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Glasto veterans - when was the golden age of glastonbury?

Agent Sparrow

Agent Sparrow

the age of slippers and migraines
I'm a rather new glastonbury convert. :oops: I've only been to two (first one 2005), and it seems that a lot of people who have been going for years are saying that the best has past/it's going downhill. Some of their reasons I can empathise with (people weeing in the river, dumping tents etc.), other reasons seem a bit more unfair and/or highly subjective.

But anyway, that's not so much the issue. I'm interested in when people think this golden age was. I'm guessing people will have different opinions on this, so what I would like to know is:

When were the best few years for you?
Why?
Is it losing it's edge?
In all honesty, is there anything about the rose tinted glasses about your favourite years?
 
it's hard to say, it's been such a different beast

different periods have different things to represent them, from the fucked up, Mad Max-esque late 80s to the way it is now. Something has been lost, other stuff has been gained. I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
 
Dubversion said:
I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'd really like to experience a non muddy one at somepoint.

So in essence, is it that madness has been replaced by less people and drainage?
 
Dubversion said:
it's hard to say, it's been such a different beast

different periods have different things to represent them, from the fucked up, Mad Max-esque late 80s to the way it is now. Something has been lost, other stuff has been gained. I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
Click to expand...

I agree with Dub on this - one day of sun and there would have been such rewards. Yes, the event has changed - I miss some things, welcome others. What is great is that it has spawned a huge number of other festivals, Sunrise, for example. What you can do at Glastonbury now is find an area you really like, and then look for littler festivals which are focused on that area, eco, for example, or dance. Whatever you love.

It's too easy to slag things off, I loved it, despite the rain, and managed to pack a lot in.
 
First one word answer in a Glasto thread ever ...

Dubversion said:
different periods have different things to represent them, from the fucked up, Mad Max-esque late 80s to the way it is now. Something has been lost, other stuff has been gained. I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
LD Rudeboy said:
I would have loved to attend the pre-fence era. :(
Click to expand...


horses for courses, innit. in the pre-fence area many friends of mine got their entire possesions stolen, got jacked, that sort of thing. Doesn't happen much now... 'Edge' has a price
 
Dubversion said:
it's hard to say, it's been such a different beast

different periods have different things to represent them, from the fucked up, Mad Max-esque late 80s to the way it is now. Something has been lost, other stuff has been gained. I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
Click to expand...

^ sums it up I think.
 
predictably also agree. there's a lot of arse talked about how everything was better back in the day, and some stuff was indeed very good in the mid/late eighties...but there have been some great developments in the past few years too :)

felixthecat said:
^ sums it up I think.
Click to expand...
 
Dubversion said:
horses for courses, innit. in the pre-fence area many friends of mine got their entire possesions stolen, got jacked, that sort of thing. Doesn't happen much now... 'Edge' has a price
Click to expand...
Completely agree and is one of the reasons I rarely attend techno squat parties these days.

It's just that I can't compare as I never made it pre-fence and despite the problems you mention I would have liked to experience attending then. It sounds like a completely different festival now.
 
My first times were 1999 and 2000 - bloody loved it but the fence was/is completely necessary - the amount of people there was ridiculous - it could take an hour or more to walk between stages!!! I certainly don't miss that.

Agree that this year had the potential to be one of the best if not for the damn mud! Was just too knackering to pull your feet through it - I slept more at this Glasto than at any before ...!
 
this was probably the best, though that's not hard for me. '97 was bloody years ago, utterly ridiculous but nevertheless we managed to have fun. last year could've been extremely good, but was not. this year was great! :)

:cool:
 
Yey, glad that not everyone thinks it's definitely past it's peak! :)

It's just a bit disheartening to have lots of people go on about how it's not as good as it used to be, when you're thinking "but it's bloody good now!" As I said, some of the reasons I can understand, like the pissing in the stream and the dumping of stuff (did people not used to piss there a few years back?), but when it's stuff like the "atmosphere" being different and nowt else, it's a bit confusing to see what could have possibly changed so much, and how so.

I saw elsewhere about rape and muggings happening one year. :( I'd rather bypass that and lose the "atmosphere" a wee bit.
 
I remember some pre-fence Glastonburys. There was more violence and intimidation definately. If you didn't get stuff in your tent nicked it was either because you had nothing or they simply hadn't got round to you.

The flipside was the sheer quantity of drugs freely offered for sale.
 
I've never been and will probably never go, but I'm totally fascinated by it.

I've started to think it's the real British festival - something that represents this country's true culture... :) (one big aspect of it, anyway)
 
Dubversion said:
I do think, though, that if the weather had been good this year had potential to be amazing, there was so much to do...
Click to expand...

I think this is the main factor in my feelings about this year. Missed opportunities - it could have been wonderful but it really wasn't (for me anyway).
 
The_Reverend_M said:
My first times were 1999 and 2000 - bloody loved it but the fence was/is completely necessary - the amount of people there was ridiculous - it could take an hour or more to walk between stages!!! I certainly don't miss that.
Click to expand...

I thought this year had the highest attendance ever?
 
floria_tosca said:
I thought this year had the highest attendance ever?
Click to expand...


only officially. the last pre-fence glastonbury is reported to have had as many bunkers as payers. Hence the fence. and the mayhem
 
The best years were those prior to 93. That was the year they stopped allowing the travellers in. Prior to that the travellers would park up in the Greenfield and put on amazing shows and bands. They sold food and other things at very reasonable prices. To me, that's what it was all about. The festival was far smaller then too and cheaper.

In the late eightees for the first time I saw people raving next to small sound systems. Lots of festivaly underground bands like Gaye Bykers on Acid and Doctor and the Medics.

I think Glastonbury got so big, because there were so few other festivals going on and people were just gagging to go to a festival.:)
 
I never went after the big fence went up so I've got nothing to compare it to. I went from 95-2000 several times....I either went over the fence or was volunteering on a landrights campaign stall, and both were loads of fun.

It was amazing every time I went, and I'm sure it would be amazing if I went again in the future. Different, maybe, but I'm sure it would be just as good - in a different way.

There are ups and downs to the way it was before and the way it is now. In the olden days, you could get all your stuff nicked, and that probably wouldn't happen now. I can't say whether the atmosphere is better or worse now than it was, but since the fence went up I've found myself seeking out less commercial, less organised, more diy-style festivals just because that's what I'm into. I just don't have the gagging desire to go to glasto that I used to. If I could get in for free though (eg. volunteering or involved in something creative) then I'd go like a shot.

What it used to have, which I get the impression it doesn't have now, was the atmosphere of a free party (we used to stay almost completely in the greenfields). And it literally WAS free, cos no-one I knew ever paid for a ticket, as did half the people at the festival, and there was the thrill of getting over the fence and chatting with loads of random people and everyone was up for it.

I don't think there was necessarily a 'golden age' - but it just morphed from one very good thing into another very different good thing, which is what happens to festivals when more people want to go to them year after year if they keep increasing the capacity.
 
The next Glasto will be the golden age.
Thats why I keep going.
They've all been brilliant in there own way.
I had , mud, sun, rain, seen the main acts, seen the small stage acts.
Its that happy feeling that occurs there that I need to fill up on and confirm my faith in the goodness of my fellow man.
Roll on 2008
Peace and love to all Glastonauts.
 
19sixtysix said:
The next Glasto will be the golden age.
Thats why I keep going.
They've all been brilliant in there own way.
I had , mud, sun, rain, seen the main acts, seen the small stage acts.
Its that happy feeling that occurs there that I need to fill up on and confirm my faith in the goodness of my fellow man.
Roll on 2008
Peace and love to all Glastonauts.
Click to expand...

fecking hippy :mad:

:p
 
1997 cos radiohead did one of their best ever gigs. And for two hours... I felt something I've never experienced before or since :confused:

radiohead-live02.jpg



edit to add: and also it didn't cost me a fucking thing to get in and i did it all on about £50, plus there was more of a... I dunno, you would do someone a favour like helping out for an our two would earn you a beer. can't see that happening now, some of the stewards are little f'ing jobsworths' with their high-vis vests on.
 
firky said:
some of the stewards are little f'ing jobsworths' with their high-vis vests on.
Click to expand...

:rolleyes:

most of us jobsworths are trying to make sure you all have a happy and safe festival. sometimes we have to tell people what to do because otherwise someone may get hurt.

Sorry.
 
Iemanja said:
I've started to think it's the real British festival - something that represents this country's true culture... :) (one big aspect of it, anyway)
Click to expand...

Not really.. the pub, Chicken Delight, tea and cakes with the vicar, are all far more accurate representations.

:)
 
JTG said:
:rolleyes:

most of us jobsworths are trying to make sure you all have a happy and safe festival. sometimes we have to tell people what to do because otherwise someone may get hurt.

Sorry.
Click to expand...

That is fair enough, I have stewarded events myself but a little common courtesy can go a long way, rather than, " g' fuck out of my way". Because a couple of pissed teenagers were trying to crawl under one of the fences. They were so drunk that he could have strolled across rather than bowling across at a 100mph knocking my mate and some woman flying. He was then pretty aggressive in handling the drunk girls, not heavy handed or owt - simply nasty in his language.

Of course that could have been the 100th time they tried to crawl under the fence but it was a total over reaction. although I have to laugh at that I got away with out so much as being splatted with mud and my mate and the woman ended up in the mud hehe.
 
the best times wre the late eighties, simple as.

okay, the bands weren't quite as big as they get now, but:

prices were reasonable - about a weeks dole money, and fence jumping was possible but not 'overbearing'

numbers weren't ridiculously high, so you could get from the main stage to a smaller one even after fairly big act

crime - other than drug related -was still pretty minimal

the weather was better (85 excepted)

travellers fields meant there was far more unpredicatable goings on

hardly any 'professional hippies' - selling you their shitty 'arts' at ridiculously over-priced prices
 
personally i preferred it prefence, though it did get pretty on top the last year before the fence with loads of dodgy gangs visibly working the site.

Thing i missed the last couple of times i'd been was being able to wander round and find little rigs kicking off all over site late at night once the main stages had finished, there used to be a rig in half the campsites (well the ones heading upto stone circle anyway). OK so you've got lost vagueness, which is great, but that was just about it other than stone circle and a couple of backstage bars.
 
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