Reading Festival's modern era began in 1989, and since the Leeds site was added in 1999 the twin festivals have closed out the UK summer every August Bank Holiday. The posters below trace the whole story: the indie and grunge years (Nirvana's era-defining 1992 appearance), the Britpop mid-90s, the rise of the co-headliner, and the six-headliner, two-main-stage format the festival has run since 2021.
A few worth zooming in on: 1992, when Nirvana headlined and Kurt Cobain arrived on stage in a wheelchair; 2005, with a young Arctic Monkeys buried at the bottom of the smallest stage a year before they were main support; 2004, the year the crowd bottled 50 Cent off the main stage; and 2020, the poster for the edition COVID cancelled — a line-up that never happened.
