To think that music festivals are bloody hard work and physically very tough?

[malificent7]

Just got back from Glastonbury and feel as rough as hell. I have been many times but this year at the age of 45 I might have to admitt defeat as much as I love them.

The media portrays this picture of unadulterated fun and freedom. The reality=
Lug your tent , clothes, food and booze for 30 mins( minimum,) from car to camping pitch.
Q q q for loos,food, drink etc.
Exposed to elements such as blazing sun with little shade.
Walk 25 miles a day.
Catch the lurgy as in close proximity to 1000000s .
Good job i love music but my body can't cope. I hate drugs and drank very little booze ..i'm more into Green smoothies but still feel awful today.

YANBU. I dropped DC at school yesterday morning and went back to bed. I am physically ruined by the weekend, and I left with DC after Elton, and we live close by.

One of my simple pleasures is watching Glastonbury on TV from my sofa with a cup of tea and my downstairs toilet vacant. I like the views, the coverage and the highlights the TV broadcasts.

I get a sense of well-being akin to being there, without the problems 😂

I think the reason why I'd hate it is because I'd be surrounded by the people on this thread who call people who happen to not like queuing for hours for a shit and paying £££££'s for a pint miserable fuckers.

Nobody was suggesting you should 😆

At 52 , overweight with a dodgy hip, arthritic knees and feet destroyed my pre eclampsia walking a long way and standing for ages IS physically demanding

Small festivals are the way to go! Obviously you don't get the big names but then you don't have the huge ticket price either!
I go to a small festival every year. Ticket price includes camping from Mon-Mon in beautiful countryside, festival for 3 days, food and beer at reasonable prices, no restrictions on plot size for your tent/camper van so you can take as much stuff as you can fit in and park next to your tent. I've never queued for the toilet for more than a couple of minutes and that's only near the arena. All very friendly and relaxing. Glastonbury is best watched from the comfort of your sofa at home IMO.

YANBU. I've been to one festival for one day and that was more than enough. I'm glad that I went but I never want to do it again.

I went to Download some years back. I was staying in a hotel thankfully but I was in agony by the end of the first day. I have disabilities which didn't help. I could literally barely walk the next day or move my neck. Although I had a ticket for the whole weekend and there were bands that I wanted to see, I skipped the other days and spent it limping around Nottingham instead. I had a lovely time actually. The hotel was in the city centre so it was perfect.

Thankfully the band I went there to see performed on the first day. I'm glad that I saw them but never again. The mud was unreal and the walk back to the exit at the end of the day seemed never ending.

I'll stick to watching on TV in future.

Exactly. Best you don't come and we're all happy. The miserable moaning ruins it for the people who enjoy it.

I'm not really sure why people go and complain about walking and expensive pints though. It's hardly a surprise!

@Changingplace - I didn't say anyone was - it's just a phrase to describe how much I hate something - no need to take it literally- 🙄

Physically very tough? Absolutely not. Walking and sitting round in a field is not physically demanding. Nor is carrying stuff from the car

It is when you have disabilities.

I hate drugs and drank very little booze

I mean, there’s your main problem OP.

I haven’t been to Glastonbury since 2004 and raised two children since then. Every year I think about trying to get tickets but it’s so expensive and so exhausting. I prefer smaller events now. Smaller capacity festivals that feel like Glastonbury when I started going in the early 90s.

I did a dance music one night thing recently dancing for 6 hours. My hips hurt for days and that was with an expensive self inflating mattress. I wouldn’t get my money’s worth if I went to Glastonbury now.

Christ yes

I went in 96. Amazing time but it was like an army camp. Never been back since.

I like a small local festival where I can go back to my own bed. These seem to becoming more popular too which is great.

I went once, a nightmare. Never again.

@CharlieTown thing is I don't go so wouldn't be affecting your brilliant time at all with my moaning as I choose not to go to events I wouldn't enjoy - I go to events where I'd be as happy as you at Glastonbury so win win for both of us.

No thanks. I'd rather chop my own leg off with a rusty axe 😉

This. If the band you wanted to watch is actually crap you can switch if over or off and carry on with your life. So much nicer.

Same here. Would sooner poke my eyes out.

I skim read this as far as “good blow” and I thought it could surely only go one of two ways.

Fortunately you took it the secret third option which I hadn’t considered.

Doesn’t have to be. I was a regular at Download and went one year when my then-boyfriend was on crutches- we just just chilled on a picnic blanket a bit further back for most of the weekend. You don’t have to be at the front of the mosh pit!

Maybe its the type of festival you do. I go to 4 day festivals but stay in a hotel so there is some comfort there with having proper shower and a decent bed. Don't have to lug a lot of stuff.

Another festival I go to has option of camping or hotel with shuttle buses and I did the camping one year it was okay but I'd rather put myself in a hotel and deal with getting a shuttle bus everyday.

What I don't understand is: why go? You can see the bands far better at home from the comfort of your own sofa, with delicious food, nice baths and comfortable beds, no mud, no sunstroke, front row view of favourite bands, no walking, no queuing, no listening to stuff you don't like just so you can keep a good spot to see the bands you do like. You don't have to pretend you're having a good time when the oldies who can't hold a note any more are wheeled out. But you can go 'Ah' at all the shiny happy young things in their gorgeous outfits .You can comment like Gogglebox. Bliss.

There are some bands I love watching live and I have been to the occasional small festival to see them (Portsmouth Victorious is perfectly sized) but otherwise, I stick to gigs.

DS has been a regular at Download for years. Before he had a car I drove him there a couple of times and that was enough for me. Joined a queue on lane 1 of the M1 well south of J23 and it took an age to get to whichever Jetpark hired from Castledon Airport was being used as a drop off zone.

Probably just about OK with a festival for my own kind of music at 18 or even 25 but not after. Too susce

Haha, you beat me to it. Try saying it's not physically tough if you have osteoarthritis 😆 some folk haven't a clue do they .

They look awful to me, but I am not sure there is any secret about all the things you mention. Some people don't care about that. So yanbu to think they are hard work, but yabu to be acting like you have somehow been decieved.