Reading Festival Security Guard Sacked After Throwing Reveller Through Tent

A Reading Festival security guard has been sacked after he threw a reveller through a tent. You can watch the incident here:

The festival last weekend was 17-year-old Alex Fudge's very first, but his experience was tarnished on Sunday (29 August) afternoon, when he was manhandled by a security guard.

Alex said the altercation unfolded after a 'huge fire started by complete strangers' broke out on the campsite, and two security guards came to disperse the crowds, throwing one of his mates into a tent.

Around five minutes later, as the security guards were walking past their spot on the campsite, Alex said he and his mates started chanting 'w*****s!' at them - prompting a response he never could have envisaged.

Student Alex, from West Hoathly in West Sussex, told LADbible: "The two security guards turned around instantly and got extremely angry.

"The big guy you can see like pushing me around, he sprinted back."

Perhaps owed to his brightly coloured shirt, Alex said the security guard concentrated his anger on him.

He said: "He grabbed me by my shirt and then threw me backwards into a tent - unfortunately this wasn't caught on video because nobody had the mind to start filming it, because they didn't know it was gonna happen.

"Just after that he got down on his knees and knelt on me, on my legs so I couldn't move.

"Then with both of his hands, he grabbed my hair and used it to like rip my head into the ground, all the while screaming at me about how we were calling him a w****r and how he was just trying to protect us - which is a bit ironic, but at the time I didn't really think about that."

Alex said the security guard screamed at him and ordered him to get up, before grabbing him by the back of his shirt and throwing him into a group of his mates.

His ordeal still not over, Alex said he was then thrown into another tent before the security guard stood above him and ordered him to leave.

"I started walking away and he said, 'Run, I want to see you running,'" Alex said.

As well as sustaining a bruise to the back of his neck and a sore head from where his hair had been pulled, Alex said he was left badly shook up by the 'terrifying' experience.

He said: "Later on, I went back to my car via a security escort that the festival just gave me, because I was a little bit scared.

"When I got back in my car, I just sat down for about 10 seconds and then I had a bit of panic attack.

"My breathing went really, really laboured. I started crying and I was gone, my head was just gone. I was like really, really broken up."

Alex initially planned to take legal action, but has decided against it, now the dust has settled. However, he said he had reported the incident to Thames Valley Police.

Festival Republic - which runs Reading and Leeds Festival - told LADbible that the security guard had been sacked.

A spokesperson said: "The security person featured in this video has been dismissed by his employer for his unacceptable behaviour."

LADbible has contacted Thames Valley Police for comment.

Featured Image Credit: LADbible

Topics: Festival, UK News, Music

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey