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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think Glastonbury High Street is full of fake people?

85 replies

MissionItsPossible · 02/09/2018 14:49

Just that, really. I visited over the weekend. I have no doubt some people are genuinely into spirituality and magic but it seemed a lot of people were trying way too hard to be wacky and it seemed to be full of “look at MEEEEE” types of people. Laughing and talking very loudly to draw attention to themselves and with a sour whiff of superiority and arrogance about them.

I’m sorry, I’m sure there are loads of nice people there. I just hardly met any! On the plus side the people who own the shops full of tat left us alone apart from an initial greeting when we entered.

Maybe it was a long journey. Maybe it was camping. But the majority of people irritated me! I’m sure I irritated them too and they are glad to see the back of miserable me Wink

The tor was a nice experience though I felt very sick and dizzy at the top.

Anyone been and experienced similar or was it just me being a grumpy sod?

OP posts:
loubeylou68smellsofreindeerpoo · 02/09/2018 20:36

I live near and visit every so often. I have to say last time I visited there was a lot of fakers but I'm thinking it's just because it's holiday season as it's not normally that bad

BeachyUmbrella · 02/09/2018 22:41

We were there a few weeks ago and there was a bare foot girl outside Iceland saying 'I just don't feel I can go in a shop today'Confused

SueDunome · 02/09/2018 22:47

Yes, thanks Frusso, I'm aware of that being local. The Pilton thing takes too long to explain Wink
The festival is still responsible for many of the town's residents though, as it's the nearest large town.

makingmiracles · 02/09/2018 22:55

@thunderinmyheart I live above Wink

Indeed the best thing is burns, I have a loyalty card which I save up my vouchers for their delish Christmas cake Grin

@beachyumbrella, you must be thinking of street, we don’t have Iceland in Glastonbury!

It’s not for everyone, I personally don’t spend a great deal of time in the high street as there isn’t very little for locals unless you are fairly alternative, we get a lot of charity chuggers that congregate in town outside the church too which I cannot stand being harassed by!
The chalice well, tor and the abbey are lovely but you have to be careful when leaving your car as there have been many car break ins, especially round the base of the tor.

Ohyesiam · 02/09/2018 22:59

It’s not known locally as Crazytown for nothing....
Yes lots of lost souls, and people in their purple tie died hippie uniforms .

But conformity can be just as fake. We must all have met people whose life is tv , mainstream culture, and gladly swallowing down the offerings of multinational brands, keeping up with neighbours and wearing what is expected. That must be just as fake, or it would be more differentiated to each individual.

I think it takes a very courageous person to stand completely as themselves, and neither conform or react. Both stances are the same really, one a mirror of the other.

I don’t judge either, but I am really picky about the company I keep.

SheCameFromGreeceSheHadaThirst · 02/09/2018 23:18

Sadly if you scratch the veneer there is some awful stuff going on there

Intriguing ... What type of stuff? Quackery and exploitation of the vulnerable/gullible, or something else?

MervynBunter · 02/09/2018 23:38

Well it certainly was in the 1970s and I doubt if it's changed much.

RedneckStumpy · 02/09/2018 23:42

When we lived in the UK, we lived 20 miles from Glastonbury. DS on our first visit to Glastonbury got out the car and exclaimed “I smell hippie’s”

JillCrewesmum · 02/09/2018 23:42

Glasto Town is a bit of a weird place, having said that my dds used to love the fairy shop with the lady with pointy ears. I told her once about dd having nightmares and she gave her a lovely little notebook with a lock and key so that she could write things down Smile

IhatetheArchers · 03/09/2018 00:03

Last time I was in Glastonbury we were in some hippy tat shop and the owner was telling a woman that he could tell from her aura she deeply spiritual. She looked unconvinced.

He was in another shop about an hour later spouting similar bollocks at another woman. Twat.

ImogenTubbs · 03/09/2018 06:52

Nah, that's just Glastonbury (I lived in the area for a long time). In fact, I drove through it this weekend with my sister and we're were guessing whether people were tourists or locals. It's quite easy to tell!

Giggorata · 03/09/2018 07:57

I don't like the town, it's full of undercurrents and cynicism, under the happy hippy/wannabe mystic vibe. The lost and the loathsome abound.
Love the wells and tor foothills, though.

DinosApple · 03/09/2018 08:29

We visited for the day when the DC were tiny, 8 months and just 2yo.

It's the only place my unremarkable parenting has ever been commented on. I could have started a thread in here about it!

Someone had a rant at me for using a pushchair for my 2yo (who had just walked up the Tor) 'because of the fumes'. I already had the baby in a sling so the alternative would have been for her to walk and her head would have been just as close to the fumes. Or for her to levitate Confused Hmm Grin.

And another person slowed down and mumbled at me when we were walking down the high street. I said 'sorry what did you say?' expecting her to be asking the time... But no it was another rant about my parenting. Possibly the buggy related I can't remember now.

Yanbu, there are some odd people there.

Original poster
MissionItsPossible · 03/09/2018 08:53

PMSL at "the fumes".

Also, not that this is massively important, I have never seen so many people wearing sunglasses when the sun wasn't even out.

OP posts:
IhatetheArchers · 03/09/2018 10:17

Lol at the levitating toddler. I am sure you could buy a spell for that in one of the shops!

KittyKlawsReturns · 03/09/2018 10:26

This thread really makes me want to visit Glastonbury High Street just to see what it's like.

/nosey/ Wink

KittyKlawsReturns · 03/09/2018 10:29

I should add - I think I would enjoy the experience. I am ashamed to say my only experience of Glastonbury is the festival (although I did take time out in some of the beautiful quiet areas).

JillCrewesmum · 03/09/2018 10:37

I think the problem is that people assume it's going to have some of the karma of the Festival, when actually it's just a typical slightly run down Somerset town with a a side order of casualties.

Mushroomsarehorrible · 03/09/2018 10:56

KittyKlawsReturns

This thread really makes me want to visit Glastonbury High Street just to see what it's like

SAME !

bsbabas · 03/09/2018 11:08

Its a lovely place full of wiccans witches and wizards. I love it there but I can manage to be a solitary witch at home on my own without the bells and whistles. Also it takes more than a pentagram necklace and a fake broom to cast a circle but I'm sure thats just another kind of snobbery.

Skyejuly · 03/09/2018 11:19

Well I love Glastonbury high street. I live the Goddess Temple (Done some priestess training there) I love the shops. Would love to own one.

There are always extremes of things wherever you go. Most people are harmless. Just leave them be. Does it matter?

I see more fake people on my local high street. Fake tan, fake nails, fake personna and trying to keep up with fake people they see online on fake instagram lives. It means nothing to me so just go about your day leaving people as they will.

MissCherryCakeyBun · 03/09/2018 11:38

Was over there recently ( live in Yeovil....3...2...1...snarky comments ) and we saw an woman of around my age ( 50) wearing a "dress" possibly....well item of clothing anyway made from IKEA bags the blue ones....now I'm all for recycling and being inventive and even avant garde fashion but this was probably 3 or 4 blue IKEA bags tied and sewn together to make an item of clothing. And it looked hideous. The little boy of about 4 ahead of us said to his mum in a clear voice "look mummy a bag lady". OH nearly swallowed his tongue trying not to laugh at this insightful comment and the woman in question turned back and shouted at the mother about how rude he little brat was.....and to "teach him some fucking manners" Hmm small person started to cry and we caught them up oh says to LO yes your right she was a bag lady a big blue bag lady well Spotted.
So if that mums on here I want to say good on you for raising a great little human

Blue bag lady was the icing on the fruitcakes of humanity we saw there that afternoon

dayswithaY · 04/09/2018 11:37

So strange that someone earlier mentioned Totnes as all through this thread I had that in mind. Never been to Glastonbury but everything you are all saying sounds just like Totnes - creepy with a veneer of niceness and a sinister under current - like something's going on that you don't know about.

beenandgoneandbackagain · 04/09/2018 11:49

It's an awful place with a lot of immoral people making a lot of money from the desperately-seeking (or just the desperate).

I particularly dislike the vibe in the Goddess temple with their made-up goddesses and sybils who all have that slightly smug smile that makes them look like they're doing a happy tortoise impression.

Starchild is okay, the Tor is lovely if there are no witchier-than-thou hippies trying to out do each other around, and Chalice Well can be okay, again if the witchier than thou fakes aren't around.

Skyejuly · 04/09/2018 12:38

The goddesses are meant to be archetypes for things or phases that are real rather than an existing being, if that makes sense. So it does not matter what they are named? Think the point has been missed here.

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