by Richard Gray | Photos by Richard Gray
The crowd atmosphere of Reading Festival 2016 day one - in photos
The sun always brings the best out in people
Reading festival kicked off under a sweltering sun with all the usual shenanigans: men in chicken costumes, lovers getting luvvy-duvvy and lots of kids giving victory signs on their friends shoulders.
The atmosphere reached such a peak that Hunter S Thompson's quite about San Francisco in the middle 60s seems an appropriate: "There was madness in any direction, at any hour. You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning." It's one of the only places in Britain this weekend getting close to that at least. Hats off to everyone giving it their all.