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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

160 replies

malificent7 · 27/06/2023 16:19

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.

OP posts:
Aaron95 · 27/06/2023 17:37

Go to a smaller festival.

Already this year we've been to Fynefest and Wychwood. Neither had any real queues for anything. Better toilets, more convenient, less cost and no restrictions on bringing your own food or drink.

Greycheck · 27/06/2023 17:38

My checklist to myself nowadays is

  1. What's the journey and parking like
  2. What's the toilet situation
  3. Where am I sleeping

Most festivals fail on all those things so I give them a swerve. 20 year old me is sobbing somewhere at what I've become 🤣

Stopandlook · 27/06/2023 17:41

Completely agree. Went in my late 20s (1998 and 99) and sort of tempted to go with the kids but you need a strategy to chill out and not do too much.

I went one of the mud years and there was as no where to sit down - because of the mud - until you got back to your tent. Exhausting!

Went back the next year because the forecast was great (in those sweet days you could just rock up to HMV and buy a ticket) and it was so much nicer just listening to the music sitting on the hill.

MoggyMittens23 · 27/06/2023 17:41

I can’t think of anything worse!!

CaveCanem · 27/06/2023 17:43

We do a few smaller ones every year and I’m a decade older than you with chronic health issues. I wouldn’t/couldn’t do Glastonbury or any of the bigger mainstream festivals. Biggest one we do has a capacity of 10,000 including staff/crew, smallest is just a couple of hundred people.

Sticking to the small ones makes such a difference. The whole site is smaller, so not as much walking and if you pick the right ones they tend to be less commercial too. (Have a look on E-festivals to find some that suit your music taste.)

The gamechanger for us, once we hit a certain age, was getting a live-in vehicle. No lugging kit, we have our own loo, cooker, fridge, decent bed and with an awning, some shade and somewhere to shelter from the rain. Last couple of years having a fridge that runs on gas and has a little freezer section has also been great, as we had ice-cubes and ice pops on tap.

An alternative for some people is booking one of the glamping packages, as you get a real bed and mattress with them, but they are ridiculously expensive and you still don’t get a fridge or your own toilet.

I know of two couples that stay off-site in a hotel and travel in daily, but that seems like a bit of a faff to me. Although there’s Rebellion, where it’s all at an indoor venue, so everyone stays off-site anyway.

We don’t tend to bother buying much food from the catering vans, it’s always over-priced and poor quality. Sometimes we’ll buy something on the last night, when our stocks are running low, but we don’t eat from catering every day we’re there.

Dd has been going with us since she was 1 (now almost 15) and absolutely loves it.

Long gone are the days when we’d pitch up with a two man tent, a double sleeping bag and the clothes on our backs.

trampoline123 · 27/06/2023 17:44

Amazing but yeah...hard work!

Once went when it was raining all the time, everything was bogged, nowhere to sit really, legs were absolutely effed come the end.

Getting up that hill to get back to your car is just something else isn't it?

Firefinch · 27/06/2023 17:50

Glastonbury is a total marathon. I last went in 2014 (I think) at age of 50 and found it bloody knackering.

Costco121 · 27/06/2023 17:54

i dont get people who go there… urgh, the shared toilets, limited washing etc rather watch it on bbc..or not

hettiethehare · 27/06/2023 17:56

I'm 45 and went last year for the first time in 20 years. It wiped me out for a week after we got back (not helped by the fact that I came back with a stomach bug and DH came back with covid).

It is such a big site! We did Worthy View (pre-erected camping) which had the advantage of not having to carry/ pitch a tent and parking was 5 mins walk away BUT did involved a massive hike up a fuck off massive hill at the end of each night which meant once we were down to the festival for the day we didn't head back to our tent.

Krustykrabpizza · 27/06/2023 17:58

It really sounds like my idea of hell. I'll watch from my living room

DramaticBananas · 27/06/2023 17:58

littleblackcat27 · 27/06/2023 16:32

Your mistake was not drinking enough cider.

Because then the trekking and queuing elements might have been less painful.😀

🤣 More cider is the answer. You may need the loo more often but you care about the muck far less.

DrySherry · 27/06/2023 18:05

Aaron95 · 27/06/2023 17:37

Go to a smaller festival.

Already this year we've been to Fynefest and Wychwood. Neither had any real queues for anything. Better toilets, more convenient, less cost and no restrictions on bringing your own food or drink.

This.
My father is 80 and still goes camping to Sidmouth festival every year. Its well organised, clean and isn't choked up with pot heads and gurners who've had too many pills. Very civilized event for the more mature music enthusiast. Recommended.

LlynTegid · 27/06/2023 18:05

Any festival that has ever thought Coldplay are worth inviting is one I'll avoid, thanks.

PrimoPiatti · 27/06/2023 18:08

A Covid super-spreading event.

Crazy crazy, people really should educate themselves about the effects of long covid.

ssd · 27/06/2023 18:13

I didn't even watch it for too ling on the telly. All those young girls up on someone's shoulders obscuring others view and sun brollies or flags annoyed me 500 miles away, id have been a middle aged sweaty burnt harridan there. They wont miss meGrin

Bemyclementine · 27/06/2023 18:14

@beguilingeyes Vfest was the best!! None of the idiocy of bloody Reading. Great line ups when I went.

Moveoverdarlin · 27/06/2023 18:14

What you’ve described is Exactly how I imagine them to be. Even when I was younger I know I didn’t have the stamina to sustain having fun fun fun for 3 days.

heartsinvisiblefury · 27/06/2023 18:14

ssd · 27/06/2023 18:13

I didn't even watch it for too ling on the telly. All those young girls up on someone's shoulders obscuring others view and sun brollies or flags annoyed me 500 miles away, id have been a middle aged sweaty burnt harridan there. They wont miss meGrin

Me too! I was getting pissed off on behalf of the people behind those people. My kids think it's hilarious but I was shouting at the tv for them to get down 😂😂😂😂.

Tomorrowillbeachicken · 27/06/2023 18:15

I’d have sympathy if you were working at one but you chose to go

bbyno2 · 27/06/2023 18:16

Go to smaller festivals, much less walking and just less stress all round

DrownLoad · 27/06/2023 18:19

A Covid super-spreading event.

Crazy crazy, people really should educate themselves about the effects of long covid.

Hmm I had to do a double take and check the date on this comment. Of all the things that could go wrong at a festival, covid is the least of my worries.

Flippper · 27/06/2023 18:20

Agree with others who have made the move to smaller festivals. They're often called folk festivals but are not what I would think of as folk music at all! Really varied artists. Seen some brilliant non-music acts at them too like An Audience with Ruth Jones at Underneath the Stars near Sheffield. Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Gate to Southwell Festival near Nottingham (next weekend I think, if you can get a ticket still) are also lovely.

pinkstinks · 27/06/2023 18:21

It was too crowded this year. Lots
of
pinch points in the crowd and a real lack of stewards. the ones I did see looked terrified and about 12!

At times dangerous and at times Infuriating that where we wanted to be for example the naughty cornor was at capacity and closed.

Justrolledmyeyesoutloud · 27/06/2023 18:21

Meltingpots · 27/06/2023 16:41

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 😂

Me too!!
And next year l might even camp in my lounge for the weekend!

Sewaccidentprone · 27/06/2023 18:26

I was saying the exact same thing at work yesterday. I know I’m past the stage of camping at festivals.

when we last went to Glastonbury I was a fit 34 year, but the one hour walk from the car with tent, rucksack, water etc for 4 days, sleeping on an air bed, 1/2 hr walk between stages, standing for hours, drinking loads and eating mainly rubbish was a killer. Great fun, loved it and had tonsillitis when I got back.