I lost my festival virginity yesterday. Not my virginity at a festival though! Me and two of my friends, (Mel and Cat), bought a day pass for Friday at Reading, and let me tell you, it was INSANE.
We arrived just after lunchtime, and naturally, seeing as we’re in England, it started to pour with rain, but luckily we had ponchos at the ready (thanks Mum!)
We made our way towards the main Radio 1 stage and caught the end of The Blackout‘s set (all I remember from their performance was lead singer Sean Smith instructing male audience members to get so close to the women there that they all got erections. And this was one of the less- controversial things he said).
We found a smaller stage in a tent area and watched some heavily- bearded ginger singer, (no, not an unshaven Ed Sheeran), bash around on a keyboard for a while, (we had a front row spot!), before heading back to the thick of the action at the main stage.
The bands I watched include screamo group ‘Bring Me The Horizon‘, (who’s lead signer Oli Sykes had gained a fan in me by the end of their set), ‘The Offspring’, ‘Deftones’, ’30 Seconds To Mars‘, and la crème de la crème, ‘My Chemical Romance‘, who I’ve now seen 5 times!
As we were watching ‘The Deftones‘, my friend pointed to the balcony, where Mikey Way (and supposedly Gerard) were stood watching and taking pictures. Cue total fan girl moment!
Jared Leto kicked off the ‘30 Seconds To Mars‘ with a dramatic move; he rose slowly onto the stage on a small podium, clad in a leather studded jacket and long dress/ skirt thing. (No, I’m not joking).
Friends, family, and famous fans of the performers watching from the side of the stage
Thankfully another audience member noticed this hideous piece of clothing too, and attempted to rip it off (and took his top off with it, which gave the crowd plenty to scream at).
“COVERED IN MUD, SHIRT RIPPED OFF MY BACK, AND PUT ON A F’ING TIGER SUIT A KID GAVE ME FROM THE CROWD. EPIC FUCKING NIGHT AT READING!! TANX!!”, Jared tweeted afterwards.
MCR closed the show with a fiery set, including songs from their catalog such as ‘Nananana’, ‘I’m Not Okay’, ‘Planetary (Go!)’, ‘Famous Last Words’, ‘S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W’, ‘Sing’, and the best song ever in my opinion, ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’.
Gerard told BBC’s ‘Newsbeat’ about festival preparation backstage: “We’ve been thinking about this show for eight months, every single day. We’ve got a lot of production that we’ve never used before so it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Gerard Way *swoons*
Queen guitarist Brian May joined them onstage for a performance of ‘We Will Rock You‘, and Gerard introduced him by saying: “Ladies and gentleman, Brian f**king May”.”
“Really excited for tonight’s show…the amount of excitement may only be dwarfed by my sleep deprivation. Hope everyone @ the Fest is well,” tweeted MCR guitarist Frank Iero.
Getting wellied!
Before I waited for them to appear onstage, I got chatting to a girl named Julia next to me, who asked if I’d watched her band play earlier; it turns out she’s a 14-year-old singer based in LA in a band called ‘Cherri Bomb‘, and she told me that they have an EP on iTunes.
When I asked her if she’d met MCR she told me she’d met Gerard Way 5 times, and had even hung out with him backstage in catering that day. Whilst I tried not to die of jealousy, or rip her VIP pass from her, I asked about how she tours when she’s meant to be at school; it turns out she’s actually home schooled, and left her parents at home for a few weeks.
Despite arriving home at 2am today, and getting up for work just a few hours later, I had a great day! (I had to miss 2/3 of the MCR set in order to run to the train station though, which sucked.) The only downer for me was some of the horrible people in the crowd that took it too far; I got pushed, shoved, punched, and even had a cup of water poured down my hotpants!
Ah well, teenagers have to do these things! 
