What I learned about work and life at the UK’s biggest teenage rock festival, (I’m 51)
Last weekend saw the return of Reading Festival, a three-day rock festival aimed squarely at the youth market, which has been taking place since 1971. That makes it only slightly older than me.
Thinking back, I’m not sure if I encouraged my twin 16 year-olds to attend, or if they were pestering me for tickets. Maybe it was a bit of both. However, the deal was that we would go together, learn from each other, and hopefully come home with some great stories.
The other deal was we would stay in a hotel nearby, I’m an oldie who needs at least some sleep. I drew the line at camping with 100,000 teenagers.
I last attended the festival in 1992, and will bore anyone who will listen that I saw Nirvana’s final UK performance there. I remember the festival as a big experience – fun, muddy, wild and a little bit dangerous.
Since that time, the festival has been through some dark times and has rightly been the brunt of critical press. It has needed to become safer, more inclusive and worth the nearly £300 ticket for the weekend.
So it was with some trepidation that I entered through the vast layers of security with my daughters on the first day.
So, what did I learn?
1. The experience economy is going strong
Tickets are expensive and festival go-ers have higher expectations than I when I was a teenager. They want a festival with an edge that doesn’t compromise on experience. The production quality of the audio and visuals was excellent. Everything was organised well, only small queues for food, lots of security and amazingly clean toilets. So, a great experience, even if there were no horror stories to take home.
2. Inclusivity rocks
No-one batted an eyelid at me being probably three times older than the average festival go-er. I exchanged a few knowing nods with some older folk I spotted, but apart from that I was a teenager again. Young people are genuinely inclusive. The festival also had an all-accessible platform, where anyone who would benefit from not being in a standing crowd, could enjoy the bands. It even came complete with a festival staff member providing rock and roll sign language to every song lyric.
3. Mental health is on everyone’s mind
The mental and physical welfare of the weekend crowd was paramount. Multiple lead singers talked about their own struggles with mental health and encouraged young people to seek help where needed. There was even an on-site pharmacy. The official hashtag for the event was #lookoutforeachother. Workplaces could learn a lot from that.
4. Work is important, but family is everything
Spending time with family and young people is a real privilege. Over three days life for us became moments of laughter, music, sun, rain, pizza and the occasional tears. Work is amazing and generates for us so much that we need to sustain personal worth and meaning. But there’s nothing like dancing at sunset with your kids to The Killers to make it all meaningful.
Despite the event feeling safe and inclusive it was still rock and roll to its core. So, as the festival site returns to farmland once more and the roar of the crowd fades on the wind, it’s back to work today.
And did we come home with those anticipated stories? Absolutely.
Can I tell you about them? Well, my kids tell me ‘what goes on in Reading stays in Reading’. I’ll be a cool 'old dude'. So, no.
Want to create your own stories though? Well, tickets for next year go on sale in December.
See you in the mosh pit.
