It has been a difficult month for the Festival Republic crew onsite at Reading. When the site build started on July 25th, a fair amount of the site was under water from the flooding in the Berkshire area. Thanks to the hard work of all on site and massive support from Reading Borough Council and the Environment Agency, we are pleased to say that the southern leg will happen.

There are some changes for those of you planning where to camp so this is what you need to know.

The main change is that some camping will move to the Orange Campsite. The drop off point will remain but there will be no parking in this area now.

The main parking will now be in White. If you park there we strongly advise also camping there. We have increased the boat service from White and this should be a swift way into the main site. On Wednesday and Thursday, the boat will only drop at Brown to keep things moving as people get on site. From Friday, the boats will go to Brown but also to Green to make the walk to the arena shorter.

• Regarding the other campsites:
• Red is fine
• Green A is ok and parts of Green F, G and H but the rest of Green will not be usable
• Yellow will be open in the main but parts may be boggy.
• Brown will also be ok but with some unusable areas.
• White is 90% usable.

We are resigning all approaches to the event to reflect the changes if you are driving although we advise everyone to use British Rail and National Express where possible.

And, the most important bit is that the Arena is fine.

Issued: 12.00 on 21 August 2007