Reading Festival 2011: Headliners and Highlights
With a surprise appearance from Brian May and a drunken duet shared by two of indie rock’s defining icons, Reading Festival dismissed six months of criticism and pressure with typically chaotic aplomb.
For the first time in six years Reading Festival found itself under the cosh; its neckline was chaffing, and awkward beads of sweat were beginning to emerge as the 2011 event approached. Oddly despite five years of lightening fast sell out and breathtaking performances, Britain’s grubbiest and most rock’n’roll festival had a real point to prove.
Despite years of success the festival found itself under fire. Reading’s security and safety arrangements had been scrutinized for years, as had its rowdy and petulant atmosphere, but through all the condemnation the festival’s line up and must see nature had never been called in to question: that changed in 2011.
The line up was announced and the tickets went on sale in March but something very unusual happened, an hour went by, and the festival still hadn’t sold out, there wasn’t even a queue on Ticketmaster, curious. Another hour flew by, and then a day, and then a month, and then three, no change. The majority of the day and weekend tickets were eventually snapped up, but the message was ringing out loud and clear; the old adage “say what you like about Reading, it always sells out” no longer holds water.
There were a whole host of theories concocted as to how Reading could have found itself in such a sticky situation, but most commentators simply blamed the most expensive festival in the UK’s failure to sell out on the line up, and no band took more criticism than the festival’s Friday Night headliner.
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