My 18th year in a row at the Reading festival

Yet another Reading festival is over and it marks the end of the Summer for me and most music fans in the UK. This year was my 18th year at the festival and apart from the miserable (and unusually cold) weather on Friday and Sunday, it was as great as always. My highlights from Friday August 28th were watching Faith No More, who were even better than they were at Download a few months ago, Placebo, Alexisonfire, Fall Out Boy and The Deftones. I was annoyed that three great bands I wanted to watch were all on different stages at the same time, whose dumb idea was it to put Billy Talent on the Lock Up stage at the same time as Faith No More on the NME stage...?! So not fair! I obviously watched Faith No More, because Billy Talent are coming back for a UK tour soon anyway.
I managed to get some photos. Lots more are on the MySpace page in the Reading Festival 2009 gallery. The Prodigy and The Blackout were the best on Saturday. God knows why Arctic Monkeys were headlining the main stage after The Prodigy, as I only recognized around two songs they played when I saw their performance on TV in the bar at the hotel I was staying in. Sunday was dull up until The Gaslight Anthem were on the NME stage, followed by Gallows, AFI and Lostprophets. I suppose I did an okay job on getting photos of the bands I saw considering I didn't have a photo pass.
A couple of face-painted festival goers. The neon face paint was seen around the site a lot, like last year.

Batman and The Joker!
Guy in a "nude" bodystocking!
Ian Watkins from Lostprophets
AFI, NME stage Sunday August 30th, 2009.
More AFI
Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem
Thursday vocalist Geoffrey Rickly
Matt Caughthran from The Bronx
Mike Patton from Faith No More
More Faith No More
Dallas Green from Alexisonfire in the NME signing tent indicating to fans making too much noise!
The Gossip's Beth Ditto in the NME signing tent
You Me At Six
Ian Brown
Enter Shikari
More of Mike Patton
Brian Molko of Placebo on the main stage, Friday August 28th.
Pete Wentz
Fall Out Boy
The Deftones on the main stage (with Dallas Green from Alexisonfire watching at the side!)
Jordan Pundik from New Found Glory on the main stage