Reading Festival and the increase in popularity.

Reading Festival has been going since around 1985. When the Festival was first set up, it was highly influenced by the festival "Monsters of Rock" which was very popular and  known to attract over 80,000 people. The festival in 1988 had a massive downfall, with the audience throwing bottles at the artists on stage, and not many thought that Reading would come back fighting.

However nowadays Reading Festival is one of the biggest going, with around 100,000 people attending every year. In my opinion it is in the top 3 largest Festivals in the UK. The genre of music that plays at the festival each year however, has not changed that much. With this year's headliners being Kasabian, Foo Fighters and so on.

Reading Festival perceives its self to be  more of a metal/rock event. If you look at the layout of the line up, you can pick out a few things that hint at what kind of audience they want too attract. For instance, the oval shape around the writing Reading suggests to me it could symbolise the sun, and with the hard edged shapes around the oval could add fire. Not only the shapes they've used but the colours too also add to the effect that the Reading Sign is alight. Making the Festival seem more appealing and dangerous.

Its a simple layout, that strikes you as soon as you look at it. Its very structured and easy to understand which I think a lot of people would like as it gives off the impression that this is what you're getting and nothing more. Whereas compared to some festivals e.g Bestival, which gives off the impression that, that Festival is much more laid back than Reading.

I think the increase in popularity of Festivals is mostly due to how people want others too perceive them. A few years ago, only a collection of people would attend Latitude or Reading, but now it is shown as  a necessity of your teenage summer. Different festivals have different niches they appeal too. Latitude being the more hippy people, and Reading being the more hardcore rock.  I think that it is more likely that people will go too a Festival now just for the fact that they can tell others they've been there and attended. I think Festivals are starting to distance from just attracting people who love the performers. More people are going for the whole experience and not just the music.