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Reading Festival Museum Exhibition Opens

added 16 August 2004 at 15.57

The Museum Of Reading is hosting a major new exhibition celebrating 30 years of the festival, which will festure artifacts, film and music from the event, including Kurt Cobain’s guitar as used in 1992.

The exhibition entitled, ‘Music, Mud and Mayhem - 30 Years Of The Reading Festival’ takes place at The Museum Of Reading  from 19 August until 28 November, and has been collated from massive amount of memorabilia from the event.

As well as music, film and photographs donated by participating musicians and fans alike the exhibition will tell the story of the festival from its inception in 1971* as the Festival of Arts, through its incarnation in the ‘80s as the UK premier rock event right up to the present day with its eclectic collection of genres.

As well as items from the Foo Fighters, Stranglers and Genesis, Kurt Cobain’s guitar from Nirvana’s legendary ‘Nevermind’-era performance in 1992 will also be on display.

Festival curator Matthew Williams said, “The Festival has very much become part of life in Reading over the last 30 or so years – almost everyone here is affected by it – either as fans or residents. It is a rite of passage that many young people go through and we are hoping to capture something of that sense of adventure in this exhibition.”

Admission to the exhibition and to the Museum of Reading is free, and it’s open Tuesday till Saturday 10am till 4pm, Sunday 11am till 4pm, and is closed every Mondays.

For more information call 0118 939 9800 or check out  www.readingmuseum.org.uk.

* For those who noticed the seemingly inaccurate nature of a festival started in 1971, celebrating it’s 30th birthday in 2004, after the 1983 the promoters failed to get a license from Reading Borough Council in ‘84 or ‘85 (as the site was being redeveloped) hence the 2004 festival is actually the 32nd to take place at the Richfield Avenue site.

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