Reading And Leeds Give A Boot To The Head Of The Concert-Going Traditions Of Yore

noah | August 26, 2009 10:30 am

This weekend’s Reading and Leeds Festivals—headlined by Radiohead, Kings of Leon, and Arctic Monkeys—will be cracking down on crowdsurfing, despite the shows’ lineups being full of bands who might compel one to get some buds to hoist them up on everyone else’s hands. Crowdsurfers won’t be kicked out of these festivals, but they will suffer a possibly much worse fate: They’ll be forced to walk all the way back to the front of the arena, re-enter, and fight their way back to the front of the crowd. The nerve!

At most concerts, fans are simply put back into the crowd when they reach the security pit below the stage. But at Reading, they will be ejected from the arena and forced to walk back to the main entrance to get back into the site. “Reading Borough Council Health & Safety team consider it quite dangerous and we will endeavour to try and limit the amount of times people will do it,” Mr Benn said. “They won’t be ejected from the festival but they’ll be ejected from the arena. What that will result in is probably around a 20-minute delay before they get back into the arena. It will certainly delay their ability to get back in to watch the band.”

So cheeky! Festival flags receive a flag ban [BBC] [Pic of Reading ’06 from Getty]