h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The headline attractions for this year's festival have now been announced, so I thought I'd list them for the benefit of those of you who don't get to see the UK music press. They include Foo Fighters, fronted by Dave Grohl, who was Nirvana's drummer when they made the historic Reading appearance mentioned above.

At the Reading site, the line-up is like this:
Friday August 25: Oasis, Primal Scream, Foo Fighters and The Bluetones.
Saturday August 26: Pulp, Beck, Gomez, Elastica and Super Furry Animals.
Sunday August 27: Stereophonics, Placebo and Eminem.

At the Leeds site, the order of play is:
Saturday August 26: Stereophonics/Placebo/Eminem.
Sunday August 27: Pulp/Beck/Gomez/SFA.
Monday August 28: Oasis/Primal Scream/Foo Fighters/Bluetones.

As mentioned in the article, tickets cost £80 for the weekend or £33 for one day.

A fine Entry, BTW - but I do feel that, just this once, the usually excellent h2g2 illustrators rather failed to capture the essence of their subject. I mean, the people in that drawing look sane and sober - and there's no mud anywhere!

Sounds like a good line-up so far, but its best not to go off the headliners alone. Half the time you're too wasted by then, and miss them anyway! Also its cool seeing the other newer bands through the day

As an alternative to the £80 entrance fee, try the following. Put on inappropriate clothing. (sweaty anorak, stupid jesters hat.) Take a tv and video of last years festival and put it at the bottom of your garden as far away as possible. Invite lots of people you don't like very much who smell. Drink four litres of white 'cider' and swallow a dog worming tablet. Turn on the tv and wind the volume up so it distorts. Stand at the furthest point from the tv for three days. Smoke an oxo cube. periodically, pour a bucket of water over yourself. DO NOT GO TO THE TOILET. Voila, the perfect festival experience.
Good entry, mind.

the heliners for the radio 1 stage are better than the main stage this year
withg mews ian brown and someone who i cant remerber these bands are better than the sell out sterophonics pulp who havent relced eneything for years and the moneygrabbing oasis. but im very happy to see beck and placebo!

The great thing about festivals is the choice. Last year (V99) we had the choice of Happy Mondays, Gene or go back to the campsite for a pot noodle. The pot noodle prevailed. I'm doing Reading this year so if anybody's got any hints or tips (where to buy beer, where to get parked etc.) Oh, is their really undercover police there as well? That's a bit freaky.

All the police ar under covers there cos they're still in bed after getting wasted the night before. Hey, surely thats the best way for them to not stand out, gettin down an drinkin with the kids.

I don't go to Reading as a punter anymore, as in each of the 3 previous festivals, I have fallen foul of the Berkshire constabulary and they've stolen my herbs!
Glastonbury is my festival of choice for many reasons -
* more bands
* more stuff that has nothing at all to do with music
* it's f**kin' huge
* greenpeace & lots of other worthy charities get lots of money from the festival
* there might be lots of police on site, but they only hassle you on the way in
* it has a stone circle
* the cider bus
and it starts next week, and is a brilliant way of starting the summer

Can anyone tell me why this years Reading has SOLD OUT?!? I mean, Leeds hasn't. What is going on in Reading that I don't know about?

hello
there is a full line up now on readings offical web site
http://www.readingfestival.com
here are some things that i neglected to put in the artical
1) cops arnt allowed into the arena at reading unless called by securty.
2)a good place to go to the toilet is in the nearbye shoping center "the orical" the tolets are suprisingly clean there.

also the leeds thing
leeds is nealy sold out
reading allways sells out
i think reading is a smaller site (as it is in the middle of town)
and more ppl from abrod come to reading that go to leeds.

you may get more bands at glasto but you get better ones at reading

also you may be intrested to know that the mead fiddler have set up a new festival on the same W/E as reading in glasgo (called glasgo green) with half the bands playing and a few extras

i hope this has clerd everything up
have a good time
and rember where your tent is