Reading Festival compared to other Festivals

Although both these festivals have shockingly similar line-ups and take place with just a week’s gap in between, both the Reading Festival and Pukkelpop are fabulous and loveable in their own sense. Pukkelpop is one of Belgium’s largest music festivals and happens to be younger to the Reading Festival. Although younger, Pukkelpop hosts hundred and thirty thousand people which are about fifty per cent more than the eighty thousand people which attend Reading.

The main site of the Pukkelpop festival is quite huge and there are plenty of sponsors crowding in to put up banners. Many fans give credit to Pukkelpop for the enormity of the tents and the huge stages and the fantastic sound quality which seems to be lacking in Reading. The best part about Pukkelpop is undoubtedly the “Dance Tent” which is actually as big as an actual London club. The attention that is given to the Pukkelpop dance areas shows how popular dance music is and makes Reading’s dance stage look extremely shabby and very unprofessional. If you love to dance, Pukkelpop is the better festival!

Although fans at Pukkelpop are known to be attentive, they are not as reactive as the fans from Reading; most Reading fans claim Pukkelpop fans give “underwhelming reaction.” The joy and the excitement for the bands are undoubtedly unbeatable at Readings. The inability to get within fifty yards of the stage or even getting into a tent or the fear of getting crushed helps contribute to the passion and uniqueness of the Reading Festival. Everyone at the Reading Festival is as fired up and as desperately starved for music as you.

Many of the attendees at Reading are varied yet hard core music fans. There are plenty of members of the pre-university set attending the festival too.

While bands seem to perform only moderately at Pukkelpop, they seem to somehow devise a magic spell and blow away the mind at Reading. Nine Inch Nails were fantastic and the set and light show of the Pumpkins was truly astounding. The artistes actually live off the energy of the crowd which is the main reason for the success behind the show.

Plenty of bands from the label and great accompaniments from the audio visual world help to give the modest but eager Reading crowd a feast for all the senses. Also the new stage which featured at Reading, the Alternative Stage helped make a big step forward for Reading. This stage also replaced the infamous 7 pm Comedy Tent.

The Reading Festival has been known to take away the “festival virginity” of hoards of rock and punk fans who gather from all over the world. It has given plenty of the most rocking moments in band loving and the gig watching for the numerous fans who gather at Reading for this crowded weekend of music. Although Pukkelpop, as with many other music festivals, gives fantastic sound and clean camping, the dirt and the grim and the raw rock and roll is what gives Reading the ultimate essence of a “rocking music festival.”