Early Bird Tickets For Reading & Leeds Festival 2013 On Sale Thursday 30th August 2012
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Written by Jon Stickler
Reading and Leeds Festival came to a close on Sunday night at both sites, with spectacular performances from all the artists over the weekend, making this year’s event a classic to go down in history.
Having delighted the crowd at Leeds on Friday, the word was out that the Foo Fighters Sunday night Reading set was going to be a stunner, and the packed arena was not disappointed by the mega two and a half hour set. Dave Grohl proclaimed “Honey I’m home” as he took to the stage and dedicated songs to Nirvana band mates Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, long-standing BBC engineer Miti Adhikari (recording his final show for the station), his kids, and even got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to his mum! The amazing set culminated in a stunning firework display, sending everybody home singing along to the hits. Leeds festival goers were bouncing along to Kasabian’s rousing anthems, the band playing their first Main Stage headliner appearances at the festivals and proving their worthiness for this slot a thousand times over. Giving the legions of fans hit after hit as well as snatches of songs from The Korgi’s, Fatboy Slim and The Beatles; they also dedicated a song to Neil Armstrong when the moon shone down on the packed field.
On playing in the city of Leeds for the first time since 1985 Robert Smith of The Cure greeted the crowd saying "Hello again. It’s been a while" and launched into a 33-song set including many sing-a-long hits. The Cribs frontman Ryan Jarman couldn’t decide if the Reading or Leeds crowd was better before settling on the fact they were both so great he didn’t care declaring “we’ve played pretty much every festival in the world this past decade and you're still the greatest”. The band also proceeded to throw all their equipment into the audience at the end of the Reading show which the BBC caught on camera as part of their extensive coverage over the weekend. On the BBC Introducing Stage Alt-J, Jake Bugg and Two Door Cinema Club made surprise appearances and BBC3 presenter Fearne Cotton pronounced she wished the festival could be on every weekend!
With SO many highlights a few to note include US megastars Green Day making a surprise appearance at 11am on the NME/Radio 1 Stage in Reading, the triumphant return of At The Drive-In, late night entertainment with the Silent Arena, top comedy performances from the likes of Reginald D Hunter, Lee Nelson and Stephen K Amos, free breakfast baps and drinks each day for weekend ticket holders and grand opening ceremonies at the Arena Entrances by the elected Lord and Lady Mayors Curtis Ross-Cullum and Charlotte St Aubyn, 2012 will be remembered as an incredible year for the festival. Overall the festivals saw Reading sell out at an increased capacity of 90,000, countless amazing bands playing their hearts out – no matter whether they were appearing for the first time or veterans returning to the biggest twin site festival in Europe – and everybody went home elated after having the best fun to be found on the bank holiday weekend.
Reflecting on the weekend Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic said: "This was one of the best years yet for the festivals - bigger Main Stages, new logos, great weather overall, legendary performances and a few surprises along the way! The Foo Fighters had a lot of love from the crowd, Robert Smith sounded as good today as his last time at the festival in 1979 and Kasabian proved they were more than ready to step up to headline. I'd also like to say a big thanks to each and every festival goer that help make the events the best place to be every August Bank Holiday weekend. See you next year!"
Those Reading and Leeds festival fans riding high off this amazing weekend and reliving the memories can guarantee a place at the 2013 events through the general presale from 9am on Thursday 30th August. The presale will feature a limited number of weekend tickets available for a short time at 2012 prices, meaning fans can begin the countdown to another amazing event, safe in the knowledge their place is secured!
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