Phoenix Festival 1996

The Phoenix Festival was one of the first four-day festivals in England and was set up as an alternative to the Glastonbury and Reading Festivals. 

Problems with the event reached a climax in 1996 when many festival goers missed David Bowie on the Thursday night due to problems letting people on site. Having sold out that year for the first time due to the Glastonbury Festival taking its usual year off (every 5), the organisers struggled to cope with the crowds and extreme heat. Temperatures on site exceeded thirty degrees Celsius on all days. The weekend was further marred with problems with water being unavailable in parts of the site.