Crime and policing at UK festivals

The Reading festival starts today, with headline acts such as the Foo Fighters, Post Malone and Billie Eilish due to perform. For the vast majority of people, the three day event will end up being a positive, fun-filled experience. For a small minority though, it will end in an encounter with the police. According to figures from the last three years, there were 93 arrests made at the festival, equating to 1.72 arrests per 10,000 people.

As our infographic, using police data, shows though, that is nothing compared to Creamfields where almost 500 people were arrested, making for a rate of 23.67. While it is at the bottom of this five-event scale, the distinctly posher Royal Ascot somehow managed to accrue 29 arrests from 2016 to 2018 - a rate of 0.32.