A READING Festival-goer has described her horror at suffering second degree burns on the last day of the event.
Sunday, August 28, at the festival, was marred by violence and tent burning as fires raged across camping areas.
Now, one attendee has shared her story after suffering burns, the ordeal of getting medical care and the long term consequences she’s been left with.
Leone Cook, 18 from Kent, was sitting near a campfire when an unknown liquid exploded over her.
Her mum, Tracey Cook, 51, said: “We’re not sure what it was, but whatever it was it went all over her, from her ankle up to her thigh, and on her face as well.
“That was horrific.”
Leone was then assisted by a security guard, but they say care was “poor” and she was not immediately taken to hospital for treatment.
Leone said: “They said it was too hard an ambulance to get to where I was, but we had seen ambulances go past for other things during the day.
“I thought the medical service was really poor, but the police were really good. They asked for an ambulance but Reading [Festival] refused to send one.
“I got told I had to walk to the nearest medical tent. I couldn’t be carried, because no one could touch my leg because of the burns.”
This led to her undergoing an ordeal of trudging 40 minutes to get help from the medical tent, which she got to with assistance from her boyfriend and police officers.
Eventually she was taken by ambulance to the Royal Berkshire Hospital.
After spending a night in Reading, she began receiving care in Maidstone and is now undergoing treatment at a burns unit in East Grinstead.
Care she received involved medication to dampen the pain and hours of surgery to remove burnt skin.
Leone said the time waiting to get to hospital “made things worse” as her treatment was delayed.
The incident will have long term consequences on her life.
In the short term, she will no longer be able to attend the University of Portsmouth as intended.
Leone said: “I’m going to have to go on a gap year because I can’t walk.
“It’s going to take at least two months to be able to go out again.
“I’m not allowed to be exposed to the sun for at least two months and the burns will take a year to heal and I’ll also have to use factor 50 whenever I’m out in the sun for the rest of my life.”
She has also had to cancel driving lessons and is unable to work.
Leone attended the festival in 2021, but said this year was worse.
When asked why she thought that, she said: “Probably just because of covid no one has been out.”
The scenes at the festival have been compared to Woodstock ’99, which erupted into chaos on its last night and was the subject of a Netflix documentary titled “Trainwreck”.
“I’ve heard of that film [Trainwreck] but haven’t watched it,” she said.
“Last year we could hear things happening in the distance, but there was no one throwing things. Last year, I didn’t see anyone setting tents on fire, but this year it was horrible.
“People were throwing things over the hedge like poles and bottles of urine, and I could hear people shouting ‘let’s make a molotov cocktail’”.
Her mum argued security was inadequate and the organisers, Festival Republic, need to be held responsible.
Tracey said: “I’ve complained but all I’ve got is automated calls and emails.
“Because of the explosion that hit Leone, someone else’s tent caught fire and melted.
“The safeguarding was just not there.
“Reading Festival needs to be held accountable for not being prepared and having the facilities to deal with what happened.
“What went on that day needs to be addressed.”
Festival Republic has confirmed it is investigating Ms Cook’s case.
A Festival Republic spokesperson said: “We are in touch with the family involved in this reported incident and are working with all authorities and medical services whilst we investigate this.”
As for the wider reports of fires and disorder, a spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said: “There were some fires in the campsite on Sunday, but festival security had water pumps and extinguished these within minutes.
“There was some disorder in the campsite at about 4.30pm on Sunday, but this was dealt with within minutes by festival security and about fifty people were ejected from the site.
“Those ejected were safeguarded by the festival organisers, Thames Valley Police and British Transport Police to ensure they could get home safely.”
