gradually became known for focusing on heavy metal and rock acts.
During this decade the festival followed a similar format to that established in the late
1970s . In 1984 and 1985, the local council reclaimed the festival site for development, and no festival was held. A proposed move to
Northamptonshire failed, and a
Labour Party council election win in 1986 saw the festival restored to fields adjacent to its original site. By the late eighties, however, the festival was seen as "out of touch" with the new British music scene. Although in 1987, the first
Goth acts appeared on the bill (e.g.
The Mission ), the likes of
Status Quo still appeared. In 1988, the festival hit its lowest point with the likes of
Meat Loaf and
Bonnie Tyler being bottled off the stage. The festival was declared a disaster and its future was under threat. Things were due to change for the better though.
In 1989,
Mean Fiddler Music Group got involved for the first time. The festival started to change, leading towards its re-establishment in the
1990s as one of the
UK 's biggest music festivals. Notably, the new
Indie music of this decade started to appear on the bill and the future of the festival became more secure.
In 1991
Nirvana played the first of their two appearances to a massive crowd. This is also the year the first
Britpop bands such as
Suede and
Blur started to show themselves on the festival circuit.
The next year was one of the most famous in the festival history. Nirvana did their last presentation ever in Reading (and also in the UK) and what later became in one of their best concerts. The band's frontman,
Kurt Cobain entered in a wheelchair, parodying the speculations about his mental health. Then he got up and joined the rest of the band in tearing through an assortment of old and new material. At one point in the show, Cobain revealed to the crowd the recent birth of his daughter
Frances Bean , and succeeded in having the crowd chant "We love you, Courtney!" (referring to Cobain's wife,
Courtney Love ) in unison.
Over the next few years the festival continued to grow as the popularity of outdoor festivals increased. Britpop and indie continued to dominate along with rock. Notably,
Rap acts such as
Ice Cube began to appear regularly on the main stage.
In 1998 it absorbed the failed
Phoenix Festival . This resulted in the infamous on-stage spat between
The Beastie Boys and
The Prodigy over the song 'Smack My Bitch Up'.
In 1999 the festival gained another leg at
Temple Newsam in
Leeds , when it was clear that the Reading site was far too small to deal with the demand. Though the 1999 Leeds Festival ran a day behind the Reading leg, a system where the line up of Reading play Leeds the following day, with the bands from Leeds' opening day playing the final day in Reading, soon developed.
After a successful first year in Leeds, a continued resurgence in the popularity of outdoor music festivals led to the Reading festival selling out more and more quickly every year. The Leeds leg, however, was plagued by riots and violence which led to problems in retaining its licence. Mean Fiddler moved the festival to in this year also fuelled the demand for Reading and Leeds tickets.
Musically, the festival has seen a return to its heavy metal roots, though it has retained a large indie, rap and punk influence. The "tradition" of unpopular bands being bottled off (being forced to leave the stage due to the audience constantly throwing plastic bottles, sometimes filled with
Urine ) has continued; famously,
Daphne And Celeste suffered this ignominy in 2000, with
Good Charlotte unluckily experiencing this growing trend in 2003. In 2004
The Rasmus were bottled off at both legs and
50 Cent (with
Urine , fireworks, mud, pieces of furniture and generally anything people could throw) in Reading only. Some question the wisdom of the organisers in placing
50 Cent , a
Rap /urban act, in between
Placebo and
Green Day , both rock acts (although
The Streets, an act similar to 50 cent, played earlier on in the day with little or no disturbance). In 2005,
Fightstar , despite suffering a barrage themselves, remained playing throughout their entire set as the audience's bottle supply was quickly exhausted.
For a more complete list of recent bills, see
Reading And Leeds Festivals Line-ups .
- 2006: Franz Ferdinand , Muse , Pearl Jam , Kaiser Chiefs , Arctic Monkeys , Placebo
- 2005: Pixies , Foo Fighters , Iron Maiden , The Killers , Kings Of Leon , Marilyn Manson
- 2004: The Darkness , The White Stripes , Green Day , The Offspring , Morrissey , 50 Cent
- 2003: Linkin Park , Blur , Metallica , Blink 182 , System Of A Down , Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (replacing the White Stripes who pulled out).
- 2002: The Strokes , Foo Fighters , Guns N' Roses (only at Leeds), The Prodigy , Pulp , Muse , The Offspring
- 2001: Travis , Manic Street Preachers , Eminem , Green Day , Fun Lovin' Criminals , Marilyn Manson
- 2000: Oasis , Pulp , Stereophonics , Primal Scream , Beck , Placebo
- 1999: The Charlatans , Blur , Red Hot Chili Peppers , The Chemical Brothers , Catatonia , The Offspring
- 1998: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant , Beastie Boys , Garbage , Ash , The Prodigy , New Order
- 1997: Suede , Manic Street Preachers , Metallica , Embrace , The Verve
- 1996: The Prodigy , Black Grape , Stone Roses , Underworld
- 1995: Smashing Pumpkins , Björk , Neil Young , Foo Fighters , Gene , Bluetones
- 1994: Cypress Hill , Primal Scream , Red Hot Chili Peppers
- 1993: Porno For Pyros , The The , New Order , Kingmaker , Boo Radleys , Elastica
- 1992: The Wonder Stuff , Public Enemy , Nirvana , The Charlatans , Ride , Nick Cave
- 1991: Iggy Pop , James , The Sisters Of Mercy
- 1990: The Cramps , Inspiral Carpets , Pixies
- 1989: New Order , The Pogues , The Mission , The Sugarcubes , New Model Army , The Wonder Stuff
- 1988: Ramones , Starship , Squeeze
- 1987: The Mission , Status Quo , Alice Cooper
- 1986: Killing Joke , Hawkwind , Saxon
- 1984 and 1985: No festival this year
- 1983: The Stranglers , Black Sabbath , Thin Lizzy
- 1982: Budgie , Iron Maiden , Michael Schenker
- 1981: Girlschool , Gillan , The Kinks
- 1980: Slade , Rory Gallagher , UFO , Whitesnake
- 1979: The Police , Inner Circle , The Ramones
- 1978: The Jam , Status Quo , Patti Smith
- 1977: Golden Earring , Thin Lizzy , Alex Harvey
- 1976: Gong , Rory Gallagher , Osibisa
- 1975: Hawkwind , Yes , Wishbone Ash
- 1974: Alex Harvey , 10cc , Traffic
- 1973: Rory Gallagher , The Faces , Genesis
- 1972: Curved Air , The Faces , Ten Years After
- 1971: Arthur Brown , East Of Eden , Colosseum
- 1970: The Groundhogs , Cat Stevens , Deep Purple
- 1969: Pink Floyd , The Who , The Nice
- 1968: T. Rex , Jethro Tull , The Nice
- 1967: Small Faces , Paul Jones , Cream
- 1966: The Who , The Yardbirds , Cream
- 1965: The Yardbirds , Manfred Mann , The Animals
- 1964: The Yardbirds , Manfred Mann , The Rolling Stones
- 1963: The Rolling Stones , Long John Baldry , Muddy Waters
- 1962: Humphrey Lyttelton , Kenny Ball
- 1961: Johnny Dankworth , Chris Barber , Dick Charlesworth , Mike Cotton , Tubby Hayes , Ken Colyer , Clyde Valley Stompers
