Weapons, fireworks and drones would not be an uncommon sight on a music festival’s list of prohibited items, but those who attended one of the UK’s biggest events last week were faced with a peculiar restriction.
The organisers of the Reading and Leeds festivals listed pineapples as items attendees were not allowed to bring, neither to the campsite nor the arena.
The tropical fruit was the only produce item banned from the event, leading to allegations of ‘fruitism’.
The headliners who played at the concurrently running festivals this year were Eminem, Muse, and Kasabian.
It is thought the measures were imposed as organisers were worried the fans of indie rock band Glass Animals could take pineapples for when they performed. The fruit features in the band’s lyrics and are often taken to concerts by fans.
Unexpectedly, perhaps, many fans were determined to contravene the new measures.
Before their performances last week, the band tweeted ‘Pineapplegate is here’, urging people to ‘bring fruit’.
“It’s Fruitist. Watermelons are fine, but not pineapples?” a spokesman from Glass Animals told music industry publication NME in response.
The band added it was irresponsible to “stop young people at a festival having vital vitamin P”.
“The saddest sight I saw was someone tweeted a picture of a bin going into the arena where security had just been throwing all of the pineapples. A bin full of pineapples was so sad,” frontman Dave Bayley was quoted as saying.
“Some people got creative. There were at least five real pineapples in the crowd, which is actually pretty good considering they were cracking down on everything – inflatable pineapples were getting chucked away.”
Bayley went on to say the pineapple situation was “so out of control”, but funny too.
“There were thousands of inflatable pineapples at the show yesterday. There were people riding them through the crowd. I don’t know if I’ll ever get sick of it, but maybe it might be worth moving on to pomegranates or something…. melons.”
