People are comparing Reading and Leeds Festival to Woodstock 99 after complete chaos brought the weekend to a close with fires, fights and all-round destruction. You can see just some of the footage here:
According to reports, the mayhem at Reading broke out at around 4.00pm on Sunday (28 August), when security was apparently low on the campsite.
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There were also claims of looting tents and fights breaking out among festivalgoers, while many people struggled to make a getaway as issues extended to the car park.
Similar scenes were found at the Leeds site, with one person tweeting: “The moment tent about 10 metres away was set alight and subsequently exploded was when we decided to drive back from Leeds fest lmao s**t was wild.”
Police also confirmed that an investigation had been launched following a ‘suspected drugs related death’ of a 16-year-old at Leeds Festival, having fallen ill on Saturday night.
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The terrifying stories have drawn comparison to Woodstock 99, the doomed four-day festival that recently became the subject of a new Netflix documentary.
One person tweeted: “Horrendous the stories coming from Reading & Leeds, stuff of Woodstock 99. Also another death coming out of a festival without them addressing it, these two festivals getting a worse name by the year.”
Another wrote: “Watch Woodstock 99 last week. When’s the @OfficialRandL 2022 doc coming out? Our 16 year old kids had to be rescued last night as their camping field was on fire.”
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Someone else also said it was like Lord of the Flies, adding: “Apparently, according to my [other] daughter, people are saying that the people setting tents on fire @OfficialRandL are trying to outdo #Woodstock that horrible one year.”
A third wrote: “I bet whoever first started it had recently watched Woodstock 99 on Netflix.”
Festival organisers were also met with backlash when the official Reading and Leeds Twitter account encouraged people to take their belongings with them.
“Be safe and TAKE YOUR TENTS HOME #NOMUSICONADEADPLANET,” a tweet said.
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One user hit back: “That's if you still have a tent. I think a load of w**kers had watched Woodstock 99 before they arrived. Reading festival sounded like hell on earth.”
Sharing a video of their scorched tent, one person also replied: “Probably won’t bother taking mine.”
Another, posting similar footage of a tent that was on fire, said: “Bit late for that.”
A fourth wrote: “Laughable hash tag considering how many people were burning tents, chucking stuff and leaving their rubbish. so much abuse and it was honestly scary in those camps tonight, sort your security team out and your rules it’s a joke.”
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A fifth added: “Half the campsites are on fire rn babes.”
Thames Valley Police has since issued a statement to say that festival security had dealt with on-site 'disorder' within minutes.
Addressing reports of festival fires, the force said: "There were some fires in the campsite on Sunday, but festival security had water pumps and extinguished these within minutes."
The statement added: "There was some disorder in the campsite at about 4.30pm on Sunday, but this was dealt with within minutes by festival security and about fifty people were ejected from the site. Those ejected were safeguarded by the festival organisers, Thames Valley Police, and British Transport Police to ensure they could get home safely."
LADbible has reached out to Festival Republic for comment.
Jess Hardiman