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Thursday 21 August 2008

The Reading weekend has finally arrived and we are wasting no time. We headed down to the festival site along with thousands of fellow festival goers, many of which hadn't even bought tickets yet.

The queue was immense! Hoards of tired people waited, tents in tow, to enter the site and set up camp for a weekend of musical mayhem.

Armed with a video camera, we made our way through the line asking every tenth person or so who they were looking forward to seeing and why.

Marge and Amy Winehouse at the festival

The aim was to get one take of comments which would be edited to make a ‘Q-jumping' video feature for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Reading and Leeds website.

People were less cooperative than I expected, as a lot of them thought we were broadcasting live! We still got some good footage so head back to base to edit.

We sped up the links between comments to show the queue passing by and edited the comments to make one smooth cut.

First Reading Festival job done.

Friday 22 August 2008

The first official day began bright and early with a tour of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ compound. We then set off around the campsite to find chic or unusually dressed punters.

We took their picture and recorded them describing their outfit for a montage appearing on the live Radio Berkshire show from the site this evening.

Reading's Pete and the Pirates played the festival

At midday we headed to the NME/Radio One tent for Reading band Pete and the Pirates' set. We had permission to record, so plugged in our equipment and enjoyed the show. The boys did Reading proud!

Saturday 23 August 2008

This morning, we took the 360º camera around the main arena to take some panoramic shots.Ìý

We then set off in to the unfamiliar depths of the campsite with recording equipment and cameras and began our search for musical campers.

Soon enough, we came across a group of young lads from Winchester with a guitar. After some photos and a short serenade we headed off between the tents and empty cans to look for more campsite talent.

Vices performing in their camp.

Luck was definitely on our side as we walked in to the campsite of Reading band, The Vices! They had a collection of instruments from guitars to maracas and did an amazing acoustic version of one of their tracks.

Jobs done, I spent the afternoon milling around the arena and watching a couple of bands.

The days highlight was definitely the Ting Tings impromptu acoustic set on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing stage, which was just incredible.

The next band on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Introducing stage was Newbury band the Fox Cubs.

Linda recorded Vices for her radio show.

I went backstage with Radio Berkshire's Linda Serck after their set to interview them. They are such lovely guys. I will definitely be going to see them again…

Sunday 24 August 2008

I can't believe the last day of Reading 2008 has come around so quickly!

Last night's rain has settled the dust, and finally given me the chance to get festival mud on my wellies! We headed, once again, in to the campsite. Three days of camping has taken its toll and it is now a muddy mess of rubbish!

We met up with 18 year old Alex to hear his stories from the weekend as a volunteer Festival steward.

Linda Serck backstage with the Ting Tings

Find out about his Reading experience here:

I headed to the Press tent to watch Linda interview Feeder's Mark Richardson, only to find they were running behind and wouldn't be there for another hour.

With a live show going out at 7pm, Linda desperately needed to head back to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Berkshire to start putting things together.

Lo and behold, I was asked to do the interview in her place.

Alex stewarded at Reading 2008.

I never would have dreamed that I could have the opportunity to interview a main stage act and I soon found myself with a list of questions, a microphone and the phone number of the band's manager.

I never would have dreamed that I could have the opportunity to interview a main stage act at the Reading Festival.

Despite my nerves, the interview was a success!

Hear the full interview:

Feeder's Mark Richardson

My Reading work was officially done, and I spent the afternoon hopping between tents catching all the bands I wanted to see.

After her live show, Linda met me on site and we went to see the Festival Republic stage headliners, the Kills. Their set was amazing: they have so much chemistry on stage.

We managed to catch the end of Metallica, who ended with enormous gushed of fire from either side of the stage. We could feel the heat from a hundred metres away.

What an awesome ending to this year's Reading Festival by one of the world's biggest bands.