Reading revellers sporting retro bucket hats and bum bags head into the festival

Thousands of revellers sporting bum bags and bucket hats descended on Reading Festival this morning ahead of three days of live music.

One of the most popular events in the music calendar, along with its sister festival in Leeds, Reading is expected to once again welcome more than 100,000 visitors across the weekend.

A host of well-known chart-toppers are headlining this year’s show, including rapper Dave, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion and Arctic Monkeys.

While a number of fans arrived earlier in the week to pitch their tents in prime positions on the campsite, floods more came through the gates this morning, before the first acts take to the stage this afternoon.

Many were spotted wearing bucket hats and bum bags, a throwback to the fashion of the 1990s, when the gear was made popular by fans of bands like Oasis and The Stone Roses. 

Flocking from far and wide to enjoy the acts this bank holiday weekend, teenagers and older adults alike were pouring into the festival grounds with enormous bags ready for the three-night camp. 

Aside from the stages, the festival arena was packed with shops selling wacky festival clothes, jewellery, and a variety of food – even an ‘oxygen bar’ promising to give the user clean air to breathe. Alcohol, tobacco and phone-charging stands were also dotted across the site.

Reading has evolved into a multi-million-pound giant and grown to become one of the music calendar’s biggest events since its formation in 1961.

Despite weekend tickets selling out from the festival’s main website months in advance of the event, prospective attendees can snap up re-sold tickets for around £260.

Many attendees could be seen bringing back the controversial mullet hairdo this year, alongside the standard mix of day-glo face paint, glitter and costumes.

Festival-goers arriving this morning were blessed with sunshine and clear skies, unlike those who made an early pilgrimage to the concert ground, who woke up yesterday to flooded tents and soggy shoes amid a deluge of morning rain.

Inside the camp site, a sea of tents were pictured barely propped up on the drenched grass as young revellers endured a wet start to the event.

The wet weather yesterday came after a period of searing heat which saw drought declared across swathes of England, with parched grass and struggling crops, streams drying up and river, reservoir and aquifer levels low, and hosepipe bans brought in for millions as heatwaves pushed up demand for water.

As of Wednesday, the UK as a whole had had only 46% of the average total rainfall for August. The bank holiday is expected to be largely dry with warm sunny spells, though possibly wetter in the North West.

Temperatures could climb to 30C (86F) or into the mid-20s depending on how the high pressure builds, the Met Office said.

Spokesman Grahame Madge said: ‘We’ve definitely switched from the hot and dry regime to something that has rain in the forecast.’

While the downpours will mean this month will ‘catch up a bit’ with rainfall totals, he said: ‘It’s certainly going to be a dry August for the whole of the UK.’

And he said some areas had gone without any significant rainfall from the middle of June until last week.

‘We’ve had below average rainfall for such a long time, it’s going to take a period of above average rain to make it up,’ he warned.

Reading Festival found itself mired in controversy just weeks ago when headliners Rage Against The Machine said they would not perform.

The band said they would not attend the festival as planned as they cancelled their 2022 European tour dates citing medical advice. This also included their planned performance at Leeds Festival.

Rage Against The Machine, best known for their songs ‘Killing In the Name’ and ‘Bulls on Parade’, had been set to headline at Reading alongside The Arctic Monkeys, Dave and Halsey.

The rock group was later replaced by pop band The 1975.

Reading and Leeds Festival 2022: Who’s playing, how to get tickets and everything you need to know ahead of the weekend

When is Reading and Leeds Festival?

Both festivals will run from August 26 to 28 at Reading’s Richfield Avenue and Leeds’s Bramham Park.

Campsites at both venues are open 24 hours and revellers with early bird ticket’s can attend from 12 noon on August 24.

Weekend ticket holders can arrive from 3am on August 25. The campsites will then  close at midday on August 29.

The Arena opening times for Thursday August 25 is 5pm until 3am. Opening times for the rest of the weekend will be between 11am and 3am.  

Who are the main music acts? 

At Reading and Leeds festival there will be six stages in total, including two main stages alongside the BBC Radio 1Xtra stage. 

Those attending the twin festivals this year can expect performances from a wide range of artists, including big names such as Dave, The 1975, Megan Thee Stallion and Arctic Monkeys.

A range of well-known chart-toppers will take to the stage, including Bastille, Bring Me The Horizon, Little Simz and Halsey. 

The star-studded line-up also includes Wolf Alice, D-Block Europe, Circa Waves and All Time Low.

Last week, festival organisers released a statement announcing they were ‘saddened’ Måneskin and Jack Harlow had pulled out of the line-up, with AJ Tracey and Charli XCX set to replace them. 

Fans were also left outraged by Festival headliners Rage Against The Machine when they said they too would not perform.

The full line-up, including a stage by stage breakdown for both Saturday and Sunday can be found here.

Ahead of the festivals, the official Reading and Leeds website have shared the stage times for each act.

What will the weather be like?  

Festivalgoers are set to enjoy a fairly sunny weekend, according to the Met Office, including some cloudy spells and light showers. 

Temperatures at Reading are set to peak at 24°, while Leeds’ temperature will rise to 22°. There’s also some light wind and gentle breeze predicted for across each site – with the worst of the rain set to hit on Thursday. 

Where can I get tickets? 

Tickets for both Reading and Leeds festival are now sold out. 

A limited amount of resale tickets are available on Ticketmaster. 

About Reading and Leeds Festival

Reading Festival, the older of the two festivals, is the world’s oldest popular music festival still in existence. Many of the biggest bands in the UK and internationally have played at the festival over five decades 

Since the current two-site format was adopted in 1999, rock, indie punk and hip-hop have been the main genres featured in the line-up.

The festivals are run by Festival Republic which was divested from Mean Fiddler Music Group.