Why Leeds and Reading Festival is a post-GCSE results day rite of passage for many people including ourselves

But I would like to think there is another reason for the festivals taking place when they do; and perhaps for those who have received their GCSE results this week or their A Level results last week, it’s a similar reason why I enjoyed going to Leeds Festival back in 2002. It became this rite of passage for a young Benjamin Jackson who was just getting to grips living in the world of further education and a reset before going back to college (in my case.)

... and I could be completely correct about this idea, given that the Daily Mail have reported queues to enter both festival sites are at breaking point with "excessive bag searches" and long lines in what that publication claim is the "post-GSCE mecca." Never thought I'd agree with the Daily Mail, truth be told - but it's nice to see I'm not alone in my thinking.

Show of hands who were rewarded with festival tickets for attaining good grades during examinations ahead of your first festival experience over the bank holiday weekend? Show of hands then for those who are going to the festival to commiserate a lack of grades required and before leaping into “what next” just need to decompress from exams and full-time education? Through my computer screen, I’m imagining there are a couple of you out there.

But the prospect of being let off the leash (a little) attending a festival on your own, without adult supervision, was for me an exciting prospect. It made me feel just that little bit more adult after setting up a tent and watching Guns ‘n’ Roses play a heavily delayed headline set at that year’s festival, or sat in another field as the riots took place in a field over at Temple Newsam, with calls of “you’re breathing in s**t” as many of us watched plumes of thick, black smoke bellow from what was the toilet area.

Good times.

But it served as a complete reset from full time education and, dare I say it, a little form of “hedonism” when I wasn’t quite sure what the word meant. Fending for myself surviving on packets of noodles, some bread and of course for someone that age (that age being a drinking age), a case or two of the cheapest, yet not quite as ghastly as you’d think beer from Aldi or Lidl. I can’t quite remember that aspect - two cases of “Das Wunderlager” can do that to you though.

NationalWorld opinionist and fellow music enthusiast Will Millar gave his thoughts on the topic:

Navigating adolescence is challenging at the best of times.The ever-dramatic flooring of results, self-assessment and indecision under our feet as we try to pace from one defining stage to the next. A chance to abstract yourself from the noise is what all kids need after an anxiety-inducing results day - and I was one of the lucky ones that got to.

In a large field, somewhere in Winchester, the sun’s glare started to wane and technicolour lights began illuminating thousands of revellers - absent minded and glossy-eyed. Looking back, almost eight years down the line, that post-result festival was a glorious expedition of independence and one I'll never be able to experience, in the same way, again.

From learning how much sleep will just about get you through to your favourite act to discovering which one of your friends is your swigging soulmate for the weekend. You’ve got the space to add the finishing touches on your own identity - a part of your adolescence so puzzling, not even an A* in bio-chem can solve.