Glastonbury 2007 pt2: the festie!

[Mr Retro]

Ahhh sorry
Thought you were having a dig, which jaed was doing on fairly cliched 'Glasto, it's all posh these days' lines yesterday, in another thread.

Don't know much about horse racing, but I do know some serious followers who treat the racing calendar as as inviolable/sacrosanct as the festival calendar is for some of us. Can respect that even if for racing, I find it incomprehensible personally

But if you can make Glastonbury next year, do it

Bloddy over sensitive glastonbury hippy

 

[tastebud]

i agree wholeheartedly that the best bit was bjork. she fucking blew me away. best thing i've seen live i think & i wasn't even in to her before glasto.

i also ran into friends that i haven't seen for seven years on sat night in the dance area which was really cool. i recognised her by the way she dances

e2a: the singer from the Specials was also fucking ace! amazing show!

 

[Dubversion]

great to see broken family band....

fuck - so we NEARLY met up then

and then there was seeing Inner City Unit with only a few dozen other people

fucking missed this

 

[newbie]

To me the best thing would be if Mendip, rather than revoking the licence, were to add some specific safety conditions to it for next year. (Not sure if they have the legal power to do this). Conditions like making sure all paths round Ped gates are solid, or at least gravel/well drained and not liable to get as muddy as they did, would be one. (Not terribly costly either to do that work, I'd have thought).

what would that achieve? Newcomers are going to have to step in mud sometime, why does not having mud at the gates make any odds?

Personally I'd like to see a lot more seating around and about, because although the mud can't be defeated, being able to sit down occasionally makes it a lot more tolerable. Especially in places where there's a lot of standing around going on, and that certainly includes the gates.

the whole See coaches thing needs a complete rethink- this was the first year and it seemed to operate very badly, but I don't know much about the return journeys. When we left at 3 monday morning there were streams of coaches heading towards the site, as the coach curfew ended.

The other would be a totally revamped traffic management system ... able for eg to cope with unexpected surges of early departures on Sunday night when the rain sets in ....

Onsite traffic management is about as good as it's likely to get. Offsite is a different matter- the stewards who are sent out to some farflung carpark are a bit resentful because they'd like to be in the festival proper and they pick up a fair amount of grief because there's a real sense that people are left to fend for themselves. Maybe there should be tractors at every carpark, but once they churn up the ground nothing will get out without assistance. I'm not sure what provision should be made to cope with one-off conditions like on sunday.

 

[Pieface]

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

I didn't meet up with anyone - I was useless

Feel especially bad about wiskey and dervish as I'd seen them briefly on wednesday when I was trollied and then not properly said hello before they went.

I was shit this year....had mates supposedly all over the site and never saw a single one!!

Tofu Love Frogs were in Trash City tent William - after Crack Village played on thursday night (Ray Winstone's daughter - they played the Redstar last year. She looked like Souxie Sioux in a gold metallic bikini They were funny as fuck. And also quite shit but you need a bit of that at a festie)

I'm starting to wonder when I'll ever get my dry one and if it will happen before I reach my limit with Glasto. It's fucking big and busy isn't it? But then you get big fuckoff acts that you don't get at lovely wee ones like Endorse It. Electric Picnic is my current fave as they get the lineups without the 100s of thousands of people. But then you still get the brilliant variety at G don't you? The circus and theatre and the art......

It's a balancing act and at the moment I'm still coming down on the Glasto is good side.

Next year I'll sit on my arse in the mud in protest if it's not dry And no one will care and I will be alone, in the mud, on my arse

 

[sojourner]

Next year I'll sit on my arse in the mud in protest if it's not dry

Me and me mate did a fair bit of this, but sort of unintentionally

Sorry I didn't meet up with you - I too turned out to be totally shit at meeting up with anyone who wasn't in my immediate vicinity. And even then!

 

[Pieface]

I know - I missed you too Soj

I met Pennimania though and Familymania - she has some very confident festie kids - they looked like they'd helped build the place

 

[mr steev]

Personally I'd like to see a lot more seating around and about, because although the mud can't be defeated, being able to sit down occasionally makes it a lot more tolerable. Especially in places where there's a lot of standing around going on, and that certainly includes the gates.

Most definately a good idea. I can take the mud, but the constant leg work can become a bit of an ordeal.

Our carpark experience was fine though, once we'd got there. I think that's because we deliberately hung on and got the car around 6ish, and off site in less than an hour. Most of that time was spent waiting until it was our turn to do some rally driving (which was fun ) We did get a bit of a push off a tractor at one point though... the push bar things on the fronts of the tractors were a stoke of genius, much better than having to wait to be pulled out.

 

[Skim]

But then you still get the brilliant variety at G don't you? The circus and theatre and the art......

Glastonbury is bloody hard work (whatever the weather) and it's frustrating not being able to see everything or meet up with mates, but there's just nowhere else that offers such a dazzling array of things to do and see. It's still incredible value, more so than any other festival I can think of.

 

[sojourner]

Nice to meet you btw Skim - you were the first I met up with and I'm not sure you knew who I was...thrusting me hand at you going 'skim?'

 

[Skim]

Nice to meet you btw Skim - you were the first I met up with and I'm not sure you knew who I was...thrusting me hand at you going 'skim?'

Nice to meet you too, albeit briefly! I didn't know what you looked like, so sorry if I looked a bit confused momentarily

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Greetings people. Long time listener, first time caller...

Glasto rocked. No really, it feckin' rocked. Dunno if it lived up to previous ones or if it was the best ever ('twas my first) but it was some experience. Even if I did come home with a pulled ankle ligament, a sprained (different) ankle ligament, bruised soft tissue around a bone and bruising on the bone itself. I'm on crutches, and I still think Glasto rocked.

>>>> Dawns on some people who I am now <<<<

Yeah Bjork was good, but I expected her to be good. The highlight was stumbling across stuff i'd never have gone to see if it wasn't undercover in a fucking monsoon - Lethal Bizzle and the MC bloke after him were ace. And DREADZONE!!!!!!!!!! Bom bom bom bom bom diddly bom - Niiiiice.

I like pear cider.

 

[aqua]

I told you Dreadzone rocked didn't I

 

[newbie]

our turn to do some rally driving (which was fun )

glad you thought so. At one point I felt like a complete pratt doing a nearly 360 circle in the mud in front of the Park stage in a landrover. No control at all, just sliding across the top. Happily it was very early in the morning and not many people were watching, pointing and laughing.

By contrast to my lousy driving the tractor drivers are amazing. Even the 18year old Young Farmers can manouver those huge vehicles within a quarter inch without running anyone over.

 

[tastebud]

oh and meeting and chatting to loads of new urbs whilst on 2-cb at the cider bus on weds/thurs (?)/both (?) was also very interesting. i was tripping like hell at some point, whilst talking to virtual strangers who already knew loads about me

funny

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I told you Dreadzone rocked didn't I

Can we get rid of bees and keep you?

 

[aqua]

of course

 

[pennimania]

Well we arrived home at about11.45pm last night. It was still light and apparently has not rained in any significant way while we were away. That means this part of Skye has had almost no rain for a month

I don't know where to begin. The best of times - the worst of times!???


Will just put down things as they come into my head.

Lovely to actually see some Urbanites in the flesh! Special love and kisses to the Mooses and my daughter sends a wave to Cakes

Iggy Pop! Worramadbugger!!!!!! I just love him. LOVE HIM. Best performance all weekend imo.


Also liked Lily Allan and Amy Winehouse, neither of which I would have gone to if my daughter hadn't dragged me along. Pleasantly surprised by Amy W, and we really had a laugh dancing to Lily.

Arcade Fire - brilliant. Arctic Monkeys - wouldn't have bothered but for the kids - dull as ditchwater. Billy Bragg in Leftfield- loved him.

I actually went to PROD, my first- felt a bit old and fat so didn't stay long. But having said that, the thing we all loved best was the 'gay' bar in the circus field. We found this on Sunday evening,,we were looking for something warm and undercover. They let us in despite miss mania's youth. Everyone was issued with a false moustache. I don't know when I last danced and laughed so much. The people in there were just brilliant.


What I missed most - wandering performers. I understand now that they were in the Fire tent because their costumes and gear get ruined in the mud. I didn't know this at the time, and anyway, it's a big loss to the festy not to have them around. Better luck next time.

The Kidz field has not changed at all and there was still grass there when we visited, in faact we still had grass round our tent on the Monday morning cos we were up in Family camping. Looking at the editor's post apocalypse pix makes me wonder how people coped at all.

I do agree with William about the approach paths - of course people must go through the mud at some point, but when everyone is dragging heavy gear through some very restricted spaces eg 'The Wall of Death' up by pedestrian gate B, it is a wonder no-one was injured. Perhaps they were for all I know.

The situation in the carparks was alarming to put it politely. Someone could easily have been killed by cars slithering out of control when they finally got going. There were serious welfare issues too- no water- no food - no toilets -no information. We waited about 4 hours, many had been there twice as long. I'm certain a lot of cars will have sustained clutch trouble, we are lucky that we have a 'country' type vehicle. <waits to be called Tabitha>

One had no choice about peeing in the hedge then.

Don't want to end this bit on negative note so here is something that entertained me as I was slushing along.

There were some opportunistic chickens merrily picking over the newly turned earth in one car park. It is a very ill mudstorm indeed that does no-one any good.

 

[pennimania]

I know - I missed you too Soj

I met Pennimania though and Familymania - she has some very confident festie kids - they looked like they'd helped build the place

Too confident

this year was the first time I realised just how little fear they have. I often did not know where the boy one was Bad parent syndrome.

The girl has absolutely no fear of charging off in the teeth of tractors, surging crowds - mud - what mud? Didn't hear her moan about the mud at all - other things yes. But not the mud.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

All the urbanites I met for the first time, and to those i'd met but got to know a lot better - i'm bees' bro btw (younger, better looking, and infinitely more virile!) - a big hello & thanks for "guiding" me & the mrs through popping our Glasto cherries.


Some bloody role models you are

 

[aqua]

you said I was a fine role model

 

[dirtysanta]

depsite the mud, fucking brilliant. Shame i didnt meet up with Dub + Piebonce, Firks and Yetman. Sat on my phone on Friday, which called someone and used all of my credit. Cant believe i couldnt get a credit on site. Didnt make it the Pussy Parlure even though i said i would. ( sorry dub. Iv still got your shirt BTW

Got home monday about 9pm. Very lucky not to get stuck in the mud on the way out.

Anyway, highlights for me were definately the Broken Family Band (Steve Adams blatantly fucking chuffed to be there and that came across in their set. Thoroughly lifted me

Chas n Dave. Knees up, pissed up in the only bit of sunshine i saw. Had a lovely afternoon dancing with ma girlfriend.

Hard fi . I know folks here dont like them but i do. It was a nice last minute suprise. They were right up for it and i thought they were terrific.

Iggy and the stooges. "its your festival. Take over. Take over. Let them up ! LET THEM UP." . Fucking chaos. Never seen anything like it. Loved their set.

And finally The Who. Im still speechless. Considering Daltry and Townshend are in their 60s it was fucking magic, they were magic.


The lowpoints - Hippies. Everywhere!!
10lbs of mud on each wellie means i now got thighs like Fatima WHitbread. Im fucked.
Being forced to see Babyshambles. What a shambles. WHy the fuck does he keep wheeling out his fucking missus. Piss off. Im not interested. Leave yer bint at home.
The prices. £3 for bacon roll. £6.50 for fags , £2 for a little bottle of water.
Running out of phone credit before the festival really started and not being able to contact ANYONE.
Missing Arcade Fire.

Til next year, then.

 

[Dubversion]

(younger, better looking, and infinitely more virile!)

to be fair, so's my nan.

 

[aqua]

look you old bastard, you leave him alone

 

[newbie]

And finally The Who. Im still speechless. Considering Daltry and Townshend are in their 60s it was fucking magic, they were magic.

On the stage road I had words with the driver of a flash Merc who was tooting people out of the way and being a bit too pushy. Turned out the two elderly gents in casual jacket and slacks in the back were part of the Oo.

Personally I think all popstars should walk in and any that are too pampered and precious for that can go play elsewhere.

 

[Final]

The prices. £3 for bacon roll. £6.50 for fags , £2 for a little bottle of water.

Apart from a few snacks purchased while at the Cider Bus, I ate nearly exclusively from food cooked in the Permaculture place in the corner of the Greenfields.

All grown organicaly on-site, dirt cheap (50p for coffee, huge pakoras just £1, £1.50 for a whole bowl of still-warm cake). The tastiest and cheapest food on site. Mmmmmm.

(though I don't know about their 'Buzz Balls' - I ate 3 and had to go for a 3hr nap afterwards).

 

[rocketman]

Yeah those Pakoras were something else - very tasty!

 

[Stig]

We liked the pakoras.

After a few I started going all red, and having breathing difficulty, I think I was allergic to them. Oops. they were still lovely though.

 

[Velouria]

Phew! Too muddy!

The trek back to the car was a nightmare, but the B&Q sack trolley with inflatable tyres as recommended on the official forums even coped with the mud admirably.

It's a real pity I failed to meet many Urbanites (I recall bumping into editor and dub and a few people around the Cider Bus, and bumping into Will at random on Monday morning on my way out ). I have more or less retreated these days from the social circle of Urban thanks to the bad feeling between me and other Urbanites, so it was prolly the only opportunity this year I had to meet some of you, and I failed to do so. Shit happens, I guess.

Spent a lot of the festival wandering around on my own wishing it was less muddy

 

[JTG]

I told you Dreadzone rocked didn't I

we were thinking of going to see them in the Glade but couldn't be arsed so we saw their West Tent performance on Sunday instead.

I'd have loved to have seen both. That's how much I love Dreadzone