Great bands and atmosphere - shame about the security :o( (Leeds Music Festival)

Member Name: QueenofInsanity

Product:	Leeds Music Festival
Date:	09/11/08 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Excellent music and festival atmosphere

Disadvantages: Stupidly expensive ticket prices and appalling security

The Leeds Festival (along with its sister, the Reading Festival) has had some AMAZING headlining acts since it began, including The Foo Fighters, Muse and QOTSA amongst many other groups. The festival has had a mixture of bands from many genres, including punk, metal, indie and dance. It comes around every year and plays over a weekend on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

I have to admit, I have been to the Leeds Festival twice now and I absolutly loved the music and the atmosphere - it is undescribable beyond words. The little stalls were always a bit of fun to look through, and the food was actually rather scrummy! There was plenty of entertainment around the festival too, so there was always a lot of things to do and see for everybody who was there. I prefered to go to the Leeds Festival with my friends as it was closer to where we lived, compared to driving up to Reading.

The first year I went, I had an amazing experience - we found a very nice spot to pitch up our tent with, and had no hassles regarding theft or not getting along with people nearby. On the very last night however, we noticed that whilst in our tent, outside seemed to be particularly rowdy and heard a lot of 'bangs'. To be honest, we thought that this was to be expected and slept the night away in order to drive back home the next day. When we woke up the next morning to pack up our tent, we noticed a lot of burnt areas of destruction around the camp area....seeing as nothing really happened to us, we left the Leeds Festival a very happy bunch of people who had an amazing time! Due to this experience, I didn't hesitate going to the festival again the year after with more of my friends. This was, unfortunatly, where the real problems began.

Had I realised that the Leeds Festival had a bit of a 'past' regarding riots and mayhem, I would had thought twice about going to Leeds and would have gone to the Reading Festival instead. Anyway, I made my way to the Leeds Festival for the second time with a bunch of friends from home and uni (there were around 9 of us) and once again, we had an absolutly mind blowing experience in regards to the atmosphere, company and of course, the wide variety of music! Unlike last time however, we had to settle for pitching our tent on the top of a hill, where at the bottom there was a small fair and several food and beer tents. Ah well, I figured, we will probably be up for most nights anyway!

Anyway, after watching the amazing Foo Fighters on the final night of the festival (on a Sunday), we made our way back to our tents. We automatically felt that this night felt different from the other nights...many people made fires around the site (which was against the rules) and we could hear a lot of shouting and loud bangs. Unfortunatly for us, somebody nearby had made a small fire. Although it was under control (from what I could see), some random drunk idiot with a small suitcase suddenly popped out of nowhere and threw his suitcase into the fire. Oh dear. Before we knew what was even happening, there was a loud explosion and before we knew it, there was a lot of confusion and mayhem. One of my best friends and my partner ended up getting their faces completly burnt off by an exploding gas canister (which must had been in the suitcase) and in a panic I had to take them to the First Aid Tent and wanted to complain to somebody about what had happened. It ended up being a very traumatic experince, on the way to the tent there was a bunch of riot police going around the festival. By the time I eventually came out of the First Aid tent an hour or so afterwards, I realised that there was a huge chance that the beer tent at the bottom of the hill was going to explode, as there was rioting and people pulling down electricity poles right next to it. In a daze, myself and our friends had to pack up our gear in the complete darkness and had to make our way to our cars (a huge task in itself when we were people down) so that we could make our way to the nearest hospital to see how our injured friends were doing. That was probably one of the most terrying experiences I have ever encountered in my life. One of them is now sueing the festival organisers (many people were injured that year, including one person who lost sight in one of his eyes by an explosion). The other isn't, as he found the experience too emotionally draining and wanted to forget that the explosion ever happened.

To cut a long story short, my friend and partner were extremely lucky not to have plastic surgery on their faces. My other friends suffered from the experience, and I for one would NEVER go back to the Leeds Festival (well, not for a very long time anyway). The security was absolutly dismal and I have lost faith completly in the festival organisation. If I was to ever go back to a Carling Festival, I would actually prefer to drive further and make my way to Reading rather than Leeds. As well as this, I would prefer to go back home straight after the last act on the last night instead of staying for the extra night. The risks just aren't worth it now to be quite honest.

Its such a shame that such a good weekend has to be spoilt by stupid idiots at the Leeds Festival. The organisers have some serious work to do if they want to avoid innocent people getting injured, their security has to be tightened up and they have to ensure that people cannot get away making fires that they are not supposed to do in the first place.

OVERALL: If you want to experience some of the amazing acts playing and the festival experience, then I will fully recommend going to Reading rather than Leeds. Had I found out that the location of the Leeds Festival had to be moved due to rioting (the year before my first trip to the festival, told to be by a hospital nurse who was treating my friend), then I would had thought twice of going. The Carling Festival itself is brilliant and the headliners just keep on getting better year after year. Just don't let the lack of security spoil your fun :o( Oh yes, ticket prices have also rocketed so if you want to go, be quick before the tickets get sold for stupid amounts of money on Ebay.

Summary: If you want to go to a Carling Festival, go to Reading and not Leeds.