Reading festival

pickledonionspaceraider

Chill out - she will be fine. Do not let your anxiety rub off on her

In less than 12 months she could announce she is going backpacking around the world

fruitisbad

Drink and hard drugs are easy to come by so she should have a good time

MandM90

fruitisbad wrote: »

Drink and hard drugs are easy to come by so she should have a good time

This. OH and I are 24 and 25 respectively and live 30 mins from Reading so he has been about 8 times.

The experience she has will depend on how responsible and switched on she and her friends are.

heuchera

fruitisbad wrote: »

Drink and hard drugs are easy to come by so she should have a good time

:rotfl::rotfl:

I'd be more concerned about the disgusting festival [STRIKE]plop-buckets[/STRIKE] toilets.

Jagraf

Thank you everyone some great insights. I am letting her go - always was going to - I just want to do my research beforehand.

She's a good kid and had good friends - someone advised me not to watch it on telly / YouTube while she's there and to go away myself lol.

Thank you.

Jagraf

duchy wrote: »

Is she a sensible and mature teenager , who would she be going with, at seventeen if she's determined to go could you (and would you want to) stop her ?)

Everyone's experience is different - what exactly are you concerned about ?

Yes I could stop her going but wouldn't wish to - I'm just interested in people's experiences.

paddyrg

It's a rite of passage, needs to be done. She'll stay up too late, consume things she oughtn't consume, will get wet or burnt or both, will lose something, will get muddy, will spend a fortune, will see some bands she likes, see all the sideshow stuff that'll blow her mind and inspire her in impossible ways. She'll come home knackered with a pile of filthy clothes but satisfied

Wilma33

I would recommend her and her friends go to a festival for a day before they do a weekend.

Ames

The advice I was given probably still stands - she'll need twice the cash and half the clothes.

I imagine nowadays that a few power bars would be useful too. And that's not a type of granola bar, it's a funky electronic gadget, I have a couple of these: http://www.amazon.co.uk/UKOUTLET-2600MAH-Charger-Laptops-Tablets/dp/B00HLZ99S6/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1456353779&sr=8-10&keywords=power+bar

Remember to get different colours so you know which still has power!

System

I did leeds fest at 17

It involved A LOT of alcohol, a little debauchery (i was 17, single and drunk, sometimes stupid things happen...just be safe!) but many many laughs. i met my best friend there and we're still best friends 12 years later.

-Take a decent waterproof tent, it will most likely rain and i;ve seen peoples entire belongings be ruined because they had a cheap single skin tent
-Pack your clothes, then take half out, i guarantee she won't need half the stuff she takes
-Wet wipes are a saviour, gives you a chance to freshen up in the morning and also better than loo roll in the portaloos
-Try not to take valuables, sadly there are horrible people who go there with the sole intent of stealing, get a locker to store any valuables in
-Don;t padlock your tent, it makes it look like theres something worth stealing chances are they will just slash the tent to get in
-Get to know the people camping around you, there are many new friends to be made plus they can keep an eye on your tent and vice versa
-Be realisitic about money, the first festival i went to i had £30!!!! It didn't even last me a day, i ended up flashing my boobs for chips by day 3 (not i'm not proud of that but again...i was stupid naive and probably drunk), i did download last year and took about £170, and that got spent byt the last day. Bear in mind a bottle of pop in the arena will cost at least £2.50 and each meal will likely be between £4-6 so you need to budget accordingly (and you can;t take your own drinks into the areana, unless it unopened and less than 500ml-no alcohol)

Also, and this is specific to leeds/reading fest, please be careful on the sunday night, there is a long history of there being trouble, some people get a bit stupid with fire, thats actually why i stopped going to leeds fest, i spent the last night in 07 terrified because some idiots behind us threw gas cannisters on a fire and tried picking my tent up to throw it on said fire. However that was only one year, the other 3 years i went passed without incident, just be careful and try to avoid drunken pyromanic idiots and all should be well.