Reading festivalgoers head home in their muddied wellies and trainers after fun-filled weekend despite heavy rain and thunderstorms – with further showers over coming days
Reading Festival ended on Sunday night after a rain-lashed Bank Holiday weekend, with thousands of festivalgoers pictured on Monday morning trudging home through mud and puddles. The three-day event, held at Little John's Farm, was headlined by Charli XCX, Chase & Status, Dave, Florence + The Machine, Fontaines D.C. and Raye, but a Met Office yellow weather warning for flooding, hail and lightning on Saturday forced several artists to perform in torrential rain.
Despite the miserable conditions, revellers were said to have kept spirits high throughout the weekend, though moods appeared to sour by Monday as attendees left the site in muddied wellies, damp pyjamas and rucksacks, abandoning tents, pillows and other belongings ruined by the mud. The Met Office has forecast further heavy showers and thunder for western Britain into the new week, with chief forecaster Dan Suri warning of continued changeable weather, though south-eastern areas may see some warmer, drier spells.
- Reading Festival ends after a washout Bank Holiday weekend of heavy rain
- Yellow weather warning for flooding, hail and lightning hit Saturday's performances
- More rain and thunderstorms forecast across Britain in the coming days
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Reading Festival is one of the UK's biggest music events, taking place every August Bank Holiday weekend at Little John's Farm in Reading. It draws tens of thousands of attendees, many of them young people camping on site for three days of live music from a mix of pop, rock and dance acts, alongside its sister event in Leeds.
This year's festival ran across a particularly wet Bank Holiday weekend, with a Met Office yellow warning covering parts of the event for flooding, hail and lightning. Heavy rain is a familiar hazard at UK outdoor festivals, often turning campsites to mud and making the journey home afterwards a well-known part of the experience, alongside abandoned tents and belongings left behind.
The wider context is Britain's unsettled late-summer weather, with forecasters warning of further showers and thunderstorms in the days following the festival's end, particularly in western areas, while some regions may see drier, warmer conditions return.