There are many important dates on the life calendar of today’s teenagers: GCSEs and A-level exams, driving tests, university visits, job interviews.
Less conventional perhaps – but also apparently crucial for the growing numbers – is attending a festival after the results to celebrate.
Of these, Reading and Leeds music festivals are the highest in popularity… and they’re both taking place this weekend.
These are the two big ones, taking place over the August Bank Holiday weekend, with heavier rock music than some festivals earlier in the summer. And they’ve even been labeled the “results festivals” because they’ve become a cultural mecca for teens whose parents allow a “last hurray” after a summer of anxiously waiting for grades.
Unlike other major music festivals in Britain such as GlastonburyLatitude or Green Man – which have a decidedly more adult or family feel – the demographic visiting Reading and Leeds is much younger. And visitors tend to have a good time (away from watchful adults).
What separates younger generations – Gen Z and now General A – from older generations of the same age is that they have had few opportunities for independence, with the majority having spent little or no time outside the home. This has had a knock-on effect and instilled a naivete that can often lead to problems.
The result? Infamous post-results festivals.
Reading’s ‘Safeguarding’ policy has a strict ‘zero tolerance’ approach to harassment and violence, with clear sanctions including expulsion from the festival
Leeds and Reading are labeled as the ‘results festivals’ and have become a cultural mecca for teenagers whose parents allow a ‘last hurray’
Cara, 20, was at the 2022 Reading Festival when it turned into a riot with tents being burned and bottles being thrown. The widespread violence led to more than fifty people being expelled from the country.
Aged 16 at the time, she was celebrating her results and describes it as a ‘tinderbox’.
She remembers: ‘There was already a feverish atmosphere before it got out of hand. Look, you’ve got thousands of kids out there, many of them maybe away from home for the first time and most of them are crazy drunk or high or both, and no one intervenes.
‘I was attacked by so many guys who were obviously gaming, groping girls and filming, but the worst thing that happened to me was this older guy bought me a drink and another girl, who was a bit older, basically dragged me away and said he was being sketchy.
“I’m so grateful she did that. Another friend of hers had accepted a drink the year before and woken up in a tent with a strange man, with no memory of what had happened.”
Meanwhile, Layla, 19, has been going to Reading since she was 15. She agrees that the festival has a Lord of the Flies quality. She explains that Reading’s ‘mission’ is to get as drunk as possible and that it has ‘become more intense’.
‘I’ve seen kids do so many crazy things, sex acts in public, drinking, drugs, and there are definitely predatory older people who know there will be young girls and boys off their mind. And everything is filmed.’
A friend of hers was filmed drunk while performing a sex act on another teenager she barely knew.
‘It spread through Snapchat. She was clearly devastated, as her family found out, and it was a mess.”
Then you have Guillame, 18, who lives in Paris but goes to boarding school in Britain. He travels back from France early, especially to join his friends for Reading.
He openly admits that the festival is less about the music and more about the party – especially the drugs, booze and sex. He laughs at the difference between British teenagers and teenagers on the continent, something that becomes all too apparent at music festivals.
‘I’ve been to Reading twice and it’s crazy, and I think that’s because children in Britain have so little independence. In France we get a lot more, but at Reading everyone goes crazy. I’m doing well because I’m keeping myself together, but I’m definitely more worried about the girls. It’s like none of the normal rules apply for that weekend. Last year I saw a girl crowd surfing for Travis Scott and her clothes were literally ripped off.
‘I saw a girl passed out and alone, and people were touching her and filming it. That’s not cool. But this year I’m going anyway. It’s crazy but fun.’
Some parents intervene. Dave, 49, is, as he describes it, ‘taking one for the team’ and is accompanying his 16-year-old twin daughters and some of their friends to Reading this year.
Festivals can cast a spell that makes teens feel isolated from the normal rules of life
He has agreed to make himself scarce and camp a short distance away from them with one of his own friends and fellow fathers with a daughter at the festival. The plan is that he will be ‘present’ if anything goes wrong with any of them – something his children are not happy about, but that was his condition for going.
Dave explains his reasoning: “I’m a festival veteran. I think I went to my first festival when I was thirteen, including Reading, even though I was basically a raver. But for this generation, things are different.
“They’re a combination of being less resilient, but there’s also a meaner edge to them, which I think comes from the existence of phones.” I have friends who work at these festivals and the stories are frightening; filmed abuse, overdoses, bad drugs, children being preyed upon.
“I wouldn’t sleep anyway if my girls were here alone, so I might as well do it in a tent.” The girls even let me watch Charli XCX with them.”
Reading’s ‘Safeguarding’ policy has a strict ‘zero tolerance’ approach to harassment and violence, with clear sanctions including expulsion from the festival.
Yet the stories of these ‘results festivals’ – both in Reading and Leeds – are too numerous to ignore.
At the 2022 Leeds Festival, tents were also set on fire – as they were in Reading that year – and stones and bottles were thrown. Plumes of black smoke were reported overnight, although the fires were extinguished with fire extinguishers.
A father of two teenage daughters at the festival had called him to say the atmosphere was ‘extremely scary as people seemed to be going wild’.
The Suzy Lamplugh Trust, the personal safety charity, advises young, inexperienced festival-goers to camp in well-lit areas, familiarize themselves with security staff and keep mobile phones charged (there are sockets available at the festival).
Further tips are to stay in well-lit areas, stick with friends as there is safety in numbers, and never abandon a friend, especially if he or she is under the influence. The Trust recommends avoiding alcohol and drugs – and never leaving drinks unattended.
The problem is that festivals can cast a spell that makes teens feel isolated from the normal rules of life. That said, it is important that young people can have fun and be independent.
Teen festival goers would do well to be careful and know the risks.
When Sunday night comes, it should be all about good memories… and not regrets.
