Will Glastonbury ever happen again?

[Wannaflyaway]

I was watching Foo Fighters from Glastonbury 2017 today on TV as they're my favourite band. After about 10 mins I had to switch off. Seeing the mass of people in the audience having an absolutely amazing time, no worries about standing too close to anyone, laughing, smiling, hugging. It honestly broke my heart to think about how different things are today thanks to coronavirus. I feel that this virus has literally taken every bit of enjoyment out of life. Everything that makes life worth living, being with others, concerts, theatre, restaurants, holidays, school, has been taken away. I know that some of these things will still exist but in a new format but even then with all of the safety precautions needed, it doesn't seem with the effort and most of the joy of these things will have gone in my mind. I know noone has a crystal ball but are we ever going to get our old lives back again? Will there be any more Glastonbury festivals? I honestly am finding it harder and harder to keep going in this new normal. I am grieving for our old lives.

Um, I actually thought pretty much what user posted (except she was more articulate).

I wasn't going to say anything about it, because if you folk are down then you're down. Truly: you're entitled to your feelings, they're perfectly understandable and it's not a misery competition.

But for a lot of us this is permanent.

I'll be delighted for you all when things re-open – and they will, of course there will be concerts and stuff! It's daft to suggest otherwise! But they still won't be open for some of us. We'll never have them again.

So this, really:
I hope you have the same compassion for people with tough lives and don't ever make bullshit dismissive comments to them about "keeping on".

to everyone having a hard time.

Especially user12699422578.

Yes I’m pretty sure it will be back next year, if not following one.

I’ve been listening to R6 with old Glastonbury festivals and the effect is really something. I thought it sounds like absolute joy.

Don’t forget about all the people who work in the live music industry, and have had their whole livelihoods and their way of life taken from them.

So yes, we do worry ourselves sick about ‘concerts and stuff’. That’s how we survive. It’s a huge blow to the economy not having live events.

Last summer holidays was pretty shit for my family because my Ddad was dying of cancer. My DC basically spent their hols either on their own while I visited Ddad, or visiting him in his last days when he was unaware of who we were. I felt so much guilt that they had (through no ones fault) missed their fun summer hols and vowed to make it up to them this year.. now I feel that's another year gone but at least everyones in the same boat.
I've never been to glasto but I miss parkrun!

OP I get you completely, so bitter sweet to watch

David Bowie really did hold the universe in his hands, didn’t he?

Yup

I bloody hope it will, Ive got tickets.

I play in a band - not my full time job - and we've missed out on eight gigs so far. Was actually supposed to be playing last night! We still have gigs in the calendar for late July and August. Still don't know if they'll happen.

I know plenty of people who work full time in the music and entertainment (musicians, technicians, promoters) as well people like me who pick up a few extra bob. All of them are absolutely on their knees financially as the entire industry has pretty much zero support. My own son is now out of work, not even furloughed, from his previously full time job in a theatre and I've taken a 3-month mortgage holiday to pay his rent (I'll have to a re-think about stuff later down the line). Many venues that have closed will never reopen. The cost to the economy is already, and will be, huge. The cost to our cultural and social well-being will be even higher. These are sad times.

There is nothing wrong with missing music. One day it will return, but possibly not as knew it.

I watched Adele's set last night and I felt the same as you. She went down to the crowd and held hands with them which was such a beautiful moment, but it just felt so alien to the world we're in right now. I'm sure things will gradually go back to normal over the next few years, but it does seem so hard to imagine being in a crowd like that right now.

Life just isn't worth living if all the joy is gone. I've had a very rough 2 years and finally when life gets back on track, bam worldwide pandemic. I can't believe it and really hope to see Glastonbury and the Olympics back next year. Also sad to see all my local events being cancelled too.

That was an awesome set by Bowie. Absolutely incredible. Really demonstrated the power of music and the power of shared emotional experiences.

Last year's Glastonbury was so good and I know where you're coming from @Wannaflyaway

If only we'd known what was ahead of us and that we may never again see such spectacular concerts and festivals.

I do think though that Glastonbury etc will be back next year, perhaps on a smaller scale. The worst of the virus will be long gone by then and we'll either have a vaccine/cure, or it will fade into the background like measles, chicken pox etc.

I hope we learn to appreciate things more, even the small things like going for a coffee and cake, going out to dinner, going to a comedy bar etc.

There are myriad ways in which people have tough lives. For some of those people, a music festival or trip to the theatre may be their few days or hours of escape from the harsh reality of their everyday lives.

And as a pp mentioned, the entertainment industry is people's livelihoods. It pays for people's homes and feeds people's families just the same as if they were an accountant, nurse or shop worker. It's not all privileged multi-millionnaires. Many of those entertainers providing us with moments of joy have an income no different to any other average person.

Music brings SUCH joy, so so sorry to all those whose livelyhoods have fallen off a cliff

The misery top trumps can fuck off.
The highlight of my week was going to my dad's grave. I learned very abruptlyat 11 years that we are all mortal and had a light bulb moment when sitting in a humanities class while in y7 that I was going to make my life count and make it a good one. I've had the moment my heart ripped out replaying though my head umpteen times this week due to the anniversary.
But we live on.

It's often the small things that keep us going. I was back at school in 2 days for normal. DM's friends swept her up and kept her busy with her social life.

Grief in 2020 is not like that. Many don't have the work to distract. No little dates in the diary offering a window of escapism from the cloak of grief.

Despite the tone of my initial sentence I am genuinely sorry for anyone struggling with the big life shit, grief, ill health, financial concerns, relationship breakdown, unemployment... but the little things are vital too. Hope and joy are reasons to keep us going through the crap and they are worth lamenting and fighting for and they will return because we need them.

Thank you BogRoll for perfectly expressing how I feel. I'm in my mid 40s, single parent, low paid job, very little money. Life was hard pre covid and I could never do anything extravagant but the occasional trip to the cinema, watching a live band, hugging a friend, going abroad on holiday once every few years, a pub lunch with colleagues, it was these things that made life worth living and made the day to day struggles bearable. Now they've all gone. Thank you to all of you for taking the time to reply. I feel reassured that many of you say this will be temporary. I needed to hear that. I can just about cope with it being temporary, as hard as it is. I just don't think I could cope with it being permanent.

No one's playing misery top trumps.

I completely agree that it's the small things one looks forward to that make life living, and the importance of the restoration of normality after a disaster even if it's just school. I agree with the PP saying how a trip to a concert keeps one going.

I wish for you to have those things again, even though I can't have them myself, because I'm not an arsehole.

What user is expressing above (if I've understood her), is that when these losses were happening only to her, and not to the entire country, rather a lot of people around her were arseholes and completely failed to show the sort of compassion that is now being widely shared.

We hope that, now that people have had a temporary taste of it, there might be some more lasting compassion for those of us who miss the small things that used to bring us joy and have no end in sight.

Yes of course it will. This is the life people want, they aren’t going to stay locked up forever to stop spreading a virus 99% of people recover from. Every other pandemic in history has come to an end and so will this one.

I actually felt quite buoyed watching it. That is the kind of life people want to live, not this crappy miserable existence. The government aren’t going to be able to exert this kind of control on people and their activities forever. God they can’t do it now!

@user12699422578 💐 sorry for whatever you have lost, you have clearly had a tough time.

This is temporary blip in our lives, I miss my old life and wish I could hibernate for the next year because I think we are in for a bumpy ride. Life will return to normal.

@possibletesco EXACTLY!

My entire life is crumbling around me and the government are giving us nothing. Many many people work in this industry and we’ve been left high and dry. Even if we are given the go ahead to reopen our businesses at some point this year, for out industry it’s absolutely pointless as outdoor festivals and events are seasonal and we’ve completely lost this year. I’ve lost a whole year’s income, how do I pay employees during the winter when I haven’t earned during the summer? How do I pay my bills on zero income?

I know people who work in this industry and they have been crippled by this. There is zero government support available and they have had to take jobs in supermarkets.

That said, they are starting to plan for next year and the big players (eg. Glasto, Reading) are looking at how they make events Covid secure. They are of course hoping for a vaccine, but in lieu of that they are planning to invest heavily in rapid testing that can take place immediately before an event. You’ll then get signed off as virus free and be able to enter. Fingers crossed for the science.

@Wannaflyaway I feel the same.

But I know really it will get back to that and cannot wait to be down the front at a festival on a starry summer night.

The festivals will struggle to come back as they are now, because they depend on hundreds if not thousands of micro businesses to put them together - lighting, stage techs, stage hands etc. A huge number of these businesses are limited companies and in reality they're very small.

The government hasn't awarded any furlough or other help for people running such micro companies so they're all busy selling off their equipment to pay the bills.

Also most of them earn money not just from festivals but from gigs at venues, many of which will have gone bust over lockdown.

And also, many festivals can't afford to lose a years takings and risk going under.

Once the restrictions have relaxed enough to allow large gatherings again, those festival organisers who have survived may find their contact book of suppliers tells a sorry story as the industry will have been decimated by then.

Brexit is going to make it worse also, as the amount of visa red tape Europen bands will have to wade through to get here will put a lot of them off coming. No problem for large, well established bands. But for the thousands further down the tree, ot will be Similarly new / small UK bands will lose the opportunity to gain fans by touring in Europe as the red tape and added costs will make it not worth going.

Live music is worth £1.1bn to Uk economy with industry as a whole put at £5.2bn but you wouldn't think it. This government has been repeatedly told how Brexit and other policies will affect the music industry but they don't seem to give a shit.

Our cultural landscape is likely to get much poorer under this government (no change there then, more of the same).

People love festivals and being involved in putting them on, and I'm sure the industry will pull together to put some great events on. But there's no way it'll be the same without some government support for the industry, people can't survive on nothing.