daphnedinkley

this is the way <3

oh thank you honey bun! <3 not a stupid question at all! in my experience there are often staff members loosely “patrolling” the festival grounds; most of the time they’re just volunteers that are litter picking and things like that, but occasionally you’ll get medics that walk around just to keep an eye out if anybody needs assistance that hasn’t gone to the medical tent. hopefully someone will quote me and inform me if i’m wrong but in terms of actual security guards they tend to be few and far between when it comes to the festival grounds, at least in my experience - most of them tend to be near the barriers of the stages in a sort of usual concert fashion? at smaller festivals i’ve been at i do remember some security doing maybe a lap or two around the crowd, but when i think back to the last festival i went to (a really small local festival with a capacity of about 6,000 people) in my 4 days there i probably was face to face with a security guard about 5 times thru the whole weekend. it’s not such a problem at a smaller festival, but i do worry when it comes to larger festivals (such as leeds fest!) that it’s not enough, especially since the festival grounds themselves are absolutely massive! but they definitely do exist at festivals, particularly nearer the stages, i think it just varies from festival to festival how much they’re actually willing to pay out for a high amount of security on the plus side, medical tents, missing persons tents, quiet tents and security tents are often really really clearly signposted so at least you always know where to go if you need to!

aw thank you honey!! <3 honestly, i got into the car when my mum picked us up and i was like “oh we had such a great time didn’t we!” because my nephew was still buzzing from all the excitement, but the minute she dropped him off i was like “mother this has altered my brain chemistry and i am never ever ever EVER going back there EVER AGAIN that was the worst day of my LIFE” all it took was a little lana del rey headline set and i’m running back there like a bunny to a carrot i am not a woman of integrity

it does make me wonder if they chose the words “uk exclusive headline set” on purpose - like she may exclusively headline there but could still do other festivals not as a headliner perhaps??

just a heads up! website says UK exclusive, so this will be lana’s only UK festival and potentially her only UK shows next year. edit: https://www.leedsfestival.com/artists/lana-del-rey/

from what i’ve gleaned, Reading is a tad more easygoing than it’s Leeds counterpart! i’ll try to elaborate just so it makes a lil more sense why i’m dreading it so much hahah! honestly, i don’t want to sound like i’m being super mean about leeds fest; i quite enjoyed it when i was much much younger, but going back as an adult i absolutely hated it. my friends are all massive lana fans and we went down to london and spent a bunch of money to see her at hyde park so they’re the kind to follow lana to the gates of hell, but even they’re all refusing to come with me to leeds fest so we can see her and it’s only down the road from us leeds fest is very much a young persons festival; it’s the end of gcses / end-of-college-year tradition for many 15-18 year olds up north. as such, it’s about 90% filled with underage teens who aren’t used to that sort of environment getting absolutely off their head - as they should! bc partying is fun and drugs and booze and live music and festivals are all the most fun at that age! i’d never slate them for that! but being there as an adult was very very jarring for me. last time i went i took my nephew and bc it was a birthday gift for him, we spent a lot of time in the hip hop tent bc that’s where most of his fave artists were and i believe i was the oldest person in the entire tent - i was 24 at the time so because it’s full of young and inexperienced partygoers, a lot of them don’t know how to act, they don’t have concert etiquette and it can just feel like a giant expensive sweaty freshers fair at points. for example, just anecdotes from my personal experience but my nephew and i were there for a day, and in that one day: a 16 year old tried chatting me up and would not leave me alone so when i finally raised my voice at him because i’d been politely asking him to back off for 20 minutes (not least of all because he was an actual child!) he ragged my hair and pushed me over into a bunch of unsuspecting girls and they all went toppling over (lol he he wasn’t used to rejection i guess? idk); my 15 year old nephew got punched in a face by a random 19 year old lad because he asked my nephew if he sold cocaine (like WHAT he’s FIFTEEN LOL), my nephew laughed and said no, and the 19 year old got lairy bc my nephew was “taking the piss out of him” and a big fight ensued - there was no security around so it took 5ft3 me tearing this 6ft4 wasted roidhead off my nephew to get the fight to stop; i got a giant bruise on my forehead because someone launched a glass wine bottle across the crowd and of course it would hit me!! right in the forehead!! lmao; i managed to catch a gnarly sunburn that lasted for months after (even w plenty of sunscreen!) because there are barely any tented or shaded areas AT ALL, lots of people were passing out from sunstroke etc (which is common for festivals but leeds fest is particularly egregious with its poor design); my nephew got injured because he was backing away from a mosh pit that was forming in the crowd (he just wanted to hear the music and nod his head a little, he didn’t wanna go crazy or nothing) but a bunch of kids decided to push him so hard into the middle of it that they actually knocked him over and he got kicked a load of times and injured his ankle by going down on it funny (one kid actually pulled him by his shirt to throw him directly into the middle of the mosh pit, mind you we were towards the back of the crowd so we weren’t even in the middle or at the front or anything like that, so why they thought it was okay to do that is absolutely beyond me); i spent about £250 just to feed and hydrate me and my nephew for the day, but that being said i did have a few alcoholic drinks which are of course more expensive, but still! i also remember it being about £15 just to use any of the phone charging ports; there was a literal used needle in the bathroom stall i used at one point which baffled me cause like…. kids are doing heroin now? is that hip now? is that what they’re doing? the mind boggles!; a kid actually died the day we were there from an overdose, bless his poor little soul. all in all, the crowd that leeds fest seems to attract is usually quite awful. a lot of random fires, often they’ll set fire to tents in the camping areas at night time, lots of violence, lots of uncomfortable situations involving young kids being absolutely out of it. i don’t think that it being a young persons festival is a bad thing at all, and i don’t even think it’s inherently bad to have an obnoxious crowd at a festival like this - i just think that if you’re an adult or if situations like that can make you anxious/uncomfortable, it can be unpleasant. reading attracts a similar age bracket, but i believe the levels of obnoxiousness and chaos are a little lower than leeds! like i say, i don’t intend to actually slate the festival or the people that go to it - i think young people need a place where they can get to grips with substances and partying and crowd etiquette and things like that! i think that’s a good thing! but it is also my idea of hell but for lana…. i’m willing to do it i’m sorry this was so long but i hope that shed a little light on it for you!! <3 i am so glad it’s not just me being mean about leeds fest in this thread i was starting to sound like a bitter old lady omfg

truly heartbroken bc leeds fest is an actual scum of the earth festival but now i have no choice but to go 😭 hahaha

FUCK. i’m from bradford (right next to leeds) and after going to leeds fest twice as a youngster then taking my nephew a couple of years ago i swore i’d never ever go again bc it’s a truly horrible festival, but FUCK fuck fuckkkk i’m gonna have to go now FUCK

Bartender vs Madly

Off To The Races vs Summer Bummer

The Greatest vs National Anthem

Ice Spice vs Lil Wayne

oooooh that's hard! American Beauty vs Lost In Translation

part of me would loveeeeee for the next album to have a proper full blown 'era' with multiple music videos, loads of tv performances and a billion photoshoots ....but then another part of me loves how lana just doesn't bother with traditional popstar stuff and instead picks and chooses when she wants to join in w/ all that jazz

"Sun stare, don't care with my head in my hands thinking of a simpler time Like Sun Ra, feel small, but I had it under control every time" vs "Don't say you need me when you leave and you leave again I'm stronger than all my men except for you"

Barbie vs Pulp Fiction

Cult Leader vs Heavy Hitter

Kintsugi vs Your Band Is All The Rage

Doin Time vs Be My Daddy

i wanna go so bad but i’m BROKE! with the exception of the money my grandma left me as my inheritance maybe i should use it to go, i think it’s what she would’ve wanted x i’ll sing along to the grants in her honour xoxo

the desire for a new lana album vs the knowledge that she needs to take her time if we want it to be exceptional

A Streetcar Named Desire vs Some Like It Hot

Fuck It I Love You vs 1949

Fuck It I Love You vs Diet Mountain Dew

Marina Diamandis vs Becky Hill