r/Wellthatsucks • u/mattloaf666 • 10h ago

Reading festival 2026

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u/Jackariasd 10h ago

I was a volunteer in the campsite at Reading festival in 2008 and 2009 with a friend. It was exactly like this, a destitute wasteland of inexplicable tent abandonment. As part of the clean up, we went around with a wheel barrow collecting unopened cans of beer, each tent seemed to be a treasure trove for us as 18 year olds. It was all fun and games until he found a cooler box in a tent. Opened it up and inside was a singular, well preserved, human turd.

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u/Low-Outlandishness14 10h ago

I was there in '09 and it was chaos, everyone seemed more concerned about drugs and burning tents down every night. Genuinely horrendous experience

Im sure some people were there for music and a good time but that isn't my memory of it

Took my tent home and didnt shit for 5 days so dont look at me....

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 8h ago

OK, apparently I was reading Reading like reading. I didn't realize Reading festival was a thing, I thought it was reading festival, and I was like, "A bunch of book nerds did THAT?! That's so unlike us." and then I realized I was reading Reading wrong. The drugs was what tipped me off. 

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u/Harvard_Med_USMLE267 7h ago

I started a book club last year (tea, fluffy white dogs and books), and my third recruit turned out to be a massive cocaine fan and had a free supply and successfully pushed it on my other members. It’s disbanded now but is really only remembered for the cocaine.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 6h ago

I'm in a gays and gals book Club, but we just painted our nails. Maybe they confused your gathering with a ski club, haha! ❄️ 

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u/LincolnshireSausage 4h ago

Wtf is a gays and gals book club and why do they exist? Do straight men not have good reading skills?

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 3h ago

...I imagine they could go to any number of non-queer ones, I suppose.

As to straight men being illiterate. I want to say no, but I've been going to various book clubs for about 30 years, and most of them are full of women. 

I rarely meet men at all in the non-queer book clubs I've been in. I have never been to one that has a core of dudes. Never. 

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u/LincolnshireSausage 3h ago

Gals can also go to non-queer book clubs which was why the question popped into my head.
Yeah, guys don’t seem to have a lot of interest in book clubs. I think those who read tend to keep it to themselves rather than discussing it. I’ve never tried to discuss a good book with my friends because they probably haven’t read it and dont really care. Also, I tend to read a book, either enjoy it or not but dont really want to sit around analyzing it.
Thinking about it further and after reading tour comment, I thought if book clubs are mostly women then its probably a good way for single guys to meet them. Then I thought, that could be why there are gays and gals only book clubs so they don’t have that distraction.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 3h ago

Yeah, you should definitely try out a book Club. Look for independent book stores near you, that's where I've had the best luck. 

Book clubs aren't really about analyzing the book, so much as sharing what you liked/disliked about it. Sharing other books like it. Meeting people like yourself. 

Additionally, there's a lot of queer books and authors out there. A straight book Club could never absorb the amount of sapphic slice-of-life romantasies I've had to read over the years. Never. 

Doesn't matter how gay a dude you are, you're gonna get outvoted, you're gonna read a sapphic romantasy. It's the law. 

Girls and gays is a thing because gay men and different shades of women have lots of overlapping interests. You think my straight dude friends wanna go to Yoga with me? No, they don't. You wanna know how many dudes are in my yoga class? Me. 

The girls and gays have my back at book brunch. The boy's field is barren. 

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u/LincolnshireSausage 3h ago

I’m a straight dude and I do yoga regularly. I’m usually the only guy in the class. I’ve recommended to so many other guys and they all look at me like I’m an idiot while complaining of back pain.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 3h ago

Yuuuup! I was one of them. Not straight, but skeptical of yoga. One of the girls finally talked me into it. I look like the straightest dude imaginable, through no fault of my own, so I was always uncomfortable going into women dominated spaces like that.

However, I've gone every Saturday since it fixed my shoulder pain, haha! 

But hey bro, either way, I'll go to Yoga with ya. 

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u/LincolnshireSausage 1h ago

Yoga is great. My only problem with it is I didn’t discover it earlier.

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u/Tyrannofelis 8h ago

So they weren't camping to read Tolkien? Worst reading festival imo.

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u/cityshepherd 7h ago

Honestly things haven’t been the same since audiobooks destroyed the scene.

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u/Stray_Wing 6h ago

*Improved long driving experience…

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u/gonzo-is-sexy 8h ago

That's what my nerdy ass thought too

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u/whattodo4klondikebar 3h ago

I live in Delaware and am familiar with Reading, but I too thought it was a reading festival and was thinking how nice that sounds.

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u/RumandDiabetes 8h ago

Me too if it makes you feel better

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u/Training-Argument891 8h ago

lmao. thx for your unique mind

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u/who_ate_the_cookie 7h ago

You are not the only one who processed this thought. Haha

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u/OkBackground4520 6h ago

Same, and only got more confused when reading the comments, lol.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 6h ago

I had to get pretty deep before someone mentioned drugs, and that's when I was like, "Oh. OH! Like Pennsylvania!" 

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u/PrintingInNowhere 6h ago

Love this. I was on the same page. "...They're burning tents? But what about the books...? Isn't that... bad?"

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u/slackfrop 6h ago

You never got blasted on drugs cocktail and savaged a new novel?

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 5h ago

I've tried to read books on psychadelics many times, but you gotta be careful freebasing knowledge like that. Direct download into your Id. 

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u/AlmanorDiscard 5h ago

OK, apparently I was reading Reading like reading.

Yeah, took me way too many comments to realize this wasn't a literary get together (not that those can't get pretty ugly).

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u/pyeeater 4h ago

It's very easy to mis-read reading when you are reading about reading.

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u/songofsoul 3h ago

Same! I'm like I want to go to a festival where all we do is read and talk an trade books!

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 3h ago

I genuinely looked it up because I wanted to see about going next year, lmao. 

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u/ThePublikon 3h ago

You should have guessed because the video is past tents.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 3h ago

Take your upvote and don't tell anyone where you got it, punning like that. Disgusting behavior. 

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u/Cheese-Manipulator 54m ago

They'd hold that indoors. :D

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u/SuperDabMan 8h ago

Me too. But now I realize Reading might be a place?

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u/Discohunter 8h ago

Might as well give you the info dump 😅

Reading is a place in the south of England, pronounced 'Redding'. Every year they do the Reading and Leeds festivals in the north and south of the country. It's the last hurrah before the academic year starts so it attracts A LOT of teenagers. I went to the Leeds festival when I was 19 and I felt relatively old even then.

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u/AlmanorDiscard 5h ago

Reading is a place in the south of England, pronounced 'Redding'.

There's a city in Northern California called Redding, and OP's video could be taken there on an average day, no festival needed.

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u/Spugheddy 8h ago

No its a railroad company.

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u/KneeDeepInTheDead 6h ago

its pronounced Redding

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u/SookHe 7h ago

That is actually hilarious and I’m definitely going to start a reading festive because we need more books in hands

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 6h ago

Oh, no doubt. But I'm assuming you're going to have to pry us out of our comfy chairs to make this happen.

It's not gonna happen. 

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u/msheehan418 7h ago

I was reading Reading like reading as well and wondered why a bunch of readers left such a mess and was looking for the books they read

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u/aham1994 8h ago

A lot of people think Reading Railroad in monopoly is pronounced like the book reading, not the REDing Railroad.

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u/Aegi 6h ago

You weren't reading it wrong it's just also a proper noun and the proper noun place might have a different pronunciation but it is still the same word.

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u/jollyreaper2112 5h ago

That's your problem you are doing your drugs wrong.

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u/Livid_End3397 4h ago

I also thought all of this. Lol

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u/xpltvdeleted 1h ago

This was a fucking terrible joke Fred Durst mate in 2000 at the start of their set. I think he was so pleased with it too. Just elicited groans

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 1h ago

Thankfully, I'm not overburdened with Fred Durst trivia, so I appreciate your contribution. 

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u/xpltvdeleted 17m ago

Coincidently, Overburdened by Fred Durst Trivia is my fantasy prem team name

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 13m ago

What's truly got me flabbergast is that, "Coincidentally, Overburdened by Fred Durst Trivia is my fantasy prem league team name." is the name of my Fantasy (actual) Football team. 

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u/Limp_Dirt8694 15m ago

An actual reading festival sounds like a wonderful idea, though! Something far more chill than a music festival but not quite as far as those silent retreats that give me cult vibes. Just a bunch of people out camping in nature with books, maybe some calm events like stretching/meditation, special guests could be authors, night time could have a small acoustic set, stargazing/telescope guides, etc. I'd be into it.

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u/Status-Visit-918 12m ago

I literally have been sitting here, wondering if it’s the gummy or me thank God I’m not the only one 😭😭😭 I just asked my husband if there was a festival in Reading PA and do they read books or what and he was like I don’t fucking know what you’re talking about 😭😭😭

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u/Zigor022 6h ago

Like Reading, PA?

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 6h ago

Yeah exactly. It's Reading, not reading. 

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u/Zigor022 6h ago

I wasnt sure if there was another place of the same name.

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 5h ago

Yeah, in England. And probably a bunch more all throughout the US as well, if I know our unoriginal asses. There's a Reading in Vermont and Massachusetts, for sure. Probably Maine, too. Not in NH that I'm aware of. 

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u/Bored_Amalgamation 5h ago

It was those fucking audiobook "ReAdErS"

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u/Regular_Custard_4483 5h ago

You're trying to start a civil war, when the rest of this illiterate ass country is in the state it is?

Fuck it, why not. 

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u/Bored_Amalgamation 5h ago

I listen to audiobooks shhh