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2009

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Reading Festival should be fire-free zone says MP

Reading West MP meeting festival chief Melvin Benn

September 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

Reading Festival boss Melvin Benn was due to meet Reading West MP Martin Salter yesterday (September 25) after Salter called for all camp-fires to be banned at the festival.

The MP had told BBC 6music that he saw the presence of fires at the annual event a serious danger, saying that the festival did not have the sufficient security measures to control all the problems caused by camp-fires.

He talked about "angry mobs running around, stealing other people's tents and possessions and throwing them on the bonfires to keep the fires burning. It's a lethal cocktail, drunken young people, fires and insufficient security to deal with the situation."

He went on to say that although he was critical of the fire-related rules, he was not a critic of the event as a whole. "I am a supporter of the festival, I want it to be a great success," he said, "but I want it to be a safe event for young people as it always used to be."

Benn and Salter are yet to reveal the outcome of the meeting.

A large fire broke out at last year’s Reading Festival after fans lost control of a barbeque in a car park.

Watch Reading Festival 2008 camp-fire video footage by clicking below.

Reading/Leeds Festival tickets:

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Comments (5)

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Phil2992

Sep 27, 2009

He's probably right else it's only a matter of time before a serious injury. Just a shame that the moronic behaviour of some (though the numbers are increasing each year) ruins it for those who just want to have a couple of chilled drinks by the fire.

PumpkinHead77

Sep 27, 2009

This dude needs to spend a night in a field at the end of August. Maybe he will bring us all free blankets and cognac. The fires are there to burn the shits you steal stuff. Idiot. Ban water on site to because people might drown under the taps

chatton49

Sep 27, 2009

why not have a big communal fire on the last night, properly manned by security so we can all burn our shit and keep warm. that way nobody will get injured and everybody is happy - we get to have a fire and everybody moaning about it know it's safe.

Geo91

Sep 27, 2009

I think the situation is fine, those of us who are just relaxing around a campfire aren't getting interfered with and those cunts putting aerosols and tents on the bonfires were getting shutdown by the Police pretty quickly. Thing is, it's the end of Summer festival so masses of people are looking for it to get hectic, and that is not gonna change.

Catherine

Sep 27, 2009

We've said for about 5 years that the year someone is injured seriously, it'll make the papers and the organisers will have no choice but to ban fires. BUT, this is what makes Reading special. I say first measures would be to reduce the number of people going. Numbers went up when Glasto had a year's break and have never gone back. Please don't make it all about the money, Mr Benn...