What a festival! I don’t think I could ever find anywhere in the world quite like it. The atmosphere, the people, the fashions and even the portaloos all fit into this wonderful mishmash of colours and cultures, and everyone’s the same; smelly, sunburnt and overtired, yet loving the Glastonbury vibe.
Arriving at the festival site at 4.30am was possibly not the greatest idea in the world, as having to queue up in a cow herd style for hours did my back no favours (must pack less next year) but it did increase our anticipation. All the inhabitants from car park West 38 where there, ready and eager to charge through those gates. And the banter, no where else can you find people in a five hour queue so thrilled to be there.
Once in the gates, the feeling was like none other. Standing at the tip of England’s most legendary festival is incredible. From there it was deciding where to camp, lugging our stuff (in my case having a wonderful boyfriend to carry my rucksack and his, whilst I carried the tent and a couple of folding chairs. We decided on Penard’s Hill, the hill south of the site, next to the Park and overlooking all of the festival. Conveniently close to the stone circle to meet all those weird and wonderful late night revellers, close enough to the long drops, but far enough away so you couldn’t smell them (heat and long drops don’t mix very well). One word of advice is don’t camp next to the walkway.. for one, people will nick anything, and for two, no one wants their tent to change colour thanks to copius amounts of dust.
Of course living in a tent isn’t ideal, but at glastonbury it’s nothing that phases you, and once you’ve had a bacon roll or any of the other edible delights for breakfast, you’re ready to face anything. Thursday is the perfect day to explore the site, and even see a couple of bands play the Queen’s Head stage, but once Friday hits, you realise how quickly the rest of the weekend will fly by.
The first act I saw was Rolf Harris, who really got the crowd going, despite the sweltering summer sun. From there it was just a big blur. Walking from field to field, enjoying the diverse food stalls, drinking Pimms and dancing through Shangri La. Unfortunately Gorillaz didn’t live up to everyone’s expectations, but everyone else more than made up for that.
Once evening hits thousands flood to Arcadia, Shangri La and all the other hedonistic delights of Glastonbury. Expect very little sleep for any Glastonbury newbies! Then before we knew it, Saturday morning was upon us, the hottest of the hot days, and we enjoyed delights from the likes of Seasick Steve to the Scissor Sisters, topping it all with a spectacular performance from Muse.
Sunday morning arrived with a welcomed breeze, and despite the unfortunate football scores, the festival revellers remained cheery (well I did at least!). The end was near, and I was getting extremely excited about the thought of getting into a shower, but first things first Jack Johnson, Faithless and Stevie Wonder! Jack Johnson was the perfect act for finishing a lazy Sunday with a glass of Pimms. I personally think Faithless belongs to drunken club dancing, but the majority of the crowd seemed to enjoy them.
Finally, no one could have picked a better act to finish the festival off with than Stevie Wonder. What a character! The music was dazzling, and the performance even more spectacular. He finished off the set by dragging Michael Eavis onto stage and conducting the crowd into a somewhat off key rendition of happy birthday to him, but no matter what we sounded like, what a spectacular way to end the festival!
Glastonbury, I love you.
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