2011

2011 (MMXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (dominical letter B) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2011th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 11th year of the 3rd millennium, the 11th year of the 21st century, and the 2nd year of the 2010s decade.

2011 was designated as:

It was marked by a wave of revolutions in the Arab World known as the Arab Spring, including the beginnings of several unresolved protest movements and armed conflicts.

Events

January

World record

A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond. The website RecordSetter has begun to take on the same territory, but with a more inclusive policy, as users submit videos of record attempts in order to try to receive a world record. The website challengers.guinnessworldrecords.com is similar to RecordSetter, as the record attempts are judged by Guinness World Records adjudicators, but the records to attempt are provided beforehand.

Terminology

In the United States the form World's Record was formerly more common. The term World Best was also briefly in use. The latter term is still used in athletics events, including track and field and road running) to describe good and bad performances not recognized as an official world record: either because the event is a non-qualifying event (e.g. the 150 m run or individual events in a decathlon), or because it does not fulfil other criteria of an otherwise qualifying event (e.g. the Great North Run half-marathon, which has an excessive downhill gradient). The term is also used in video game speedrunning when someone achieves the fastest possible time for the game and category.

Reading and Leeds Festivals

The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual rock music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend, sharing the same bill. The Reading Festival is held at Little John's Farm on Richfield Avenue in central Reading, near the Caversham Bridge. The Leeds event is held in Bramham Park, near Wetherby, the grounds of an historic house. Campsites are available at both sites and weekend tickets include camping. Day tickets are also sold.

The Reading Festival, the original and senior of the two, is the world's oldest popular music festival still in existence. It has had various musical phases over the years, as detailed below. In the twin-site era, rock, alternative, indie, punk and metal have tended to dominate.

The festivals are run by Festival Republic, which was divested from Mean Fiddler Music Group. For promotional purposes during 1998–2007 they were known as the Carling Weekend: Reading and the Carling Weekend: Leeds. These titles were seldom used when not required, although NME were contractually obliged to do so as part of its involvement. In November 2007, the organisers welcomed "Reading Festival reclaiming its prestigious name" when the sponsored title was abolished after 9 years. In 2011, the capacity of the Reading site was 87,000 and the Leeds site was 75,000. This was an increase of several thousand on previous years.