Reading Festival attendee felt 'unsafe' after glass bottles thrown and tents set alight

A Reading Festival attendee has spoken of how she and her friends felt unsafe after witnessing glass bottles being thrown, tents being set alight, and what appeared to be "young, underage people" intoxicated by drink and drugs.

Bethaney Duke, 22, went to the festival with her friends and said their five-day trip started off well, but as the days went on "it got a lot worse".

She said: "You've got people that just have a total disregard for others' belongings. They don't care, they don't care about the consequences and there isn't any consequences to their actions at all.

"It wasn't until the last day that security eventually turned up and said 'if you do anything, we'll kick you out'. But it was literally the last day that this happened."

Posts on social media showed burning tents as people reported fleeing the event in fear of violence.

In some videos, groups of people could be seen throwing camping chairs onto the flames as belongings were burned to ashes.

Feeling unsafe, Ms Duke said one of the group would stay awake during the night to keep watch of other people passing their tent.

She added: "On our third night, we had a tent next to us, somebody had jumped into it and broke the pole in the middle of it, to the point where she [tent owner] had to go home because she had no tent.

"On the last day we had bottles being chucked across the field, a girl across from us was hit on the head with a bottle.

"There were glass bottles being chucked across the field, potentially hitting people.

"Even when you're in the arena, in the crowd, there's people chucking bottles. It is ridiculous."

Ms Duke criticised the security at the festival, saying bags were not checked by security staff.

"We felt unsafe."

Thames Valley Police said: "There were some fires in the campsite on Sunday, but festival security had water pumps and extinguished these within minutes.

"There was some disorder in the campsite at about 4.30pm on Sunday, but this was dealt with within minutes by festival security and about 50 people were ejected from the site.

"Those ejected were safeguarded by the festival organisers, Thames Valley Police, and British Transport Police to ensure they could get home safely."

Regarding claims over security and safety, Festival Republic has been approached for comment.

Meanwhile, Reading Council said it was "regrettable" that the behaviour of some attendees had had a negative impact on the experience of others.

“Reading Festival is a major feature of the cultural calendar in Reading. The Council is responsible for the licensing of the event and a multi-agency approach to public safety at events forms a key part of the issuing of any licence.

“We are aware of incidents that occurred in the campsites, that were responded to by the onsite teams. All such incidents are considered as part of a multi-agency debrief which feeds into planning and decision making for future events.

“It was regrettable to see a very small minority of festival goers impacting on the enjoyment of the wider audience, these individuals were dealt with swiftly and ejected from the event following safeguarding protocols in place.”