By far the worst three in my long and varied history
were Glastonburies 1997, 1998 and 2007
.
The sheer size of Glastonbury means that few other fests can compete for mudbathery in a very wet year, unless they're also monster-sized, as in very few
(Which I don't get to anyway, although I've heard from friends that the Scottish mega-Thing in the Park, now ceased, could be awful in some years, and for mud as well!
).
IMO Glastonbury 1998 was well worse than Glastonbury 1997.
In 1997, most of the
really heavy rain happened prior to the festival opening to the public.
Not that the nortorious Pilton mud (quality clay!!) ever dried out in 1997, and there was a
shocking amount on arrival, but at least a limit of squelchiness was reached.
But in 1998, it was quite dry on first arriving as I recall, and then got
seriously wetter and muddier as the fest went on.
Plus I seem to remember it being considerably colder in 1998 compared to 1997
But both 1997 and 1998 were lightweight(ish!!) years (IMO!) compared to my
ultra-worst-ever** Glastonbury, 2007
<
x 1,000! >
**out of 22 so far!! 
.....only about six or seven or so notably wet/muddy too! 
Glastonbury 2007 was a bit like Glastonbury 1998 in starting dry at the very start, then getting worse day by day as the fest wore on.
By the end of Sunday 2007 (the most intensely rainy day!) , I was cold, miserable, depressed, lonely (had lost various friends), soaked to the skin, out of dry socks (my boots were only about 80% effective that year), and almost worst of all, I missed the Sunday headliners, The Who!
However much cider and weed I consumed in 2007, in an effort to 'cope' (lots of both!!
), I fucking hated most of 2007 ...
To the extent I told myself I was
never going back.
This mood (which I never felt before or since about any other Glastonbury) even lasted for about six whole weeks!
Then I met festivaldeb in early August 2007, and we worked on getting Glastonbury onsite jobs, the same ones and on a lovely team too, that we've managed to hold ever since
With the obviously-connected result that 2008, 2009, and especially 2010 were all warm and sunny!
Talking of festivaldeb, her first Glastonbury was 1985, which by a whole load of accounts, that of trainer-clad, leaking-tent-'equipped' deb included, was
also one of the worst Pilton mudbaths.
(She never gave up after her shit-weather first though! Kudos! She's
also been to 22 Glastonburies
up to and including 2019, albeit with one or two different-from-me nineties ones, and she was rewarded by missing 2007 too
)
I would have been down Somerset way in 1985 myself, after loving the cracking (and sunny) Glastonbury of 1984 (
my first) but university finals stopped me
Friends of mine at the time who
did go in 1985 had their big old truck stuck in the mud up about the tops of the wheels (which were mega) and a tractor (Mr Eavis's??) had to drag it out .....
Their horror-tales in the pub when they came back put me off returning until
1994 <
at self>, so I missed several hot, sunny and jealousy-inducing banging-party years, especially (I hear) 1989, 1992, 1993.
Missing
THOSE years???
BAD, man, from everything I've heard and read!!
Still, I've been to
every single Glastonbury since 1994
(with 1984 an extra/early one, as a taster/outlier)
And 1997, 1998 and 2007 got me
properly prepared/resilient for one or two mildly poor-ish years (part of 2015 springs fairly
-ly to mind) ... but being crew does help as well, tbf
Oh yes, Glastonbury 2005? Just a footnote IMO!
I was actually surprised the other week by how bad it looked in
editor 's great pix of that year, because I principally remember (now!
) how hot and sunny 2005 was before and after the Friday night mega-storms (plus the Urban gang were mainly camped at the top of Dragon I think, so we were spared the very worst of Saturday ..... no camping at the bottom of Pennard Hill for us!
)
See some of you again on the Eavis's land in 2021!
.....
Cider Bus!!
We're
well overdue another big mudbath next year, I'd say
but even that
easily beats being called off, like last week
