maybe eastern haze (as its not too far from me and affordable), not sure yet.
never been a fan of the big legal festivals. Used to live in Reading, and in the 90s me and my mates would tune in our radio scanners to the frequencies of the cops and security for both Womad and Reading festival…
All sorts of fuckery went on there, which went unnoticed by your average spangled punter (unless they were unlucky enough to get caught up in it…) CID surveillance galore with helicopters, undercover drugs squad with dogs, covert CCTV cars (which you the punter paid for in your ticket price!) , infiltration by extreme right groups, organised fights, predatory pikey types, girls being molested or worse, rogue security throwing their weight about.
Also I never agreed with the amount of traffic disturbance, disruption and litter these things caused in the part of Reading where they were held (I lived quite nearby) so I refused to support them.
There are better places to hold festivals around the Reading area, such as where Glade is currently held.
The only “festival” type thing I have ever been too was the Guildford Ambient picnic, which wasn’t too bad. if the Solfest thing is the one in Cumbria that seems good but its too far up north for me.
