It used to be that attending a festival was more akin to a long trek in a distant country, with festival-goers vanishing for days on end, uncontactable by the outside world.
When they returned, battle weary and hungry, they could be assured of a ready audience as they retold their tales of epic mudbaths, day-long guitar solos and beery quagmires.
Sadly, festival goers might find the folks at home a little less interested in their stories as they can now view the entire thing, live and direct, from the comfort of their home PC.
Like Glastonbury, Live 8 and several other big music festivals, band’s performances at the Reading Festival will be available to view over the Web via a streaming Webcast, with official sponsors Tiscali providing the coverage.
The streams will be available through Tiscali with further exclusive archive footage streaming after the Festival itself.
Tiscali will also launch and host exclusive Tiscali Sessions in a specially created backstage Tiscali VIP Tent during the festival, with private performance footage being made available after the Festival.
Richard Ayers, portal director of Tiscali.co.uk converged: “Already many of the Reading audience will be buying most their music online so our involvement in bringing The Carling Weekend: Reading Festival experience to millions of online viewers only serves to prove further that broadband and entertainment are excellent bedfellows.”
The festival, now corporate branded into the “Carling Weekend Reading Festival”, takes place over the August bank holiday weekend.