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Thread: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

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    Registered User Brighton Belle's Avatar
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    Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    I wanted to collect some opinions on this.

    My daughter (just 16) is desparate to go to Reading Festival in August with a mixed group of friends age 16-17 staying in one tent. With the ticket, travel food etc its going to cost at least £250. My first instinct is that she is too young and is going to be presurised into drugs, alcohol or worse but my personal knowledge of music festivals is a bit out of date.

    Am I just being paranoid and a killjoy? Does anyone have recent experience of similar?

    Any help gratefully received!

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    She will have access to drink and drugs in school or anywhere really. She is 16 my opinion let her go and enjoy herself.

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    The festival isn't the worry.. the peer group is. If U trust your daughter's peers, then the festival should, should, pass off without incident...

    I attended rock festivals from that age and look how I turned out!!! OK, maybe not the best example... but... Yes, we had a drink, but we were sensible. That said, we all went for the music more than the social.

    (though, the social was good...)

    On occasion, my mum would drop us, go visit friends, then come back for us at end at prearranged rendevouz for us to drive back to Scotland en masse...

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Quote Originally Posted by Brighton Belle View Post
    My daughter (just 16) is desparate to go to Reading Festival in August with a mixed group of friends age 16-17 staying in one tent. With the ticket, travel food etc its going to cost at least £250.
    If she's adult enough to go then she's adult enough to pay for it herself (or at least contribute the lions share). Presumably she's at college? Does she have a part time job? If so you could agree for her to go as long as she starts saving now.

    She'll appreciate it all the more if she knows she's worked hard to get it. If she's sensible, she'll have lots of fun and be fine.

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Quote Originally Posted by Brighton Belle View Post
    I wanted to collect some opinions on this.

    My daughter (just 16) is desparate to go to Reading Festival in August with a mixed group of friends age 16-17 staying in one tent. With the ticket, travel food etc its going to cost at least £250. My first instinct is that she is too young and is going to be presurised into drugs, alcohol or worse but my personal knowledge of music festivals is a bit out of date.

    Am I just being paranoid and a killjoy? Does anyone have recent experience of similar?

    Any help gratefully received!
    dear bb, i had this with my middle son who will be 18 in 4 weeks. he has gone to the reading festival the last 2 years. i was worried, but he had the time of his life! i physically wouldn't have been able to stop him last year! i think its good for them as well, as dts said other issues can be the problem. but, when they're 16 you have to start letting go & let them deal with things for themselves.
    yes, its hard. but i'd tell her to go, to be careful & wish her a bloody good time!

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Hi brighton Belle sorry to be the kill joy but ithink it was 2 or 3 years ago 2 girls were raped on site, they have increased security but it is one of the roughest of the festival scene.

    For a young 16 year old this is not a good idea


    A good starter is the V festival in chelmsford which is much more secure, but again unless she is going with a big group this is not really suitable

    lol
    si

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon r View Post
    2 or 3 years ago 2 girls were raped on site
    That is awful, but if you worry about incidents like this, you'd never leave the house!

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    I'm with CJ, it's about having trust in your daughter and her peer group. If they can be trusted to look after each other then your daughter is probably not going to be exposed to anything that she can't get easy access to in school.

    My eldest is 19 now and she started going away for the weekend camping with a crowd for concerts and car shows etc when she was 16. I trusted that she had the common sense not to be seduced into stupid things when she was away, even although some of her friends were 'familiar' with recreational drugs. I do admit though that the first weekend she was at a concert with her pals I had a few sleepless nights.

    It's right to have worries, but like DT said if you acted on them all of the time you'd have everyone barricaded inside the house.

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Thanks for all the advice everyone. I agree its not a good idea to wrap kids in cotton wool and its not something I've ever done with mine. My daughter is already going to Newquay in July with her mates staying in a house for a week along with about a couple of thousand other year 11's apparently (Advice to anyone else - avoid Newquay in July!) and she goes to local concerts etc, staying over with friends. As long as I know where she is, that's fine.

    It was just the 'festival' thing that was the worrying factor. She's got a large circle of friends but some of them (especially the boys) seem to drink quite heavily and it always seems to be her who's looking after them, making sure they get home etc. She's a sensible girl and I trust her but she wants a good time as well and I just thought it might be a bit overwhelming.

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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    Quote Originally Posted by Brighton Belle View Post
    She's got a large circle of friends but some of them (especially the boys) seem to drink quite heavily and it always seems to be her who's looking after them, making sure they get home etc. She's a sensible girl and I trust her but she wants a good time as well and I just thought it might be a bit overwhelming.
    This is the bit that would worry me personally.

    I've always trusted 'my' daughter and more or less let her make her own decisions on most things but we've always made a point of discussing all the possible scenario's of what might happen and talked through the best way of handling certain situations.

    But, this is all well and good, 'if' you also trust her other friends and know they'd also know how to react, if something untoward happened. In this kind of situation, they need to have their wits about them and look after each other.

    Personally, I wouldn't be happy knowing my daughter, as sensible as she is, was going to be the one everyone else is relying on, to look after them!

    I'd NEED to know, there was others, she could rely on too!
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    Re: Reading Festival - Ok for a 16 yr old?

    The first time I went to Reading Festival I was 16 and it was brilliant (apart from the toilets...) LET HER GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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