Overheard at Reading Festival 2021

Over the years, Reading Festival has been lots of different things to lots of different people. Gone are the sickly indie children, in are bucket hat boys chugging cans through a six-foot beer hose.

While the guests and the lineup might look different year on year, there are some constants: mud, warm Strongbow and a ton of people doing and saying some very silly things. Here’s some of what we overheard while we were there this weekend.

“Does anyone wanna swap a donut for a pill?”

“This was on Made in Chelsea!” - person in the crowd for Two Door Cinema Club.

“We went for a wee, squeezed it out, now let’s go for a party!”

“Anyone lost a shoe?” - man carrying a shoe through the crowd for City Morgue.

“Are you a security guard? You look like a security guard. Can you take our picture please, security guard?”

“Your name is Sarah, too? Fuck off!”

“They were 27? Really? That old?”

“Okay, I’m absolutely convinced I just walked past a Wombat from The Wombats.”

“In that bin is a bottle of Lipton’s Ice Tea that is actually my urine.”

“I haven’t had a shit in two days.”

“Yeah, and it keeps getting fucking infected as well!”

“Do you know about recycling?” - low-spirited volunteer standing by the recycling bin. 

“I don’t have a type, I just look at people and think, ‘Yeah...’”

“Baby, give me drugs, give me drugs! Baby, give me drugs!” - to the tune of KC & The Sunshine Band’s “Give It Up”

“Tits out for the boys!” - a lad, speaking to his friends.

“On three, I wanna hear you say, ‘Fuck corona!’”

“I’ve got diarrhoea.” 

And finally, a word from You Me At Six’s main stage set: “We’ve been caged up like animals for 18 months! In case you didn’t know, we go by the name You Me at Six. We’ll be back in two years headlining the fucking place. Until then, we are all fucked up in our own beautiful way!”