Glastonbury 2007 pt2: the festie!

[scifisam]

There had even been tents on Michael's front lawn. I wonder how you get to camp there

I think that might have been my campsite. I was with Worker's Beer via CND.

Wiskey, you make me feel better about hating it so much by the end. I bet I'll enjoy more of it in retrospect, though, now that I'm not sitting in mud.

 

[bouncer_the_dog]

The mud sucked. The rain sucked. The sound quality of the main stages sucked. Getting stuck in a car in the mud trying to leave for 11 hours really sucked. I had fun but I think Michael Evis is a twat. If I go again I'll take an SUV or a 4x4 but I think its more likely I'll fly to a hot poor country and take advantage of the exchange rate.

 

[JTG]

I had fun but I think Michael Evis is a twat.

Why?!

 

[wiskey]

frankly i found most of the people i dealt with rude, uncaring, uncooperative, unhelpful and generally pointless. with punters like that how is it gonna be fun?

 

[david dissadent]

frankly i found most of the people i dealt with rude, uncaring, uncooperative, unhelpful and generally pointless. with punters like that how is it gonna be fun?

The crowd really has changed alot. Some people slate me for saying it though.

 

[JTG]

frankly i found most of the people i dealt with rude, uncaring, uncooperative, unhelpful and generally pointless. with punters like that how is it gonna be fun?

ditto.

It was somewhat depressing to be honest.

 

[scifisam]

Slightly surprised cos PGA seemed fine when I went through there - boggy but not noticeably worse than anywhere else. Must have got a whole lot worse in the hour and a half after I went through it

Maybe a build-up of water managed to break through one of the fences or something? It must have been seriously deep for them to close it, considering that the gate to the blue car park was about 10 inches deep in mud and that stayed open.

 

[scifisam]

@Wiskey - where were you working? Several friends of mine were working the Mandela Bar.

 

[wiskey]

The crowd really has changed alot. Some people slate me for saying it though.

i really cant begin with how much i despise most of the people i've just spent the weekend with (not all of em though), there was no sense of fun, nobody seemed to be joining in, everyone wanted to consume.

 

[wiskey]

@Wiskey - where were you working? Several friends of mine were working the Mandela Bar.

festival safety and i was out on landrover so we got all over the place.

 

[electrogirl]

at the bath and west got straight into a taxi at 3.10 and home by ten to 4.

it was queue world by the coach bit, to be fair we had been pretty disorganised and we thought we might be able to get bus tickets but when we saw the mahoosive queue we knew we were better getting a taxi.

the 3 hour trek we did was just so bloody frustrating with everyone telling us different stuff. also carrying loads of tenty stuff and being generally wet didn't help. i've never felt so happy seeing a taxi in my whole bloody life. even if it was £80.

i found the mud quite fun but i'd definitely had enough by the 5th day, i had a bit of a sniffle in my sleep when i woke up in the middle of the night and the blow up bed had mud in it.

we cheered ourselves up in the rain/mud situation thing by talking to the weather as if it was a human being. this consisted of mainly saying (in a very posh accent) "pipe down rain!" "shutup mud, we get the bloody point" ....well it worked for us.

 

[JTG]

one of the security guys was a bit shit, sending me in entirely the wrong direction for the Oxfam bus. The others were OK though.

The queues were mind boggling. I did get annoyed when people refused to budge when I said 'excuse me' in a very loud voice. Yes, it was possible for them to move a foot to the side to allow me to get through, no they couldn't be arsed to actually do it.

 

[david dissadent]

everyone wanted to consume.

Nail head to be honest.

 

[paolo]

i found the mud quite fun but i'd definitely had enough by the 5th day

yep... it got to me in the end. I thought I'd seen it all in 2005 but in comparison that was a walk in the park.

At one point, in the queue for the bus, I really thought I couldn't go on... I knew I'd fucked up by not eating properly that morning, but by then there was no choice.

Christ knows what would have happened if I'd ended up with your journey.

 

[wiskey]

Yes, it was possible for them to move a foot to the side to allow me to get through, no they couldn't be arsed to actually do it.

you think? i thought i was going to dislocate my knee trying to reclaim my foot at one point. the ground just wouldnt let it go

 

[JTG]

you think? i thought i was going to dislocate my knee trying to reclaim my foot at one point. the ground just wouldnt let it go

I was moving alright, so were they when their queue moved forward. Suddenly they were gripped by deafness and/or the mud gripped them tighter when I asked them to move out of the way.

A common theme of the last few days has been my annoyance at people's basic lack of good manners. It really pisses me off.

 

[paolo]

Here's the few shots I took before camera death...

pics here

 

[veracity]

I am very happy to be writing this from bed where it is clean, warm, dry and there is no mud.

It was my 1st glasto and hard work but worth it. Managed to get to see quite a few bands and we managed to keep two teenagers and each other going through the mud without one hissy fit. But couldn't have done another day of it
! We packed up earlyish and left in the pissing rain dragging our trolleys through streams and a few points along the way nearly lost the will to live.

Highpoint was probably Iggy and the Stooges but there were so many good bands: Arcade Fire, Shirley Bassey, the Hold Steady, the Pippettes and the Long Blondes etc etc - the only crap one was Babyshambles.

Found the atmosphere pretty friendly and didn't experience any of the nasty attitutude others have mentioned.

 

[William of Walworth]

I will be delighted if I never ever see a drop of rain or any kind of mud anywhere at Glastonbury ever again.

I will certainly be back next year though (and may end up with a job). Mostly had a fine old time but not the best (out of 12 Glastos now) by any stretch. About two thirds of the reason for things falling short was the weather

In that context my main Sanity-Preserving Highlight was the very wonderful manageress of the JazzWorld backstage security hut (has posted once or twice here ) who gave me a 'J'-area Guest pass on Saturday. Last night this allowed me into a fairly warm, almost dry, not too muddy, half empty backstage beer tent with sofas and plenty of cider and beer and a fantastic sound system/DJs ...

Stayed there for about 8 hours The conditions outdoors from about 6 pm Sunday onwards were 'challenging' to say the least. Rained for something like 16 hours continuous ...

I love Glastonbury always, but this weekend would have tested anyone. Next year, always next year, there will be no mud.

More stuff tomorrow -- exhausted.

 

[William of Walworth]

Found the atmosphere pretty friendly and didn't experience any of the nasty attitutude others have mentioned.

Likewise ...

 

[scifisam]

I didn't see any nastiness, personally (but then, I wasn't working security), it's just that everything was a bit subdued. The Leftfield tent was the best for atmosphere, I reckon.

 

[JTG]

Found the atmosphere pretty friendly and didn't experience any of the nasty attitutude others have mentioned.

I'm glad about that, maybe I was unlucky. All I know was that working on the gates I met very few genuinely friendly people and lots of people who reacted badly to words of friendly advice to keep exit lanes moving smoothly for everyone

I've already mentioned the stones. There's being a freewheeling, free spirited, anything goes festival person and then there's acting like a selfish twat. Too many of the latter to be honest - no respect for the countryside, the farm or the people around them

 

[scifisam]

This is us on a sofa made of toilet rolls:

 

[scifisam]

I'm glad about that, maybe I was unlucky. All I know was that working on the gates I met very few genuinely friendly people and lots of people who reacted badly to words of friendly advice to keep exit lanes moving smoothly for everyone

To be fair, I did get a bit tired of constantly being run into the ditch by cars and lorries. It was like Central London for traffic! (Including the speed ) I know most of it must have been essential traffic, but there was just so much of it! Then there were the twats on the flatbed who were throwing mud at passers-by, which might have managed to be funny if there were any chance of us throwing some back. Plus a couple of trucks were going really fast. Those kinds of idiots give everyone else a bad name.

 

[wiskey]

full marks to howard marks

The former drug dealer, writer and DJ has been to almost every Glastonbury festival - except when he was in jail in the late 1980s and '90s. He is appearing in the West Dance Tent this year.

Best: "I tend to think of the funniest. In 1996, I'd just come out of prison and was on a number of guest lists. I was only just getting used to this minor celebrity status.

"I turned up and the guy at the gate looked through the lists, looking carefully at each page and then looking up at me. And then he said: 'No mate, you ain't on any of them, and from what I know about you, you can well afford a ticket.' It was a wonderful lesson.

"Then I saw some hippy friends I knew climbing over the fence so I got my own back in a childish sort of way and climbed over the fence."

except 1996 was a year off

 

[rocketman]

That was great. The mud was too much, the rain eternal, but the event was still outstanding - everything was there. Met loads of nice folk, had a brilliant time, my boots died and my foot's gone purple, but no regrets, none at all.
In any case - the rain appears a national incident, rather than a Glasto moment - funny to reflect how badly the UK has been affected, and how most everything worked and everyone partied in the middle of the constant rain at the event. Miss the place already, but clean bed is indeed a bonus.

 

[Lisarocket]

My highlight was the band called !!!, saw them at the Glade and they rocked.

We were there for that one. They were great. I was taking pics in the pit and my batteries conked out

Got in at 2am. Took 5 hours sitting in the car park before we moved. Mates gave us a lift back, which i'm relieved about after hearing that loads of people were stranded at Castle Carey...

Lovely to see everyone at the meetup on Thursday, sorry i has to leave early. Big thanks to Captain Rubbish and Will (you know why ). Had a nice time hanging with Will on Friday night and showing him the delights of the circus big top.

Missed loads of bands, but still had a great time. The Africa Express thing was fab. Tinariwen are great! It was weird to see Billy Bragg, the magic numbers, Damon Albarn and Fatboy all on the stage at the same time- and Damon was dancing about and smiling, which makes a change

The Waterboys played a blinder at the Avalon on Friday. Best i've seen them play for ages. The small world stage had some great stuff and so did the Bimble Inn.

Saw Seasick Steve at the Queens Head last night and he was brilliant. We were camping behind there with mates, so i got to meet him and he called me m'am. He was lovely.

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

I'm sure there's loads of other great stuff to remember, but i'm knackered at the mo, so i'll have a think and post more tomorrow.

 

[Crispy]

i really cant begin with how much i despise most of the people i've just spent the weekend with (not all of em though), there was no sense of fun, nobody seemed to be joining in, everyone wanted to consume.

I know exactly what you mean. I got exactly one random conversation all weekend, everone else just stomp stomp stomp on by. And so much stuff left behind! I know sometimes it's difficult to get everything out, but I saw entire campsites abandonded - tents, sleeping bags, gazebos, stereo systems, the lot. I think it's been changing steadily over the last 7 years, but this one really brought it home.

 

[Looby]

It was weird to see Billy Bragg, the magic numbers, Damon Albarn and Fatboy all on the stage at the same time- and Damon was dancing about and smiling, which makes a change

I'm gutted I missed that.

Well it was fun but I've never been so glad to leave Glastonbury.

Arcade Fire were fantastic, Bjork was great but my feet were so cold we went and listened back at the tent. Amy Winehouse was good too and Gogol Bordello were amazing. Missed quite a lot but have vast amounts of footage on sky+ to watch.

I agree about the lack of atmosphere, and I put it almost entirely down to the rain and mud. It's hard to really relax and enjoy something when you're muddy and cold.

I will go next year but it had better be fucking sunny or it may be my last for a while and I never thought I'd say that.

 

[Skim]

I'm feeling a bit too ill to post anything meaningful right now, but – in spite of the horrendous mud – I did have a fantastic time

Haven't read this thread properly yet, but I agree with some of the feelings about the crowd. The atmosphere felt a lot more tame and less unpredictable than on previous visits. I did have some nice chats with random strangers, but there was something lacking overall... can't quite put my finger on it, but there wasn't so much of that warm and welcoming feeling I'd experienced before. The mud didn't help, obviously. It's hard to bump into random people when all your concentration is going into making sure you don't slip on your face into a pool of sludge.

I did have a fantastic time with all the Urbanites I spangled with though