Glastonbury - what's it really like?

[halfbakedkate]

After watching Elton John last night, DH and I had the annual conversation about whether we would want to go Glastonbury.
I love the idea of it but the thought of it being too suffocating and overcrowded, potentially a mud bath and a nightmare to get home from puts me off...not to mention the toilets. But last night there were so many people who looked like they were having the time of their lives, is it worth it?

I wondered if you have actually been, what's it really like being there?

The one I remember most fondly was 1978, not an official one.
No facilities, no proper stage and the stage electrics were a makeshift affair, I think a generator was running in a caravan.
It was free, there were less than 1000 people there, I have no recollection of any bands that played that year definitely no big names.

Also - there are quieter areas. We always camp in the quiet fields. It is entirely possible to sleep well at night ( other than being in a tent!) because once people get back to their tents they usually collapse and sleep! You can't have fires or anything near tents so it's not like a campsite really - everything that's happening is down by the stages and performance areas. So people hang out less at their own tents really.

This, but a lot louder.

Private loo, luxury! I recall going off into a distant field and peeing under a hedge.

'The downside is the heat is too much and its very expensive to replace water constantly.'

Not true - water is freely available, always has been. Water aid is one of their major charities!
But there's not a lot of shade in the sun, not by the outdoor stages anyway. There is obvs by the big tents, circus etc and in the kids fields ( but you can ONY access the kids area with a kid. They're very strict.)

Rain, you're going to get muddy so that's a different experience. But I actually found it quite freeing to give up trying to stay 'clean' as you would normally and just rolled with it!
For me the perfect Glasto weather is dry but cloudy!

I've never been to Glastonbury, but this year I went with a group of girl friends to the Isle of Wight Festival which is a slightly smaller festival with about 55,000 people there each day. There were quite a few of the same acts that were at Glastonbury (Pulp, Chemical Brothers, Blondie etc) and we had Robbie Williams headlining on the Sunday night. We stayed in the glamping site - not the mega expensive ones, but still nicer than ordinary camping and not cheap at around £1,600 for the four nights! I have to say that I really loved the whole festival vibe but found it all incredibly overwhelming. There's lots of walking, people everywhere and its very noisy (duh, Mandy, it is a music festival!!!!) I would do a smaller festival again, such as Latitude in Suffolk, but I think a huge one like Glastonbury might just be the end of me!
If you fancy going to a festival before, maybe do a couple of smaller ones first so you can see how it all works, try out some of the different accommodation types and build up to going to Glastonbury rather than jumping in feet first!

'What’s the drug of choice at Glastonbury?'

Honestly? Mostly beer and cider. but you'll see a lot of middle-aged dad's with spliffs and shrooms!

I can't think of anywhere I'd less like to go.

If anything was designed as my own personal hell, it would probably be Glastonbury.

It's grand in your 20's when you're so off your head you're having a lovely old time.
I wouldn't go now if I got paid to. The roads are chaos, the weather is either too hot or it rains, most people there are drugged and annoying. I'd much rather watch it from the TV these days.

Sounds more like Stonehenge?

I couldn’t cope with Glastonbury. Went to Knebworth in the 70s for the day and have happy memories of it apart from the latrines. I can remember queuing and squeezing every drop out so I wouldn’t have to go back as they were so awful. Happy watching it all on TV, at home and in bed.

It was very lovely having parent's caravan loo...But the hedge -pees were fine in other years.

Queuing for water in early 80's wasn't too bad, either.

I can't believe how vast it's got now, it looked like a town with streets from the night time views on TV.

Elton's set was unbelievably 'Polished' and tight.

I've been once, I was in my 40s & loved it! I'd love to go again but haven't managed to get tickets despite trying. It's the only festival I've been to so I have nothing to compare it with but I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. Even the toilets didn't bother me. We had rain but it wasn't too muddy. As others have said you're in this lovely bubble of music & food for a few days, it's quite surreal

I’ve been twice. I obviously enjoyed the first time enough to book again but I found the second time really hard work. The weather was worse that year after a good year before and I just found it really hard work. I don’t remember much of the good stuff- mainly the walk from the carpark wanting to cry. I’d do it again as a vip but not as a normal camper.

As I recall it, there were taps dotted about the site. The one near us got disconnected and I walked up to the farm, but there was no one about so I fixed it myself using a length of polythene to tie the hose onto the tap. Then me and my friend washed our hair under the now-fixed tap.

I went in the in the 80s it was a mud Bath but weirdly fun

I first went in 1983 and saw The Smiths - was with my parents 83 & 84. But 86 I went with friends ... went most years it was on from then till 98 (into the dance music years).

I paid for tickets when they were £16 each - the did volunteering a few times, bunked over the wall and then worked behind the bar.

I'm a fat middle aged woman now and would go tomorrow if I could.

I have been to many other festivals over the years but nothing compares - most other festivals are a big stage a little stage and maybe a comedy tent or something all in a big arena with a separate camping area (Leeds, Reding, Bestivl, V fest etc) - Glastonbury is a town with theatres, cinemas, live shows, kids area, comedy tent, big stage, slightly smaller stage, dance tent, another stage, hippy field, food, stalls, street performance, buskers, circus, another music stage, classes, politics, etc etc etc

I'd love to go again - I'd take my teenager...

@MandyFriend was that £1600 each?! I like the idea of the IOW festival but I have always been put off having done a few festivals in my teens.

I went in my 20s (2007 mudbath)and my 40s (2023 sunshine). I wouldnt' go again. Logistically it is hard work (134,000 steps in 3 days) and I only coped with the recent one because we knew enough ppl working on site to get alcohol more easily and avoided some of the very tedious queues.

Very glad i went both times but you really do get a much better sound and visual experience on the BBC, sadly. We got caught in a few unexpected people crushes last year that were quite dangerous (young people and families literally in tears because they were scared and so ended up deciding to leave before the end of any big sets to avoid getting stuck in the panic again. Which meant we missed some of the best moments.

Some of it's magical, but rarely the bits you are expecting to be. Those bits you miss because you got distracted on the other side of the site! Also, it's better in a bigger gang, it's good to have a mix of friends with you who will enjoy different things.

but really, something like 80% of people who want to go can't get through to get tickets, so its' not quite as easy as just choosing to go then getting to. We would have paid anything for VIP/tents, but those are even rarer. if you went as a celebrity with central special access it would genuinely be a much better experience i think.

I'm going to sound like a wanker but I hate the image of Glastonbury portrayed by the BBC. It's the polished, bland version that I don't recognise.

Glastonbury is beautiful and magical and so much more than the pyramid stage.

I've been on a year when it was a absolute mud bath. It made front page news, there toilets toppled over in rivers of mud, with hysteria around possible infections disease spreading as a result. In some fields, you could only see the tops of people's tents there was that much mud. Some tents just washed away. There was water and mud inside our tent. It was impossible to sit down anywhere, ever, as there's very little seating and the ground was just a sea of mud. It was very stressful walking everywhere as it's very very busy, and it's very difficult walking through thigh mud. I didn't have a shower for 5 days, despite being covered in mud, and it took us 8 hours to leave the field we were parked in. I'm sure it's great when it doesn't rain, but if it rains hard, before the start or at the start of the festival, it's not much fun tbh.

I do watch it most years on tv and think should we try for tickets but the main thing that puts me off…. not the toilets or the camping, but those bloody flags! Far too many of them blocking the views

Also don’t really appreciate the number of celebs that went this year in their helicopter then stood next to the Greenpeace sign. Nothing shouts hypocrisy like a #gifted ticket

First went 1986. The Cure. Lloyd Cole.
Think it was £18 a ticket.
The toilets were sub-Victorian.
The food was sub-food.
Was genuinely a hippy farm with some guitars and people selling dodgy resin and CND badges.

Last went 2014. Dolly Parton was magnificent.
Think it was about £200 a ticket, and I had proper camping and toiletry facilities as befits my creaking bones...
The food and drink was anything from anywhere in the world.
By now it is a small city, better organised and a lot more corporate, but not in that bad a way.
The essential spirit is still there.

I think festivals are over-rated, but Glastonbury should be experienced at least once in your life.

Just got back and there is nothing like it. It’s so much more than you see on the TV which only shows the main stages. The place is huge. There are plenty of areas to relax. Not everyone goes to the main stages. As PP said, it’s a bunch of festivals in a festival.

And you really don’t need to camp out all day to be at the front of the stages. That’s a myth. People arrive and see the back of the crowd packed, but at the front there’s always plenty of space, you just need to wiggle your way through. I was at the front for Elton last night with plenty of space around me and I got there late afternoon. I arrived half way through G&R to meet my DH and walked straight to the front.

We always pay for pre-erected camping on site with flushable toilets, hot showers etc.

But it is exhausting. To get from one area to another you have to cover a lot of ground, typically walking 30,000-40,000 steps a day.