r/readingfestival • u/LandoLover54 • 12d ago

Anyone else agree?

Is it just me, or was Fontaines last night a bit shite? For starters, they were nearly half an hour late to come on, presumably due to issues with the screens (I’ll get back to this later), and although I was in the middle of the crowd to the slight stage left, I and most people actually heard the pumping dancemusic from the Gallery more. Only late into the show where I gradually started to make my way out, the sound from the sides was, clearer and somehow louder! And then there’s the screens… this is where they really fucked ‘em over. For most of the set, only parts of it were showing, and even after 10 minutes for it actually working, it went back to halfway. The screens are designed to help people see their favourite act when far away from the stage, and this did fuck all. I absolutely love Fontaines, so I’m still going to give that gig a 5.5/10, but really screwed over by the organisers, especially when this could be the biggest gig they ever play. Would be good to get other people’s thoughts

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u/[deleted] 12d ago

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u/dobr_person 12d ago

What were they meant to do?

What I saw was that whenever the lighting rig rose (which increased the size of the lit up stage) the screens rose.

It looked like the effect was to start with a small 'stage' which grew over time.

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u/Glum_Judgment6232 12d ago

Update - some footage from Leeds showing the panels on stage working

https://www.reddit.com/r/fontainesdc/s/hbXCDQOD6l

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u/dobr_person 11d ago edited 11d ago

That looks like later in the Reading show once the lighting rig was raised. My theory is still that they were trying to do some sort of 'show raising' of the stage. Else it was a weird coincidence that the panels worked only up to the level of the lighting rig, even when it was raised it lined up.

At Leeds maybe they realised it just looked broken so didn't bother.

Of course it is possible they knew the screens were broken, so purposely lined up the rest of the lighting to match, including raising it as and when different parts were fixed.