Reading & Leeds 2013

what's with all the crappy openers for green day? bring me the horizon? deaftones? SYSTEM OF A DOWN?! REALLY?!

frank turner I like, but that's pretty much it. It sucks because I plan to be there early to get a good spot but would rather not have my ears bleeding by the time GD comes on... they could have had arctic monkeys, bowling for soup, weezer, even fall out boy would be fine. but no, they went down the long and dark road of angsty screamy music. add to that the fact those bands' fans are bat**** crazy..... earplugs at the ready...

Couple of points...

The festival wants you to by a weekend ticket, so whilst they acts undernearth the headliner would generally go down well with the headliners fans, other acts that would probably suit better are spread over the weekend for that exactly reason. They also spread the genres over the stages to minimise people just standing at the front all day waiting for the headliner & ruining it for other people

Arctic Monkeys would never play below Green Day

A festival is made for 'bat**** crazy' people, the crowds & atmosphere are half the fun

System Of A Down are not screamy and are bloody awesome. They said they wanted to play below Green Day

Finally, I would suggest not going & getting a ticket for their Emirates gig instead.

I can't see the crowd being massive for Green Day to be honest, no where near as big as it was for Foos, especially with Skrillex on the other stage. Don't like Green Day but they're better than Skrillex and System of a Down are one of the best live acts I've ever seen, I'd have System headlining to be honest. Arctics would never sub? and the other three bands you mentioned aren't big enough to sub and Weezer and BFS aren't even 3rd/4th material. You don't have to watch all the bands, just go to the other stages, just wait for all the System fans to go watch someone at lock up then get a decent spot...

It's a sad day when there are more fans for skrillex than green day at a rock festival... I can't see that happening tbh. I've heard system are good, just not into them. But there's no denying that green day are one of the best live acts around, whether you like their music or not. If I want a great spot I can't afford to rock up with 10 minutes to go.... I'm 5"2, I don't have much pushing power.

It's a sad day when there are more fans for skrillex than green day at a rock festival... I can't see that happening tbh. I've heard system are good, just not into them. But there's no denying that green day are one of the best live acts around, whether you like their music or not. If I want a great spot I can't afford to rock up with 10 minutes to go.... I'm 5"2, I don't have much pushing power.

hah, I already have a ticket for emirates. I'm mostly going because my friend really wants to go and see frank turner/new found glory/bastille/1975 as well, so I said I would go with her.

I get that lots of system fans will also be green day fans and visa versa, they're just not exactly easy listening if you're not into that genre of music. Of course they want to play before Green Day... find a band that doesn't...

why wouldn't arctic monkeys play before Green day? of course they could easily headline, but some really huge bands have played as openers; 30 seconds to mars, elbow, paramore to name a few. In fact, they did warm up for muse back in 2006, arguably they were bigger then than they are now. they're huge in the uk, sure, but nowhere near the level of international popularity that green day has.

it seems to me that reading actually makes a conscious effort to keep stages within the same genre...

Suppose it depends how you define great spot, for me a great spot is not having to watch the acts on the big screens because I'm so far out I can barely see the stage but fair enough, system are decent, give them a go, chop suey and toxicity would be a laugh to say the least

Arcitcs are bigger than 30STM, Elbow and Paramore. They're also a lot bigger now than they were in 2006, which is when they'd only just released their new album. International popularity has zero bearing on where an act plays on the bill at Reading because they're marketing it to a British audience.

All the stages have a wide variety of genres. The main stage alone has metal, rock, indie, hip-hop/rap, dance, drum and bass, emo, punk... the NME and Festival Republic stages are probably even more diverse.

And I can think of plenty of bands that wouldn't want to play before Green Day, Arctic Monkeys probably being one of them System are a very good sub-headliner under Green Day, they could arguably headline themselves.

I'll be going to see SOAD, then heading straight for Skrillex. I'm 6"3, but don't have any pushing power

don't get me wrong I think they're an awesome band (or else I wouldn't want to see them at all), but I had no idea they were that popular! maybe I live under a rock, idk. I was surprised how much time they got on the olympics opening ceremony, so yeah maybe they are bigger than I thought...

I guess I can crawl through the legs of the likes of you to get to the front.... anyway good luck getting a good spot at skrillex! (I realise that came out sarky, but seriously, I hope you do)

Haha that did sound rather sarcastic, i get you though, but i'm with two bodybuilder/rubgby physique lads, so i'm sure they'll help drag me through to a good spot.

Honestly, being at the front sucks. You end up getting crushed, no matter how big you are or how strong it isn't going to matter because when 1000's of people are pushing behind you because you wont be able to move. also in the warm sun, it is not an enjoyable experience unless you are pissed its so sweaty and gross due to how close you are to everyone. As for liquids, well youll find a lot of warm yellow liquid landing on your head when you are at the front. I quite happily enjoyed sitting back last year at foo fighters and got the full experience without being terribly sweaty like you will be at te front. I don't get why people even go to the front, all you get is a little bit of a better view of their faces. The screens give you that coverage anyway.

I saw foo fighters the year before at Milton Keynes too, I thought the exact same thing there too. People who go to the front are either chavs who think they are solid, or mainstreamers and indie kids who think they're cool because they were on the front row.

Posted from TSR Mobile

what's with all the crappy openers for green day? bring me the horizon? deaftones? SYSTEM OF A DOWN?! REALLY?!

frank turner I like, but that's pretty much it. It sucks because I plan to be there early to get a good spot but would rather not have my ears bleeding by the time GD comes on... they could have had arctic monkeys, bowling for soup, weezer, even fall out boy would be fine. but no, they went down the long and dark road of angsty screamy music. add to that the fact those bands' fans are bat**** crazy..... earplugs at the ready...

Personally, I find the best position (for the main stage anyway) is around the secondary barrier they have. I was stood in front of it for Foos, and it was close enough to get the atmosphere/pits/jumping etc, without all the unnecessary squeezing. Its was the same for Kasabian when I was the other side of the barrier. Being there also gives you get access to water

I was going to stand there for The Cure, but the crowd was a lot more spaced out & chilled, so it was actually quite nice & easy to get very close to the front barrier.