Reading Festival

I have no personal experience of the festival itself, but with Reading not being too far away I both know people who have gone and I have been in the town when the festival has been on.

The 'riots' are associated historically with Sunday night at the campsite when the festival is winding down. This has been more tightly stewarded and policed in recent years and fires of any kind are not permitted on the last night. No doubt things may still go on as people can't be everywhere. If you are there as a one day visitor on the Friday this ought not to bother you, although I daresay there will be a lot of happy people, some under differing influences.

"expensive concessions,"

Not sure what you mean by that, a concession is a cheaper admission ticket, not a more expensive one.

Cambridge Dictionary : "2 [C] UK a reduction in the usual price of something, made available to students, old people, etc.: You can get travel concessions if you are under 26."

"I think by concessions Kristen means what we would call stalls or stands. American phrase "concession stand":"

Exactly - yet another "divided by a common language" misunderstanding.

The meaning of "concessions" as a price reduction is completely unknown in America; I remember it totally puzzled me on my first trip to London.

Aha, that explains it, a bit like "entrée" meaning a main course, when in fact it means a starter.

Look a bit further down the Cambridge dictionary and you see:

[C] the right to sell a product in a particular area

Concession as a price reduction does appear in many American-based dictionaries, but in general right at the bottom or as UK usage.

Sorry for the confusion! I did mean concessions as in "drinks and food". But happy to learn a new way to use the word! Thank you for the info Marco. Leaning towards getting the tickets. If anyone else has any experiences to share, I would love to hear them. Thank you again!

Reading is a great festival! I've been twice and I've never had any problems with anything which would resemble riots, except for loads of drunk people. Tents do get set on fire in the campsites closer to the main arena on the last night, however as you said you'll just be going for a day you'll have no problem. I'd describe it as one of the safer UK festivals I've been to.