WE ALREADY know it, and a survey makes it official: Reading Festival is top of the pops.
The annual event, which attracts hundreds of thousands of people to the Ding for a weekend of music every August bank holiday has been judged the country’s favourite festival.
A survey from Last Minute Musicians looks at the number of Google searches for each of the big events (sorry Wokingham Festival) to see which were the most in-demand, both here in the UK and across the seas.
While Glastonbury might be the biggest – with 210,000 people attending – Reading is the one people are searching for the most.
Every month in the UK, 112,000 searches are conducted for the term ‘Reading festival’. That’s more than Leeds (73,600), Download (89,400) and Glastonbury (48,400).
The same can also be said for global searches too, with Reading faring better than any other UK music festival.
We like to think they misspelt ‘Reading Today’ – after all, the t and f keys are fairly close in the keyboard and, well, autocorrect does the rest, doesn’t it?
But Last Minute Musicians’ Chris Walmsley has a better idea.
“Reading’s been running since the early 60s, making it one of the longest-standing festivals in the UK,” he said.
“Loads of people go back time and time again, which is no surprise really, given its diverse lineup and relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.
“I think one of the most appealing things about Reading is its location too. It’s not far out of London and is really easy to get to on public transport. It’s always nice to go down a few days early too, with it being so close to some great bars, restaurants, and live music venues.
“It’s really interesting how much more popular Reading is than bigger festivals like Glasto and Wireless when it comes to online searches. I know that it tends to sell out weeks before as well, so maybe it’s time they increased capacity – there’s clearly demand.”
Last Minute Musicians used keyword finder to seek out the average monthly search volumes over the past year to create the data.
The report can be read in full on Last Minute Musicians‘ website.
