Reading and Leeds 2012: Online, mobile and on demand

Making a mark with Reading + Leeds 2012 was always going to prove a challenge following the grandeur and celebration of the Olympics. Festival Republic, the organisers who put on Reading and Leeds, had got a giant new main stage and some shiny new branding, while we had a new team and some new tools to help us make the best out of three long days in Reading.

In my five years working on the Reading Festival I’ve seen Rage Against The Machine in their orange jumpsuits in 2008, photographed The XX just weeks after their album launched in 2009 and marvelled at Axel Rose as he refused to leave the stage in 2010.

However, I have to say 2012 was my favourite Reading experience ever. This was one of those times when everything goes to plan. We had live streams online and on mobile every night from 7pm for everyone who didn’t make it there themselves and performance highlights from over 67 artists for 30 days after the festival. 

Our world class photographers Steve Barney, Sarah Jeynes and Nick Pickles never failed to impress, ensuring R+L looked epic and exciting and at the same time winning new friends in artists such Rou Reynolds and Hayley Williams.

BBC Three's Greg James, Fearne Cotton and Jen Long guided users to their favourites from over 25 hours of highlights, while the @bbcreadingfest twitter account was a hive of activity, flagging up new videos as they were published, answering users’ questions and providing the first glimpses of the artists appeared on stage.

Don’t forget to call by bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds