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You’ll be surprised at the level of strategic planning, cajoling, creeping, and pleading your kids will have done so that you let them come to the Festival.

Buying tickets, bumping up their cash, even borrowing your car and emptying the garage of everything connected to camping... your kids will have got together with their mates and planned - with military precision - to make sure they get to the Festival and have a great time.

In a young person’s mind, the Festival planning will concern just four or five subjects:

  • Getting there early to set up camp.
  • Enough cash.
  • Enough booze.
  • Meeting new friends.
  • Seeing the bands.

As a police officer who has been involved in policing Reading Festival for many years and has teenage kids who go to it, I know what parents go through (I call them ‘kids', even though he may be six foot five inches tall, age 25, with a beard and dreadlocks). So, for you ‘kids’ reading this, don’t take offence, you’ll be treated as responsible adults when you’re here. I can assure you that my colleagues and I, with our partner agencies, will do our best to look after everyone and make it a safe and great experience.

Tickets, tricks and conmen

Your kids may trawl the internet for days trying to find a Festival ticket. What you must be aware of is that any festival attracts criminals wanting to trick people out of money.

Some unofficial websites may claim to have ‘official’ tickets that are in fact forgeries. Others might try to simply take your money and not bother sending you anything. Or a friendly person standing outside the gates may just have been lucky enough to have 20 spare tickets (what are the odds of that?!)

So, to avoid these traps...

  • Buy your tickets through official sources. Visit the Reading Festival website for official ticket information (opens new window). Festival Republic is the promoter of the festival.
  • Never buy from a ticket tout. Your kids could get charged extortionate prices, and the vast majority of those who buy these tickets are buying worthless pieces of paper. It will ruin your weekend.
  • Never buy a wristband. Official wristbands are issued on entry to the festival. Wristbands bought outside the festival are either forgeries or have been taken from someone else.

The ‘bottom line’ is: if you’ve not bought a ticket in advance from an official source, we advise not to go to the Festival. Don’t get conned out of an awful lot of money thinking someone is doing you a favour.

Planning in advance

Leading up to the Festival, your kids may start making lists of what to take. A mobile phone and a good wallet is the maximum of their prized possessions that ideally they should take.

MP3 players – and anything else shiny – will attract pickpockets. If your kids claim they can’t live without their iPod, mobile phone, digital camera and ridiculously expensive sunglasses for four days, please get them to register their valuables on Immobilise.com, the UK national property register. Do this before they go.

If your kids’ stuff happens to get lost or stolen, and gets recovered by the police, we can reunite them with it.

Encourage your kids to get a few quality lanyards. You can often get these from a mobile phone shop or similar, sometimes for free if there’s a promotion. We’re also hoping to give out lanyards and torches during the Festival, but prepare beforehand.

Get a Velcro-type wallet. Punch a hole in the corner of it, far enough so it won’t rip easily. Attach the key ring through that hole. Then clip the key ring to the lanyard. The lanyard can then be looped into clothing, thus attaching it to the owner. Other items, like a small torch, can also be attached. It’s cheap to do and may save your child losing valuables or becoming a victim of theft.

Keep camping equipment to a minimum. It may be that buying a cheap tent and sleeping bag is a better option than taking your £1,000 state-of-the-art camping gear. They’ll be in the middle of a big town so they won’t need to bring an entire kitchen.

On a very serious note, there has been a trend with a minority of festival goers who see the last night of the festival as an opportunity to have a bonfire and burn what items they don’t want to take home. This is extremely dangerous (stating the obvious). This year, the organisers, fire brigade and police will do all they can to prevent a reoccurrence of this foolish behaviour. We’ll take a hard line against anyone who seeks to endanger self and others through these mindless acts. You may want to have a chat with your kids before they go – the last thing you want is an injured person, or one arrested and given a criminal record because of stupidity.

Keep it simple. Girls will usually need to bring a bit more, but last year my son took a wallet, phone, torch, toothbrush, a bit of soap (considered an optional extra), a tent, sleeping bag, and a few clothes. He got back in one piece, although he did whiff a bit...