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Reading and Leeds festival-goers call out people ‘ruining’ the weekend by setting tents on fire

‘What in the Woodstock happened,’ one user commented on a video of tents going up in flames

Megan Graye
Tuesday 30 August 2022 02:33 EDT
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Aerial footage shows thousands of tents and rubbish left after Reading festival

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Reading and Leeds festival-goers have documented the “carnage” of the final day of the festival on TikTok.

Videos showing bonfires with tents and chairs set on fire have been circulating on social media.

TikTok users have expressed their frustration with the behaviour of attendees. “There’s always someone that has to ruin it,” one commenter said.

“There shouldn’t be Reading next year if this is how you lot are gonna behave,” said another.

In another video – captioned: “Pov it’s the last day of Reading and it’s absolute carnage” – people can be seen throwing objects at each other.

“It’s like a scene out of walking dead,” reads one comment, while someone else wrote: “I should add surviving purple camp to my cv lol”.

Similar scenes unfolded at Leeds festival.

“What in the Woodstock happened,” one person commented on a video of tents going up in flames.

“Not a single gcse in sight” said another using, mocking the festival-goers causing trouble.

21-year-old attendee Chloe told Metro.co.uk that she left the festival during the night on Sunday to avoid the chaos that was ensuing throughout the day.

Calling it a “Sunday night purge”, she said: “People were throwing bottles of urine, creating tall bonfires and we even heard rumours of stabbings in and around the arena.”

The Independent contacted a representative from Reading and Leeds Festival who shared statements from the Thames Valley Police regarding the incident: There were some fires in the campsite on Sunday, but festival security had water pumps and extinguished these within minutes.”

They added: “There was some disorder in the campsite at about 4.30pm on Sunday, but this was dealt with within minutes by festival security and about 50 people were ejected from the site.

“Those ejected were safeguarded by the festival organisers, Thames Valley Police, and British Transport Police to ensure they could get home safely.”

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