As festival season approaches, music fans across the UK are gearing up for a summer of outdoor fun and live music.

With so many festivals to choose from, the debate over which one is the best is in full swing. Now, a new study conducted by security training firm Get Licensed has ranked the top UK festivals based on a range of criteria - and for once, it wasn't Glastonbury that came out on top.

According to the study, Reading Festival takes the crown as the best UK festival with an overall score of 7.55, narrowly beating Glastonbury Festival, which scored 7.28. The study analysed factors such as weather conditions, ticket prices, number of acts, and social media popularity to determine the rankings.

Despite losing out to Reading Festival in the overall score, Glastonbury ranked higher in other areas. The Somerset event had more sunshine hours, the same average rainfall as Reading, and the highest number of news articles and mentions on Instagram in 2022.

It also had a cost per artist that was significantly lower than Reading's, despite its higher ticket price. In fact, Glastonbury's cost per artist was just £0.31, while Reading's was £8.67.

Reading Festival, on the other hand, was noted for its weather. With an average temperature of 17.5C in August, it beat Glastonbury's 15.1C in late June. However, Glastonbury was noted to have higher sunshine hours and tied with Reading for average rainfall.

The study also ranked Victorious Festival in Portsmouth as the third-best festival, followed by Latitude Festival in Suffolk and Download Festival at Donington Park.

Other notable statistics include:

- Glastonbury's capacity is 210,000, which is far higher than Reading's capacity of 75,000.

- Glastonbury had over 1,000 artists appearing, compared to Reading's 33.

- Glastonbury was nominated for more awards in 2022 with 11 compared to Reading's 7.

- Glastonbury had over 1 million mentions on Instagram in 2022, compared to Reading's 281,795.

- Reading had more views on TikTok with 772 million compared to Glastonbury's 443 million.

The findings of the study are sure to ignite a heated debate among festival-goers across the country. But whether you prefer Glastonbury, Reading, or any other festival in the top five, one thing is for sure: the UK festival scene is alive and well.