After the recent Government announcement that restrictions would slowly be easing up as the vaccine roll out reaches more and more people, it was confirmed on Wednesday 24th February that festivals would take place this upcoming summer, after being cancelled last year due to Covid-19. In less than 24 hours after the announcement, Reading and Leeds Festival tickets were completely sold out to eager people desperate to have the opportunity to live their teenage lives out of the restrictions of COVID. The Reading Festival alone hosts approximately 100,000 people each day, a huge change from our current environments where, for most, it is hard to remember the last time a group of six people could meet outside.
Not only is this beneficial for everyone wanting to experience a festival- fun summer - it will also help Reading, Leeds and other major towns and cities to regain some of their economic losses that they missed out on last year due to the impact of the virus. Professor Adrian Palmer of the University of Reading Henley Business School stated in an Berkshire Live article last year that "For Reading Festival, the best estimate we have, based on a sample survey, is an economic impact of £31 million’, acknowledging that ‘about half of this spending occurs outside of the Reading area, for example transport services which are used to bring festival-goers from other parts of the country’. The news that both Reading and Leeds Festival will go ahead has therefore been as eagerly received by the City Councils and Tourist Board as it has by the hundreds of thousands festival revellers.
