Muddiest Festival
- Thread starter Fishmonkeynan
- Start date
Sunray
Its sunny somewhere.
I stayed till Monday and I had a car and can't for the life of me figure out why I stayed.
I was woken by a biblical downpour at 7am, so heavy you think is going to stop soon but didn't for hours.
I don't do mud anymore, too much over the years. I just do my shifts where I often get taken there by bus. And watch it on my laptop in my van, I got a Freeview USB stick.
No to mud.
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
I had a fantastic time at Glastonbury 1998. Me and boyfriend at the time got a job giving out flyers (for a band who never turned up!).
It paid for the tickets and we got entry to the new bands tent all weekend. I think we just sat in there and drank and drank and drank when it got too rainy.
Arrived on the Wednesday and left on the Monday, although my boyfriend's car had to be towed out of the mud by a jeep.
Does anyone remember the story circulating about the dance tent being accidentally pumped full of sewage during the Chemical Brothers' set? If true, I was dancing in that (in wellies fortunately).
The last night we sat round an enormous campfire with a brunch of friendly strangers, one of whom gave my boyfriend a line of coke because he thought he was Gary Barlow.
It paid for the tickets and we got entry to the new bands tent all weekend. I think we just sat in there and drank and drank and drank when it got too rainy.
Arrived on the Wednesday and left on the Monday, although my boyfriend's car had to be towed out of the mud by a jeep.
Does anyone remember the story circulating about the dance tent being accidentally pumped full of sewage during the Chemical Brothers' set? If true, I was dancing in that (in wellies fortunately).
The last night we sat round an enormous campfire with a brunch of friendly strangers, one of whom gave my boyfriend a line of coke because he thought he was Gary Barlow.
oryx : I'd need to check my Big Glastonbury Book upstairs .... 
, but the well-known shitspraying Dance Tent incident happening during The Chemical Brothers set was near-certainly a major exaggeration!! ... 
Most likely one of those alcohol- and other goods-fuelled third-hand rumours so common at Glastonbury, the sort of story that gets blown up to sound good!
In reality, I seem to remember? that the clearing-up process, in which the machine was supposed to suck up excess mud but the wrong switch was pressed, happened earlyish in the day, well before the Dance Tent was meant to open ..... bad enough!
, but the well-known shitspraying Dance Tent incident happening during The Chemical Brothers set was near-certainly a major exaggeration!! ... Most likely one of those alcohol- and other goods-fuelled third-hand rumours so common at Glastonbury, the sort of story that gets blown up to sound good!
In reality, I seem to remember? that the clearing-up process, in which the machine was supposed to suck up excess mud but the wrong switch was pressed, happened earlyish in the day, well before the Dance Tent was meant to open ..... bad enough!
And myself I really think that the shit-spraying malarkey was 1998 and not 1997, as oryx suggests in her post, but I'll need to check to be definite ......
Sunray
Its sunny somewhere.
It happened, trying to help used blow and not suck. Always a mistake. Closed the tent for a whole day to clean.
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
oryx In reality, I seem to remember? that the clearing-up process, in which the machine was supposed to suck up excess mud but the wrong switch was pressed, happened earlyish in the day, well before the Dance Tent was meant to open ..... bad enough!
Yes, that was the story I heard... Chemical Bros were fantastic so it was worth wallowing in shit if true!
Serious mud or actual shit, not much difference
oryx
Sitting on the bok of the day
No! 1998 is the only time I've ever been.oryx : I take it you went down to Worthy Farm in a non-muddy year or two as well?
I wouldn't fancy it now TBH - nothing to do with age, just think I would find it too large these days, and CBA with the ticket scramble. I'm sure it's really enjoyable though, I've never experienced anything like it.
I haven't been to a festival since Larmer Tree in 2009, never been a great festival-goer TBH though I've enjoyed the ones I've been to.
My OH would rather stick knitting needles in his eyes than go to a festival. He went to the Isle of Wight in 1971 while still at school and has never recovered.
sleaterkinney
Well-Known Member
This is the thing that pissed me off so much, because you can keep yourself dry-ish and just get used to being muddy but it’s so tiring standing up all the time.
Sunray
Its sunny somewhere.
One reason for my no mud policy. Van is warm and cosy. Fucked if I'm leaving to traipse through mud.
ice-is-forming
With dignified ease and grace..
Glastonbury 87, especially at 7 months pregnant.
oh, and Woodfood planting 2017. Where it poured from start to finish.
oh, and Woodfood planting 2017. Where it poured from start to finish.
jontz01
taking refuge in the loft
Glasto 2007 is definitely up there. Although grim, it was a bloody good year. We were camped at the back of the other stage, just dropped a big dose of home grown Mexicans on the opening night, just in time for the sky to turn purple, a huge lightening storm rolled in to coincide with a light, laser and video test on the stage.
Also Ynot festival, not sure of the year. Tiny festival high in the derbyshire peak district. Beardyman played in a tiny tent. Somehow 5 of us managed to carry my mum in her wheelchair through knee deep mud, get her into the tent and up on some haybales so she could watch. Mad year.... loads of punters went home and my Mrs spent the next morning gathering booze from abandoned and trashed camps. By the time I woke up, our family sized tent was rammed full with muddy bottles, cans and half boxes of wine. We didn't but any booze for months after.
Also Ynot festival, not sure of the year. Tiny festival high in the derbyshire peak district. Beardyman played in a tiny tent. Somehow 5 of us managed to carry my mum in her wheelchair through knee deep mud, get her into the tent and up on some haybales so she could watch. Mad year.... loads of punters went home and my Mrs spent the next morning gathering booze from abandoned and trashed camps. By the time I woke up, our family sized tent was rammed full with muddy bottles, cans and half boxes of wine. We didn't but any booze for months after.
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
Started to write a long post about Glastonbury 2007. Changed my mind. It was wet muddy shit where you could only see the performers through a haze of rain as your feet slowly sank further into the mud and you realised you'd have to keep walking or risk losing the wellies that were the only barrier between you and trench foot. The long drops were a haven where you could sit down for a couple of minutes - there was nowhere else dry to sit - and the only shit and piss around you was going into the pit, not the floor you were walking around in, or your tent.
Anyone who thinks it was good would have been equally happy camping in their nan's back garden with a sound system and some drugs, as long as their nan threw mud at them now and then, made them walk half a mile to the loos, and charged them £45 for a Wimpy beanburger.
Anyone who thinks it was good would have been equally happy camping in their nan's back garden with a sound system and some drugs, as long as their nan threw mud at them now and then, made them walk half a mile to the loos, and charged them £45 for a Wimpy beanburger.
jontz01
taking refuge in the loft
I disagree... we took solace in the Hare Krishna tent for all our meals, by cost of donation. Always a favourite feed on site. Took up a leaner in the real ale tent for a couple of hours. Had a sauna somewhere in the green futures field. Although wet, I don't remember it as particularly cold. An all covering plastic poncho was adequate to keep the rain out and skin up inside. Celulose papers ftw in the rain. And talc for hands/feet as required. Yes, the tent got flooded and my mate next to us lost a lot of gear including phone and camera but having stretcher type camp beds kept the worst of the water out for most of our crew.
We managed to keep a chimenea type fire alight for the worst of the weekend and had plenty of neighbours round to warm up. No disrespect intended, I think a lot of people who attend festivals aren't necessarily 'outdoors' people. I had friends there who were getting seriously down about the rain and mud. They were all craving their sofas, showers and tvs. It wasn't an ideal situation but it certainly wasn't hell. I don't think I saw any/many big name bands but I never really do at Glasto. That's what the tv coverage is for!
Last edited:
scifisam
feck! arse! girls! drink!
I'm not not an outdoors person, no. But I actually liked Bjork and wanted to see her or at least be in a crowd that was also enjoying seeing parts of her performance live. As it was, it was SO fucking muddy that at one point I realised that nobody except possibly the first couple of rows in front her of her were dancing - everyone else was determinedly slogging their way through the mud so they could see some of Bjork but also get out without losing their shoes.
Having stretcher type camp beds requires a lot more car/van space than just going there to camp. Even fitting in a rolled up yoga pad to sleep on is difficult. I was working, so we had better parking and camping, but also couldn't drink, but we still had a Ford Fiesta for five people from London. You're not going to fit a chimenea in there.
See some of you again on the Eavis's land in 2021 I mean 2022!!.....
Cider Bus!!
We're well overdue another big mudbath next year, I'd say
All this bar the tiny edit still applies
Riff
B@nned from eGofestivals
I've survived muddy Glastos in 98, 99, 2004 and 2005, Bearded Theory in 2010 (the Tornado year) and 2014 and Download 2012 but...
for me it has to be Glastonbury 2007, It was the only year we've ever bailed early. We were camped in Dragon Field (don't see the attraction of camping there, TBH as it's the arse-end of nowhere). Relentless rain, relentless 24-hour sound systems which meant sleep was sparse, arsey stewards who made me walk all the way round the south-east corner even though my tent was literally just up they hill from the exit gate and pointed it out to them and shitty unsociable company who were more interested in sitting in their tents doing NOS all weekend.
I snapped on Saturday afternoon and hid in my tent for 3 hours. By Sunday I'd had enough and left after Shirley Bassey.
for me it has to be Glastonbury 2007, It was the only year we've ever bailed early. We were camped in Dragon Field (don't see the attraction of camping there, TBH as it's the arse-end of nowhere). Relentless rain, relentless 24-hour sound systems which meant sleep was sparse, arsey stewards who made me walk all the way round the south-east corner even though my tent was literally just up they hill from the exit gate and pointed it out to them and shitty unsociable company who were more interested in sitting in their tents doing NOS all weekend.
I snapped on Saturday afternoon and hid in my tent for 3 hours. By Sunday I'd had enough and left after Shirley Bassey.
Glastonbury 2007 was the most unhappy I've been at a festival. It was awful and I'm constantly surprised I ever went back. When it started raining on the Thursday night of 2008 I went back to my tent and cried cos I thought it was going to be horrible again but it turned out fantastic
Hardest site build I was ever involved with was Boomtown of 2016. We barely finished it in time for gates open and I spent a week working in an office in the Bowl surrounded by a lake of mud
But - and bear in mind I talk to an awful lot of festival people across full summers of playing with heras and steeldeck in fields - the one that always takes the cake and brings out all the crazy stories of hairy moments, heroic efforts at getting the show on and full on near drowning experiences is Glade 2007. If you know, you know. If you weren't there, you weren't at the wettest, muddiest festival in history. We had a ball.
Hardest site build I was ever involved with was Boomtown of 2016. We barely finished it in time for gates open and I spent a week working in an office in the Bowl surrounded by a lake of mud
But - and bear in mind I talk to an awful lot of festival people across full summers of playing with heras and steeldeck in fields - the one that always takes the cake and brings out all the crazy stories of hairy moments, heroic efforts at getting the show on and full on near drowning experiences is Glade 2007. If you know, you know. If you weren't there, you weren't at the wettest, muddiest festival in history. We had a ball.
Fishmonkeynan
Active Member
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Not the festival as such, but the location of the car-park & ride facility ...
Festival No.6 flood plain car park decision defended - BBC News
I'm surprised that this had not occurred in previous years - on a flood plain, in a period with spells of heavy rain and more forecast ...
I took a couple of shots from the bypass (built on an embankment)
O&S - mud two par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity
and
O&S - mud one par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity
the next year it was moved ...
Festival No.6 flood plain car park decision defended - BBC News
I'm surprised that this had not occurred in previous years - on a flood plain, in a period with spells of heavy rain and more forecast ...
I took a couple of shots from the bypass (built on an embankment)
O&S - mud two par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity
and
O&S - mud one par StoneRoad2013, on ipernity
the next year it was moved ...
StoneRoad : We properly dodged one there -- we'd been loosely planning (earlier that summer) to aim for Festival #6 as our customary 'at least one-new-event-to-us-a-season' policy ....
One of deb's very good old friends lives just above Porthmadog -- she had a ticket, but close to opening, she wisely decided to stay at home and just to go down on day-trips by walking (there) and by taxi (to get home). Her account was pretty graphic all the same
Lots of stuck-in-the-mud vehicles it seems ....... tractors needed!
-- we'd been loosely planning (earlier that summer) to aim for Festival #6 as our customary 'at least one-new-event-to-us-a-season' policy ....One of deb's very good old friends lives just above Porthmadog -- she had a ticket, but close to opening, she wisely decided to stay at home and just to go down on day-trips by walking (there) and by taxi (to get home). Her account was pretty graphic all the same
Lots of stuck-in-the-mud vehicles it seems ....... tractors needed!
Last edited:
Crispy
The following psytrance is baṉned: All
Bjork was the one good thing I can hold onto from 2007. We managed to be standing in a sweet spot for the sound (Other Stage notoriously windswept so you can't hear a thing sometimes) and she had a fantastic band. We "danced" by shuffling back and forth inside loose boots.
The rest of it can fuck off though. Miserable and knackering.
Not been back since; just couldn't face the risk.
Orang Utan
Psychick Worrier Ov Geyoor
I think Sasaferrato went to the muddiest of them all, Passchendaele
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
I'm hoping that they'll re-start the "No.6" festivals in a couple of years, they needed the break ...StoneRoad : We properly dodged one there
One of deb's very good old friends lives just above Porthmadog -- she had a ticket, but close to opening, she wisely decided to stay at home and just to go down on day-trips by walking (there) and by taxi (to get home). Her account was prety graphic al the same
Lots of stuck-in-the-mud vehicles it seems ....... tractors needed!
Minffordd side or Borth y Gest for Deb's friend (my late father lived in Penrhyn and I was heavily involved with the larger 2ft railway a few years ago) ?
Nearer Tremadoc really ....... on a hill farm above the main road between Tremadoc and 'Port' was where she lived .....
StoneRoad
heckling from the back!
Had several meals in the Fleece ...
We stayed in Tremadoc for my father's funeral (the wake was in Russell's Tea Rooms on the Welsh Highland) as I couldn't bear his house.
jimbarkanoodle
Well-Known Member
I remember this SGP, a real bog when everyone arrived on Thursday which then started to dry and turned into some superglue like mud by Friday morning. Happily it dried out and hardened so much so you could sit down on it by Saturday afternoon, if i recall.
First the first 3 or 4 years i had awful luck with festivals, with 2 really wet Global Gatherings (2006 and 7 i believe) and in fact every single festival i went to for ages was wet and/or muddy. It only seems like quite recently i've been to mostly ones with half decent weather.
Another bad one was Gatecrasher Summer Sound System in about 2010, which they bravely held in May but was so windy it was deemed dangerous and the outside stages were closed for the second day of the festival, not great when you were looking forward to seeing The Chemical Brothers. Although having seen the video of the bit of stage blowing off and hitting someone at Boomtown, i can see the reasons behind it .
The real shitter was Bestival 2008 which was very wet and muddy, and at times downright miserable. All seemed well enough on arrival to the green rolling hills of the Isle of Wight, with the more smug punter boring everyone with weather warnings of storms due to hit that night, but we all got on with getting suitably fucked.
Someone with not a lot of festival experience in our huge group who went that year got there before everyone else and choose just about the worst camping spot possible- furthest away form the arena, beside the toilets, under a security watchtower and in the 'quiet camping' area.
That wasn't to be the worse thing about the weekender however, because just as people are trying to get to sleep (which was also hard that weekend due to dodgy pills) at about 3 or 4 in the morning, sure enough the storms do whip in and unleash torrential rain, with thunder, lighting and what sounded like (when in a tent) hurricane force winds. Emerging in the morning when the storm had eased was just a sea of mud and collapsed tents, and general destruction.
Although it had cleared up a bit, there was intermittent heavy downpours throughout the weekend and it being September freezing cold at night. The mud was thick and treacherous until departure on Monday morning, and although only being about 21 at the time we all survived and made the best of it, it was clear many people had fucked off home as early as Friday morning. Luckily, still being at university we lived just over the water in Portsmouth, i can imagine the mission home on the ferries etc after that to more further flung places must have been brutal. I think i lost about a stone in weight forcing my way through that terrain for 3 days and nights, and i remember when i got home i inhaled 2 full Chinese takeaways within the space of about 3 hours.
smmudge
i know the smudge is true
Glasto 2007 but it was my best. I was litter picking so didn't have to pay for a ticket, had access to showers and got free meals backstage of the John Peel tent. I remember the sea of abandoned camping chairs on Monday morning, just so many chairs. And the line of hundreds of people trudging in the rain, in complete silence, up to the buses.
As soon as my last shift finished on Monday, the sun came out and I got sunburnt leaving the site!
As soon as my last shift finished on Monday, the sun came out and I got sunburnt leaving the site!
