Reading & Leeds Festival will be offering COVID-19 vaccinations to attendees across the two sites this weekend.
The National Health Service (NHS) is hoping the initiative will entice younger people, including 16 and 17-year-olds, to receive the jab in England. Currently more than half a million 16 and 17-year-olds have already had their first COVID-19 vaccination.
Organisers of the double festival said: “The Bank Holiday initiative means music fans at Reading [and Leeds] Festival will be able to pick up a jab as easily as a beer or a burger.”
Pop-up clinics will be available at both the Reading site at Richfield Avenue and Leeds at Brabham Park, with Reading also hosting a ‘vaccine bus’.
“The Reading vaccination clinic will also have a bus and will be open 9:30am-5pm from the Thursday through to Sunday and from 9am-1pm on Monday, with a dedicated two-hour slot for festival staff on Wednesday lunchtime and jabs for early arrivals in the afternoon,” Organisers said.
Organisers added that NHS staff will be on hand to answer any questions from festival-goers, but noted that anyone under the influence of alcohol or drugs will not be given the option to have the vaccine.
General practitioner Dr Nikki Kanani appealed to attendees to adding the ‘vaccine tent’ to their list of stages to visit while at the festival, if they are yet to be vaccinated.
Headliners for the event, which begins today (August 27) and runs until August 29, include rapper Stormzy, US artist Post Malone and former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher. Biffy Clyro, Queens of the Stoneage and Disclosure are among the other acts booked for this weekend.
Image: William Krause on Unsplash
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