Facts.

2015 was many things; it marked the Chinese year of the Sheep, the Re-election of David Cameron and the year that Festival Republic pushed us too far. For many years Leeds Festival has been treated as second best to Reading and had it not been for the callous act of removing the Silent Disco we probably would not have done anything about it. But no more. It has come to light that this goes far beyond the Silent Disco, the injustices extend to secret sets, BBC coverage and overall quality and care shown by the organisers. But this was not an out-of-the-blue decision, there has been a steady increase in the Reading Silent Disco capacity and a decrease in Leeds. Back in 2012 there were two silent arenas in Reading, one in orange camp and one in red camp, each holding 3,000 people at a time. In Leeds we had only one Silent arena holding 6000 people – this is where the equality ends. In 2013 Reading capacity was maintained whereas Leeds lost 1000 headphones. The next year those 1000 headphones lost in Leeds resurfaced in Reading where Orange Camp arena capacity increased to 4000. Tragically in 2015 Leeds Festival attendees mourned the sudden loss of the silent disco, the empty space where it once sat tugging at the hearts of all those who made so many memories there.Thus, the lack of somewhere safe to go at night, caused this year at Leeds many acts of disruption and abominable displays by the fellow campmates, obvisouly resorting to violence to entertain themselves, but, at Reading this loss was not felt as their total capacity between their two Silent Discos increased massively to 10,000 headphones. The most obvious and rational conclusion is that Leeds Festival suffered so that Reading Festival could gain. Unfortunately for us the injustices do not end there. In 2010 there was the introduction of ‘Secret Sets’ and NOFX were the first to participate, this was (not surprisingly) a Reading-only secret set. This would be less of an injustice if it had been a single occurrence but it was continued in 2011 with a Green Day Reading-only secret set and in 2014 with a Jamie T Reading-only secret set. There has never been a single instance of a Leeds-only secret set. (Foals this year does not count as they also played Reading). This does nothing but further the argument of bias in favour of Reading. So what are we paying for? Where is the sense of equivalents between the two “twin” festivals? In the past ten years weekend ticket prices have risen from £135 to a massive £218. This is before buying a £20 early entry ticket, £16 locker, a tent good enough to withstand 4 days of drinking , food and drinks for the weekend unless you fancy paying the extortionate prices of food and drink in the arena which will rob you of approx. £8 a meal and £2 for a bottle of water. The prices continue to rise and the quality, in Leeds at least, is only decreasing rapidly. If this has reached anyone from Festival Republic please do not think we hate Leeds Fest, we love it. This is why we are campaigning, we just want back the festival we love. Many of us look forward to it every year, travel for hours to get there and see it as the highlight of our summer, this is why we are so heartbroken over the actions taken these past years. If this is Festival Republic’s way of saving money then surely at least one of the silent discos in Reading would have been removed instead of upgraded and increased? This is seen to us as the beginning of the end of Leeds Fest, if you are going to take away our Silent Disco what is stopping you from taking our Piccadilly Circus or our Relentless tent? Without any explanation on your part we are left fearing the worst. Save our Silent Disco. This speech was wrote by - @stanzemelon.