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Reading Festival Organisers To Discuss Sound Problems With Local Council

Following poor quality this year...

Organisers behind the Reading Festival have blamed the weather for the poor quality of sound at this year's event – but insisted they will discuss the problem before 2009.

A number of people complained to Gigwise about the low sound levels across the weekend - and specifically during the headlining sets by The Killers and Rage Against The Machine.

Speaking to the BBC, organiser Melvin Benn said the event had adhered to the same council regulations as previous years but due to atmospheric conditions “the sound stayed low.”

"As a result the sound hit those decibel readings much, much earlier than normal, resulting in the sound being recorded at much louder volumes offsite than normal,” he said.

“So we were obligated by the council to turn our levels down. The sound levels on site are almost entirely dictated by the levels offsite."

Benn promised that he would try to rectify the problem before next year's festival, revealing that he and his sound engineer had scheduled a meeting with the local council.

Check out all our highlights from the Reading and Leeds festival by clicking the links below:

Leeds Festival - Day One
Leeds Festival - Day Two
Leeds Festival - Day Three


What did you think of the sound quality? Post your thoughts by filling out the comment form below.

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(3)
  • Rage against the machine was fine at the front - heard it perfectly and they were by far the best band there. Killers however .. well some people said they were shit but you actually couldn’t forge an opinion on them because it was nigh on impossible to actually hear them.

    ~ by - 8/27/2008

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  • At the front all was fine but for Feeder and Bloc Party we sat back and the sound levels were awful!! Fingers crossed all will be sorted next year!

    ~ by Ian 8/27/2008

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  • the weather and the wind meant that a lot of the sound just traveled straight out of the arena... i felt really awful for the killers who were on stage and half the crowd were yelling "TURN IT UP". luckily, some people around us knew what they were talking about and told them they were half the reason we couldnt hear the band!!!

    ~ by Dan 10/28/2008

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