Reading Festival road closures: What you need to know
Traffic
The council has advised residents wanting to travel into or around the town centre between Wednesday 20 and Friday 22 August to plan their journeys in advance, leave early, and be prepared for longer travel times - particularly on Thursday.Close to normal travel times are then expected on Saturday and Sunday, but roads are expected to be very busy again on Bank Holiday Monday as festivalgoers leave the site.
Road closures
A number of road closures and other traffic management schemes are set to be in place during the festival.The Thames Path between Scours Lane to the far end of Thameside Promenade will be closed from 19:00 BST to 06:00 from Thursday 21 to Monday 25 AugustRichfield Avenue will be closed from 23:30 to 01:00 on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so that the 30,000 day ticket holders can leaveThere are also two other potential traffic management systems, which will depend on congestion levels. They are:Northbound closure of Cow Lane between Portman Road and Cardiff Road, between 07:00 and 15:00 on Bank Holiday Monday - residents are being strongly advised to avoid this areaThere could also be temporary traffic management on the Napier Road/Vastern Road roundabout, also on Monday
Parking
The council has said there will be restrictions - including no stopping for pick ups - around the Richfield Avenue site, and that residents should avoid the area unless absolutely necessary.Hills Meadow Car Park, with a postcode of RG4 8DH, will be the only dedicated area for pick up and drop off, where festivalgoers can either walk to the site or use the free shuttle boat service.There are two car parks for those attending the festival who have parking passes:Mapledurham, where a pedestrian bridge has been constructed direct to the siteKings Meadow, where there's an official, free-of-charge festival boat service to the site
Other ways of getting there
From Reading Station, the council said the quickest walking route would be via the northern side of the station. People arriving by train can also get a hackney carriage to the site, or use the shuttle bus service.There will also be a temporary taxi rank on Tessa Road, opposite the Rivermead Leisure Centre. The leisure centre will be closed from 05:30 on Wednesday to 22:00 on Monday.
Noise
The council said sound tests would take place on Thursday evening, and on each day prior to the live shows.There's a hotline for residents with questions or comments during the event, which will be answered between 09:00 and 17:00 on Wednesday and then 24 hours a day from 09:00 on Thursday to 15:00 on Monday.The number is 020 8080 1518, and residents can also email ReadingFestivalHotline@reading.gov.uk.
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Stamp always looked magnificent on screen – 'bone structure…my father had it too', he once explained, in a suitably offhand fashion – but what he does here is to turn Hardy's superficially seductive but weak and vacuous rake-sergeant into a figure of such gravitational draw that it's impossible not to imagine the entire cast, male and female alike, signing up to enlist if he'll be their officer in charge. 3. Superman II (1980) 'Kneel before Zod!' Whichever version of the Superman sequel you watch – the campier, Richard Lester-directed one or the reconstructed, statelier Richard Donner incarnation – there can be little doubt that Stamp's return to mainstream cinema proved to be well worth it. It was, of course, a payday gig, but the actor needed the work, remarking that, when he received the offer of the part, 'I remember opening the envelope, and there was a tremor in my hand. I think I knew that my life was about to change.' What Stamp does so well is to underplay the character of General Zod (in stark contrast to Michael Shannon in Man of Steel), giving him a curiously detached attitude to humanity that makes the comic-book villain seem just as inimitable a Stamp character as anyone else that he played before or afterwards. He acts everyone else – even Gene Hackman – off the screen. 4. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) Stamp expressed a certain degree of hesitation over playing the trans character Bernadette in the camp, outrageous comedy Priscilla, not because of any latent homophobia but because, touchingly, he was unsure that he was the right actor for a role that was miles away from anything that he had ever done before. The director Stephan Elliott's belief that the English thespian would do a magnificent job in the central part of Bernadette was swiftly vindicated. While his co-stars Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving camp it up to high heaven – as the picture demands – as a pair of drag queens, Stamp's still, often very affecting performance counts as one of this fine actor's very best. It was once hoped that he would reprise the role in a sequel, but alas events have terminally intervened on that score. 5. The Limey (1999) Stamp appeared in two outstanding gangster pictures as a mature actor, this and Stephen Frears' masterly, enigmatic The Hit. Either could have appeared on this brief list, but while The Hit perhaps belongs ultimately to John Hurt, there is no doubt that in Soderbergh's full-throated homage to Sixties crime cinema, Stamp is the USP throughout. There were undeniably times in the Eighties and Nineties – and beyond – where it felt as if the actor was simply bestowing off-the-peg gravitas to projects that barely deserved him. But here, he was allowed to channel far more profound emotions, and his performance as a scrappy avenging angel, by times tender, feral and primal, has to rank as one of his very greatest.
