So, I'll be manning the fire towers again with mad Jonathan... unlikely I know, but anyone else going?
ahh the towers of reading Ive just done a few days of tower work at beautiful days and my paws are slightly tired with travelling and walking anyway all packed and ready to roll tomorrow morning
yeah, i'll be there. hopefully ill see you up the tower. might bring you a spot of delicious tomato soup if i do! its a long shot cos ive no idea what you look like. good luck with it!
well it was fun , Id never go to this event as a punter most of the people going to it are Id say wankers , its a pity my brain cant photograph what its like to show people the level of wankerism at this event . basically most of the people burn perfectly good equipment destroy food put off gas cannisters you get people just randomly putting off fireworks throwing rocks just generally destroying things . they had to use police in full riot gear and they were still driven off by the numbers of wankers . I spent from 8 at night to 2 in the afternoon putting out fires I was hit by a guy with a gazebo or chair pole fired extinguisher in his face and hit him with a extinguisher while putting out a fire . I think I helped some people who may have not know what reading is and then found their tents and belongings set on fire , I helped some injured people . anyway the event was fun you saw too sides of human nature the moronic punters who are quite sad 16-30 year olds thinking their adults or men and are in fact worse than most children its quite sad to see what might look like a adult act like that just destroying stuff and polluting things. you also saw the people who worked the event who Id say are pretty terrific , I met some nice people by my watchtower , I guess we went through 20 fire extinguishers and loads of water and they used mobile fire engines . anyway I enjoyed the last day more than any festival this year
yeh, there was definitely a lot of wankerism going on, im told it was pretty quiet compared to last year (no idea how that musta worked) and the last night was pretty much spent gaurding all your stuff against people with fire on the mind. someone camping near us had two fuckers break in over the fence, steal all her clothes and burn them on the second night, that was such a dick move. somehow, reading doesnt quite have the sense of community you sometimes get with other fests, regardless of size. that aside though, i did have an absolutely cracking time, saw some great bands and had some great laughs, ill almost certainly return, probably as a warder or sumthing cos im broke as hell next year. the on-site staff and volunteers all did a brilliant job dealing with it, although i think it was the co-manager of purple who shouted at a girl until she was reduced to tears for the heinous crime of smiling at him. that guy was a dick. still, i guess he musta been stressed as hell. all-in-all good fest, bit mental
Were you in purple autophobe? Me and jonny were on fire tower 5 (the one nearest orange) every night and monday morning. The day and night managers were lovely as were all the DC staff and CATS, but there can be some be some over reaction from specialized security, though most of them were spot on in purple this year, so I think I know who you are talking about... Apart from the lineup, it's a horrendous festival and it quite depressed me this year having to deal with so many utter wankers being aggressive, shouting and throwing things while I was trying to do my job the best I could. I have to remind myself it is a minority who do that but they make it a really unpleasant experience for everyone else. Still, there's nothing quite like this, so I will doubtless be back next year to work the fire towers. This is the view from my tower on sunday night, the large area where the crowd is standing around the fire is in the middle of a camping field and used to be a sea of tents, but they have all been ripped up and burnt on the fire along with everyones belongings. Sometimes people are still in their tents when they get dragged onto the fire. Wankers.
showmet did you film the police man having bottles thrown at him in green that was a surreal moment he seemed alone against a big hostile crowd that was before we went to see that fire and passed all the riot police in full gear . Ive heard a few people say no one filmed in green or that it was very dangerous to I think they may well be right
and my big regret was that i had to guard those damn fire extinguishers and that that I couldn't have gone and helped people whose tents were being burned in that big fire on the other side of the hedge . next year I will ask to work towers till sunday then be a walker and just fight fires on sunday and monday , I think we did pretty well on parts of purple and we did better than some other zones especially as you had crowds chanting lets burn purple to the ground . Im in two minds about changing zones because Im not sure which zone was worse people are saying online its purple but I think it was green or yellow , and I think we could control purple you just need a few more walkers and to be more aggressive putting out fires , i think if you and me were out all the time putting out fires we would have done better I know we did that a lot but we still had to guard that tower
Next year we need to find some heras fence and take some rope to tie it to the entrance of the tower. We did that last year and it stops people casually coming in to the tower and stealing your extinguishers.
for us reading well the sunday night is by far the best event of the year its busy we have various people with injurys , we get to put out the fires of the naughty . its a odd event its depressing seeing the level of wankerism and general moronic attitude and for most of the people Id be happy to watch them burn , but some people are nice , some people come for the first time and dont expect what happens we are there to protect them as much as we can . I really dislike the people who burn tents and it pleases me to put out their fires , Id like to be cloned and cover the site putting out fires , I think we did pretty well in our zone but would have done far better if we hadnt been tied to that tower
bloody hell, didn't see any fires that big, guess we were lucky being on the edge of purple, we didnt get too much mayhem. we got one of the first fires at about 2.00pm but after that was dealt with we were more or less okay. we basiacally took the opportunity to retire into our tents and get completely wasted. looking back i was damn lucky i got to camp with some really nice festival regulars, including some volunteer guys, otherwise me and my noob friends woulda been screwed
there were I think four plus really big fires in purple they had to call out fire engines too lithium will know better than me how many there were, you also had lots of explosions , we had quite a few people who were in their tents and had people throwing fireworks or fire near their tent or building fires by their tent . what happens then is you get a mob dancing round the fire and they pull anything that will burn onto the fire there have been cases of people in tents being put on fires . our end of purple I think was pretty under control it would have been better if we didnt have to guard the fire tower though. you have accounts of people in green and yellow having fist fights with people trying to drag their belongings into the fire and people having all their stuff burned
Some videos of huge tent fires and lighting poles being burnt from I think yellow camp this year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEApGWigGuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggvzDY8reAI&NR=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A-gAU8eLzk&NR=1 and a good video from Green before the major rioting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GD5t6NiG0y8
well none of those videos is as bad as what we saw, and really why do we do it, ok its fun to a degree but their moronism will continue. I had a conversation with a few people about how to deal with bad manners and crime and they dont really have a clue . the countrys doomed in singapore those 20 year old children would be caned here nothing happens to them people say nothing and the world turns .
While the idiocy is depressing it's just about worth it for the few people who appreciate your work in trying to help and make the festival generally safer and nicer. As I left after putting out a pile of crap being burnt by some abusive morons another person camped nearby muttered under his breath "thanks mate, they're fucking idiots". Moments like that are heartening, and also having to deal with dangerous situations, sometimes life and death situations is exciting and rewarding in itself.
yep I got called a hero after putting out the fire of those people who were throwing fireworks at this womens tent, i suppose you could get hurt doing it but its not as dangerous as burning buildings although you never know when the fires have cannisters and will explode while you put them out or if the people will attack you. really being a full time fireman would be fun, you race into burning buildings trying to save people its very physical work unlike selling things or working in a office, you get to save people the pay is pretty ropey but it does seem pretty fun , you can do it in a lot of places as a part time thing
