Glastonbury 2007 pt2: the festie!

[The_Reverend_M]

Less mud next time please!!! Kind'a ruined things for me, got so knackered most days that I either didn't bother to go see things and slept right through them! Though to be fair some days were spent sleeping due to being up munted til 8am Sunday was a bad one for that, up at 3pm - ate and wandered then back to bed at 7pm til about 9:30am Monday morning ...! Sunday was a write off! T'was all about Sat night on the G Stage pour moi. Adam F was a mediocre warm up (seemed like he could barely be arsed, hardly even mixing tracks), Freq Masty was wicked (going back and forth between breaks and dubstep - dubstep version of 'Ghost Town' was killer!), Bong-Ra was suitably mental and Andy C reminded me why he's the best straight down the line DnB DJ going - often playing two tracks at once and making them work as one effortlessly, bringing in the next track just as you're getting bored of the current one and for a festie wheeling LOADS of the classics out ('valley of the shadows', 'ska', 'the vault', planet dust', 'the nine' ... i could go on!) ... I need that set!!!

Other highlights ... brothers bus cider ... !!! ... Arcade Fire ... pieminister ... the jungle drummer ... the neville staples band ... atmosphere at the stone circle ... inflatable air bed (never doing a festie without one again!) ... wandering with Bluestreak on the wed night munted off our faces on a variety of consumables chatting shite at each other for about three hours!

 

[JTG]

Could anyone who made the G Stage on Saturday afternoon/evening please stop mentioning it? It's making me miserable

Bastards.

 

[The_Reverend_M]

We never made it further east than Jazz World, and that's a real shame. I missed out on so much of the site, but it was impossible to do even 1/2 the amount of walking that's normally possible.

Too true, brother

 

[Pieface]

my best bit was undoubtedly Bjork - she was fucking amazing - it was like a rave at the end

The sucky bit was getting caught in a jam afterwards and deciding to fight my way to a fenceline to get out the crush only to be stuck there for half an hour with girls having panic attacks and trying to stop people climbing over the fence into the market stalls. To be honest it probably wasn't that big a crowd but it totally freaked me out and ruined my high - dumbass had just done some MDMA and came up just as it all got quite nasty :

It was pretty good but I didn't have that *moment* I wanted - ALL of my glastos have been wet - starting to think it's my fault or something.....!!

Trash City was ace - Dead Silence on sunday morning rocked completely and they managed the entertainment in there really well. Saw the Tofu Love Frogs as well and they aren't as hideous as the name would suggest

Thank fuck for the van but it is so muddy now - getting scrubbing tomorrow....

 

[JTG]

we tried to get hold of you and Dub Friday night but didn't manage it

 

[Firky]

has that geordie you collared turned up?

 

[Firky]

my best bit was undoubtedly Bjork - she was fucking amazing - it was like a rave at the end

*stabbed in the heart*

I missed her



the pain...

 

[Firky]

Oh yeah, I met JTG again. He has a very calming personality - its good to have at a festival

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

she really was one of the best bits from the couch

i thought the pain was in your calf muscles from dragging boots oot of gloopy mud?

 

[nosos]

she & her partner in crime got a lift with us... eventually.. took them ages to across the site lugging all their loot but they were still bouncing around like loons.. then we all got in the back of the city mobile where we got blotto on 'geebs'.. when we got to her house, maestrocloud would have been quite happy to have slept on the street.. but thankfully between three of us we were able wake her enough to climb the front steps.

curse that geebs! it's responsbiel for much sin!

 

[JTG]

Oh yeah, I met JTG again. He has a very calming personality - its good to have at a festival

lol

 

[pennimania]

Just got back!!!!

skim read the thread - will post more tomorrow or is it today

 

[nosos]

bees' brother fucking his ankle over sucked, but the decision to leave site on Sunday afternoon was possibly the best decision we could have made (esp since ive been in hull since we got back sorting my dads house out thats flooded) but..

As much as I hate to take pleasure in Phil's pain it really was for the best, even if it meant missing pendulum. As it stands I had the best fucking glasto yet but I fear if I had stayed my OCD about the dirt would have ruined it a bit. Hope your folks are ok. x

 

[nosos]

I spent tonight with a load of the Coventry people I was supposed to meet up with at Glasto. The glasto virgins had a fucking ball and the non-virgins all said it was their best yet.

 

[Firky]

lol

Its good to know there is always someone more fucked than yourself at a festival

 

[Firky]

she really was one of the best bits from the couch

i thought the pain was in your calf muscles from dragging boots oot of gloopy mud?

Nah, it is missing Bjork because you broke a promise. I deserved it!

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Ah well bonny lad, sleep tight! Dreams of mud i reckon

 

[belboid]

I hated Banksy's Boghenge. He was totally taking the piss by putting it in the stone circle field

oh come on, it was way better than that fake stone circle, erected and adored by morons. it would be way better of that thing was ripped out and replaced by a proper replica of stonehenge made out of portaloo's - an actually semi-appropriate updating of an ancient tradition, rather than some simple minded copying of it (that entirely misses the point of why such circles were erected in the first place).

A fun festival for mem even tho my phone wopuld only work in the mornings. So I could barely ever even attempt to arrange a meetup with anyone, all of which failed miserably,

I managed 9 of my 12 must see's - 10 if you include the 10 minutes of seasick steve i heard when going past the queens head. great to see broken family band doing a set they obviously really enjoyed playing - and in a venue that was fairly small an dry! iggy was, of course, absolutely amazing. and the arctic monkeys pulled off their headlining set very nicely, diamonds are forever was bloody great.

and then there was seeing Inner City Unit with only a few dozen other people - clearly most couldnt be arsed to make the trek after shirley bassey, the fools. brilliant (if rather short) show.

bit of a pisser leaving the site only to discover that sheffield was completely flooded and it would take us hours to weave a bizarre route home, still , at least we didnt have to sleep in the car, which was looking likely at one point.

 

[William of Walworth]

nipsla - feel proud of the effort you put in. Having a limited look behind some of the scenes at Glastonbury makes me appreciate what a massive operation it is for all involved. I packed tabards and laminated passes before doing my smiling and pointing act - you did your bit, others did theirs. It's an awesome thing to see

The more I read about the bus station fiasco on Sunday night/Monday morning, the more I feel it was a mistake to increase the numbers yet again. How on earth is a site in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by country lanes and half a dozen miles from the nearest (pretty small) town supposed to cope with such a massive operation to get people on and off site?! The fact is that it failed dismally and a huge rethink is needed before they even consider such a vast capacity next year. I was extremely lucky to be able to walk straight on to the Oxfam Stewards' coach but looking at the thousands of people queueing in the mud and pissing rain with all their gear and no idea when they may be able to get on a coach let alone get home and dried off made me wonder what the future holds for the festival. Is this going to be repeated next year and the years after that? it'd be just as bad in 30+ degrees heat so it's vital this gets sorted or the numbers are cut.

Sorry but everything I heard about the coaches - whether National Express, shuttle buses to Glastonbury/Shepton Mallet/Bristol or the See Tickets operation - was so ridiculous it simply wasn't funny.

Bit in bold. I agree they MUST have a rethink, at the very least as far as traffic management is concerned, but the licence now granted -- at least in terms of numbers -- is for the next 5 years I think ... or was it to 2010?

The organisers do work with the Police though, and these days the Police generally co-operate, and whatever the faults of the A&S Police, helping Glastonbury to rethink traffic management must surely be what they're capable of -- in terms of detail at least. The cops are supposed to be having a co-oerative/constructive relationship with the Festival these days after all.

Learning from mistakes innit. The post festie feedback/reports within the Council and to the Council from Police, Ambulance, etc. are my constant October reading on Mendip's site

Do Oxfam make representations?

They're dull and bureaucratic, those reports but often contain hidden nuggets of useful information

For some versions of Glasto obsessed nutters anyway ...

 

[bluestreak]

well, i've finally made it home, via a stop-over in oxford last night. truly fantastic time. highlights were arcade fire, bjork, beirut, pendulum, the broken family band, watching the solstice with the rev, and converting sunday night from a write-off due the being soaked to skin and unable to find anywhere warm to dance and do geeb and other naughties and instead getting seven people stripped down to their undercrackers wrapped in duvets into a two-three person tent and then finishing off the (what we thought we going to be meagre) supplies of drugs only to discover that we actually had such stupid amounts that we only emerged completely fucked at 1pm on monday. lowlights were some of my mates getting arrested at castle cary, the fact that the wicket field was crazy packed this year instead of being relatively spacious and peaceful, and the rain on sunday night that basically destroyed the traditional last-night-of-festival crazy party for most people. oh and being given the fear by some bloke in the carpark who claimed to have been there queuing since half-nine in the morning (this was at about seven or later). the driver wasn't happy at all, but we queued for no more than an hour, if that. though i did get a bit sick of helping push cars out of the mud - though the camaraderie was kind of cool. all in all i'm not convinced it was the best Glastonbury ever because of having literally all my clothes soaked through, but i don't think i ever stopped having grade A fun and games. will read this thread when i'm supposed to be working tomorrow and find out how everyone else's was.

 

[William of Walworth]

my best bit was undoubtedly Bjork - she was fucking amazing - it was like a rave at Saw the Tofu Love Frogs as well and they aren't as hideous as the name would suggest

You got to see them at least -- Leftfield was that?

They failed to play their Lost Vagueness set as I mentioned a lot earlier ... and

 

[nosos]

Do you know what happened to king blues part 2 will?

 

[William of Walworth]

Do you know what happened to king blues part 2 will?

No -- I never saw them at all or got anywhere near for usual fucked up reasons ...

 

[William of Walworth]

Everything will be even better next year -- in the hot sunshine!

Goodnight all ...

 

[nosos]

King blues part 1 was ace.

King blues part 2 never happened despite me dragging bee's bro & missus to leftfield at 2:05 on Sunday morning.

King blues part 3 happens tomorrow

 

[paolo]

but the licence now granted -- at least in terms of numbers -- is for the next 5 years I think ... or was it to 2010?

AFAICR... 5 years including this one, so 2011

 

[paolo]

Everything will be even better next year -- in the hot sunshine!

Goodnight all ...

What a great good night thought.

 

[William of Walworth]

 

[William of Walworth]

AFAICR... 5 years including this one, so 2011

Oh that's right, I remember now. But 2011 is due to be a year off if current patterns of years offs continues.

You know what, if 2008, 2009, 2010 ALL turn out to be dry, hot and sunny it wouldn't be excessive as payback for what we've been through this weekend!

I'm currently looking for a shortterm 2007 payback in terms of mid to late July and all of August being a scorcher period -- five camping festivals from WOMAD onwards, consecutive weekends. I'd better not see a drop of rain at any of them!!

 

[Sunray]

Blimy! I shot an email to Funktion One to complain about the sound system being so rubbish, not expecting a reply, but I did get one!

The tone was very defensive and they are going to do a press release tomorrow on their website defending their position. They are suggesting they were forced to set it at unworkable levels.

Thing is, I think that as one of the leading suppliers of sound equipment, they should have asked, how loud can we go? Given that the Glade are making a lot of bones about how their F1 supplied sound system can keep the levels down for the locals and yet keep the punters happy, it not unreasonable to think they would ask this. I'll read their release with interest.