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?

Did it used to be alternate years to allow the field to recover?

Do give it a go. While my body feels battered from the dancing, I feel 20 years younger.

Here are a few tips:

We stayed at the Bath and West campsite, which was okay really. I managed to have a shower every day (luxury!). The facilities could have been cleaner but hey ho. The shuttle buses were excellent. No wait.

On the farm itself, the toilets are rank. But the new female urinals are good (no queue or smell).

We packed on Sunday morning, left straight after the Elton John concert and stayed at a Premier Inn along the way. We had arrived on Friday at lunchtime. No queues.

It’s the heat that I struggled with so wide-brimmed hats and sun cream are a must. Water is readily available thoughout the site.

Also make sure you have excellent shoes with good arch support. There’s a lot of walking involved.

Good luck with securing tickets!

We’re going to Latitude this year - I can report back afterwards. It has mixed reviews!

No deffo Glastonbury, we were there after going to the Tor for the solstice and my friend’s boyfriend had been at Stonehenge, he found us and saild his band were going to be playing at a farm up the road.
There were a group of travellers who had been rained out at the Henge and had moved on. They descended on the farm and it ended up being a mini festival.

I’ve been about 15 times - have forgotten the exact number!
It’s a unique festival IMHO. Nothing compares to the magic of Glasto!
Ive been in godawful mud-horror show years, and boiling years when we wanted rain (ha!). And loved them all.
I don’t know whether I’ll ever go back. But if I do it’ll be in ‘posh’ camping. My back won’t cope with a roll-up mat these days!

The thing I most wonder about is whether you can actually see anything when a band is playing at one of the bigger stages. The crowd looks so huge that it seems that you wouldn't even be able to see one of the big screens never mind the actual band. Is it one of those things where you actually get a better experience of the music watching it at home, even if the atmosphere etc is obviously much better if you're there?

Husband has been a few times and always had a positive experience and found it generally well behaved (especially compared with Reading/Leeds which are super rowdy he says). obviously it’s different weather every year but the heat has been more of an issue generally than the rain. He’s very into quite a lot of obscure music though and it’s the only real opportunity to see stuff that he likes- he’s rarely interested in the headliners.
He grew up camping and spent entire summers in tiny huts in the Scottish highlands with almost no facilities. So coped with the toilets/showers (or lack of) situation just fine.
He’s always driven back overnight on the Sunday night rather than queue for hours the next day.

Fields 😂It's 900 acres!

Not quite but they have a “fallow year” every 5ish years. Not sure when the next fallow year will be as it was cancelled 2020 and 2021.

Cant' think of anything worse - and had the option to go in 1990 when people snuck in for free through broken fencing! (maybe should have gone then but really really would rather stick pins in my eyes)

I would imagine it's quite rarrr given the price of the tickets!

I went in the 1980s, the loos were beyond grim (literally holes cut into cardboard over a trench dug into the ground) and there was a thunderstorm on the Saturday night when we were watching The Cure.

The Pogues were a moshpit of doom with dozens of shoes being thrown in the air, but Billy Bragg in the acoustic tent was an unexpected delight - funny, lovely music, amazing.

You plan to go and see xxx act over on Stage yyy but it takes so long to get there you miss it. Luckily you happen upon something else good. So BB above was my example, and the thing I remember best.

It wasn't as muddy as some years and I was a student so not too fussed about fanciness. We utterly ran out of money tho - couldn't believe how much we spent on food and drink - and my then bf had to walk (or maybe hitch?) to the nearest town to get some cash so we could get the bus back to Bristol.

I would never go again. Especially not now I am old.

Been 5 times it is great.

Done normal camping, the pre set up bell tents and staying off site in an air bnb (I was 6 months pregnant that year).

Good things
seeing massive stars you never normally bother to see but who are ace eg Dolly Parton

the daft acts in the corner of a field you'd never plan to see but then become highlights

the food is a real highlight every year. I love visiting the hippies in the permaculture forest bit for a bit of a homemade vegan treat round the campfire.

the art installations in the heaven/ hell dance bit are always really impressive.

seeing stuff you'd probably not bother with normally eg the stuff in the circus field.

the guilty pleasures disco on Thursdays is always fun at Williams green

Bad bits
It's physically hard. Really hard. The walking I can do but standing watching bands/ waiting for bands does your back in.

as others have said if it rains you can't sit anywhere. Very tiring.

carrying in your stuff is really hard too. You probably drag it a good 2 miles at least from yr car.

you can get stuck in human traffic jams it's not all the time but sometimes it can get annoying.

it's pretty gross. The toilets, no showering trudging about in mud. You barely sleep. I find as long as I maintain a slight cider buzz all day I don't mind it though!

I went in 1986...or 87, (half man half biscuit were memorable even if the year wasn't!) it was a bit Wild West, no police presence, people hopping over the fence, acid merchants everywhere, terrible toilets, and all the rest. I can't remember what we ate...or if we ate, between the cider and spliffs and the aforementioned acid :-D We camped about 200 yards from the left of the pyramid stage, and I found it all a bit much, even then, so I don't think I'd cope at all now. My DH loves it (he's been about 6 times in the last ten years but with friends not me) It'd bring back too many teen nightmares!

@goodthinking99 my Glasto trip was 1986! Don't recall HMHB tho. Don't remember seeing you either actually

@clary must have been 87 then! but maybe it's a bit like the sixties, if you remembered seeing me you weren't there

Is the basic ticket with the camping for the 5 nights ?
Also, how big can your tent be ? I'm guessing not a big one but how many men max to sleep are you allowed ?

Glasto is the only festival I was offered smack. Not weed or coke, motherfucking smack.

@goodthinking99 tell a lie, I just checked and it was 1986 that HMHB played Glasto. I bet it was them we were heading to see when the rain started and we ducked into the nearest tent to see acoustic BB. hahaha excellent - yes if you remember it then you weren't there love it.

That's grim.

Yes, your ticket includes camping.

There are hardly any rules at Glastonbury. Your tent can be as big as you like. There aren’t defined pitches. So if you want to take a 10 man tent and risk not being able to find somewhere big enough to erect it then that’s on you. You do see some very big tents. Also tiny ones that look more like little nylon coffins!

It's been taken over by the posh. I went to Donington Monsters of Rock in the 90s, that was a proper festival.

@userxx out of all the festivals I've done, Glasto is the only one I didn't enjoy

They have a ‘fallow’ year off every five years.

@florenz yes I think I'd agree, following on from 1986 (thanks for checking @clary!) we did about 4 years of Reading and I absolutely loved that, just more fun all round.

Every year after watching from the comfort of the sofa DH and I have the conversation ‘should we….?’

Never bothered our arses yet. I think if I could do it in style/bell tent/camper etc and could guarantee warm weather I’d be up for it. But otherwise. No. I’ll watch on tv.

Unless Harry Styles is headlining. Then I’d sleep in the toilets just to be there 🤣