Backstage at Reading Festival 2019
It is the last weekend of August 2019, meaning one thing: Reading and Leeds Festival. With Palaye Royale being back in town and on the bill, it is a beautiful opportunity to be reunited with friends.
It is a sweltering hot day, the kind so rare but always dreamed of in the English summertime. London is manic, with Paddington station experiencing delays and filled to the brim with people anxious to get on their way. As I wait, I sit staring at the timetable boards begging for them to proudly display which platform my London - Reading train is awaiting me on. What seems like a lifetime (probably the grand total of 5 minutes) later, my train is here, and I am officially on my way to meet Amy outside the famed festival site.
We meet, trek to the guest-list entrance, and we’re in.
This is an area of Reading festival I had never experienced. We walked through the dusty road tracks that paved much of this (literally) back stage scene, filled with crew and idly wandering artists, and finally reached the Guest area. And it was beautiful. Filled with its own special food stalls, bars, and abstract light structures, our eyes gleamed with excitement at all the potential.
Palaye Royale’s set was at The Pit stage. Arriving around an hour before they were due to play, we weaved through the massive crowd already gathered for Nothing, Nowhere and Stand Atlantic. Showing the security guard our guest wristbands and backstage passes, we were waived through onto and behind the stage, to the gardens that housed the artists’ mobile homes.
As time ticked on, and the hour left until their performance waned thinner, tensions built. The kind of tense energy best described as anticipation laden with excitement. It wasn’t long before we all headed to the stage. Remington adorned a plastic bag to complete his onstage look, finishing touches were made (cue finger-tossing of hair and guitars), and, finally, grand stage entrances were made.
Their set was… amazing. As songs were elongated, exaggerated, and intensified, there’s no way the crowd that gathered for them could have left disappointed. Me, Amy, and Elena watched from side-stage in awe.
As their set drew to a close, and the day inevitably - yet somehow still unbelievably - continued, day turned to evening and it was time to see some other acts. Exploring the guest area we mingle with fellow artists and their guests, awaiting the grande finale: Foo Fighters gracing the Main Stage for their headline performance.
Me and Amy join the band as we are waived up the stairs and onto the side of the Main Stage to watch Foo Fighters’ performance. Standing on the actual Main Stage of Reading Festival, in front of the inconceivably HUGE crowd, and being so close to Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins, was an experience so surreal it was intoxicating.
…and the rest is history, beautiful and blissful history.