Well it turned out to be quite the scorcher down in old Somerset for Glasto’s 40th birthday, which my snake-skin arm is certainly a victim…
Let’s start with the positives.
1. Water was £1.50 – we were super amazed by this as from previous experiences teeny tiny bottles of water are £2 onwards but to get a litre for this was possibly the highlight of the festival!
2. Rolf Harris – the headline acts had nothing on this man – 80 years old and can still get the crowd going. I’m going to put it out there – Rolfie was the highlight for me.
3. Burger vans were hard to find. This was absolutely amazing – instead of getting the usual festival bloatedness from eating shit there was actually a variety of tasty foods on offer! We hit the Aussie stalls for a bit of Croc and Ostrich, Japanese. Mexican, Veggie and Caribbean stalls – the possibilities were endless!
4. Shangri-La – freaks and spectacles galore! It was amazing to hang out there late of a night to see the performers – truly talented bunch.
5. Stone Circle late at night – spent many a late night sitting up in the spiritual Stone Circle surrounded by candles and lanterns being set off. Beautiful.
6. The bands themselves. Not only did I get to see the legend that is Stevie Wonder and many of my other all time favourites but I saw a lot of new music which I’m definitely going to stalk and keep up to date with. I got to tick off seeing Snoop, Slash, Blood Red Shoes, Mystery Jets, Imogen Heap, Coheed and Cambria, Lightening Seeds, MGMT, Candi Staton, Editors, Rolf Harris, Faithless, Reef, Mariachi El Bronx, Reverend & the Makers and of course Florence and the Machine (sadly Flo was somewhat of a let down).
7. I was tickled pink by the American performers who continually called Glasto ‘Glaston-berry’.
(Sick of idiots waking by and calling the RIBBON TOWER a Helter Skelter)
The Downside…
The blumin’ distance to get to BBC Introducing stage and the John Peel stage! It was a proper nightmare trying to get past the pill-heads over at the Dance stages so in the end I gave up. Shame really as there was a hell of a lot of acts I wanted to see on both the BBC Introducing and John Peel stages as well as the Dance arena. But the acts I did get to see compensated for this loss.
As much as I thoroughly enjoyed myself I do feel the whole experience was let down and ruined by the 4 hour wait in a field to get in to the wristband area. I just don’t comprehend as to why they weren’t prepared for 10,000 people would turn up on one day – how dare anyone want to make the most of their £200 ticket ey! As badly as I got burnt and felt sorry for myself (luckily when I burn it goes mahogany brown the next day) I felt truly sorry for those with small children having to stand out in the heat of the day with no shade or water for the little mites. Thankfully 3 hours into the queue someone (quite probably Jesus himself) ordered the steward monkeys to go around and hand out bottles of water before we all dropped. The length and the wait time of the queue was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before in my life – either at festivals or anywhere else for that matter! But I did try to not let this ruin the whole experience… Although if I’m honest it put me in one foul mood which was thoroughly taken out on the man later on that night when I saw him and he continued to slap my burnt shoulders.
We’ve also come to the conclusion that Southerners are hideously rude (I’m yet to be proven otherwise) and were quite possibly worse than the unbearable heat… Although I would like to be proven otherwise please! I did thoroughly enjoy the rage of others that ensued for 5 further days about the lack of shade to sit in – mainly from those who’ve never stepped foot in the countryside before – NEWSFLASH you don’t get trees in the middle of a field.
Ok so not everything was perfect 100% of the time but would that put me off going again? Hell no! Me and the baby brother are already fighting over who gets first dibs on the tent for next year! Oh and as a reminder to myself – never share a tent with the man – it hots up too much!
Oh and a quick P.S. those interested in how the flash mob turned out – she said yes!
