Glasto

hands down the greatest party on earth, what a weekend.
personal highlights ;
taking an hour to go from my house to being inside the festival on weds evening
overdoing the jager whilst dancing with my kids to george bloody ezra and being face down in my tent and missing stormzy - "dad, wake up!" ?
watching lizzo (again, with my kids) swear her way through an amazing muthaf***in set, BITCH!
sending my kids home after lizzo
chemical bros ? for the big saturday night out
chilling in the peace garden up by the stone circle early hours of sunday
roy ayers on the west holts for the laziest of lazy sunday afternoons
the food
the sun
the free water
 
Looked good. I could go see them at the SECC in Glasgow in Dec, but not really sure what the atmosphere would be like. Jon Hopkins looked more fun at Glasto than he was at SWG3. I think you need proper atmosphere to transcend the press play nature of these performances.

Saw them twice in Glasgow, supported by Slam both times. Atmosphere was electric both times and like an old rave. Ill be there in November.
 
Hopkins can be boring 9 out of 10 times live. Never really going anywhere... This is what a mate told me last week as he's playing here in August..?
 
Believe so, mixture of triggering via midii and samples.
Ahh that makes sense, i ask as im not that clued up.
Regardless i love them and watch them at Glasto everytime. Seeing them in August for 3rd time at Creamfields unfortunately though ?
 
Hopkins can be boring 9 out of 10 times live. Never really going anywhere... This is what a mate told me last week as he's playing here in August..?

He just really plays his music. If you like his music, you should enjoy the show, although it's no doubt better with a swedger inside you instead of a couple of beers.
 
What a place- there’s so much going on it’s unreal.

Every tent, every stage or bit wood things are going on. Watched a fair bit from every version of dance on the planet (maybe too much DnB), indie, punk, brAss bands, pop and even poetry!

Walking through the Theatre & Circus everyday from the camper is worth the entrance alone.

Carl cox/Jamie Jones under the new Arcadia, Fatboy/Eats Everything In front of the crane, Craig Charles on Fri afternoon, IICON, Stormzy not my thing however put a show on, LG, Courteeners, Charlatans, 3 hours in the NYC Downlow, IDLES, Foals, Carl Cox disco/funk afternoon set, Gerry Cinnamon, Haai + loads more for £250?

Our son came to celebrate his 1st birthday on Sunday which added a different but joyous element. Rolling around playing, listening to Kylie to dancing in the glade (with ear protectors on) to watching the sunset above the park brought tears of joy to my eyes ?
 
They just released some more tickets for this yesterday, managed to get two standning after the first lot sold out quickly. Also - it's a Saturday night, not one of the midweek dates.

Damn! I checked yesterday and there was no standing, must have just missed it.
 
Thought I’d jot down my thoughts on this year’s festival, bit of a long post(s) as my one from two year’s ago also was on here and using Spotlight’s trip review format to break it up a bit. Hope it’s of use / interest!

Dates you were there:
Wednesday 26th June – Monday 1st July, 2019

Where you stayed:
Worthy View. It’s the officially sanctioned pre-erected camping just south of the festival site. Stayed there when I went for the first time two years ago and used the excuse that the wife was heavily pregnant so needed a few home comforts to get her through. This time we just liked not having to trudge for ages with all our kit, hot showers, decent toilets and a bit of space and (relative) quiet to recover in. I fancy a crack at the free camping at some point but will aim for a quieter area. Pennard Hill (near the late night corner), Big Ground and Kidney Mead (camping areas overlooking the Pyramid Stage) filled up by Wednesday late morning which I find crazy and people’s tents are literally overlapping there, not appealing.

Highlights:
Different experience to many this time as my cousin, who lives in Belgium of all places, decided to have their wedding on the Friday of the festival. After much deliberation and google mapping I convinced the wife to go to the festival then drive early Friday AM to Belgium, attend the wedding and after party (both great fun) then get up again very early Saturday AM to get back to Glastonbury for early afternoon. Hell of a challenge and did leave one girl open mouthed in Arcadia when I regaled this little adventure to my friends after we returned. Other than missing the whole of Friday here’s a loose breakdown day by day:

Hernan Cattaneo and Nick Warren in the Glade. After spending much of Thursday afternoon in the Park area listening to the DJs there and Silver Hayes (the large dance music area by the Other Stage) it was great to get to Glade for a pair of old pros on a major outdoor system. Tony Andrews sound engineering throughout, brilliant clarity and power from the speakers and some quality progressive tunes, seamless mixing (of course) and a proper set rather than the stringing together of tracks heard elsewhere. Unfortunately had to get to bed before John Digweed came on as had to be up a few hours later to drive to Belgium.

Silver Hayes has a real eclectic mix of genres coming out of its half dozen or so stages, lots of interest here on Saturday. We warmed up nicely to Artwork playing disco then Denis Sulta (never been to a set of his before) moved in a housier direction around sunset, enjoyed it. There’s far more underground, challenging stuff here across the weekend though – Afro-electronic collectives, mutated hip-hop styles and all sorts. I flicked about between some of these but they’re not my style so never kept me there for long.

Chemical Brothers Saturday night headlining the Other Stage. Although the lack of banks of speakers here (unlike the Pyramid Stage) and us being further back to avoid the really busy crowds meant we didn’t get the full force of it. Nevertheless, Galvanise was pretty epic, the new tracks slotted in nicely and the visuals were worth it alone.

Arcadia with their new Pangaea structure, essentially a repurposed loading crane from Bristol docks. Missed the techno focused Friday unfortunately but Eats Everything and Fatboy Slim played a tougher set than I was expecting on Saturday which was welcome and it’s still well-suited to big and bold DnB as on Sunday night. This thing is really going to come into its own in a few years time when they start bolting on extras to the main structure as they did with the Spider. At some point there’ll be something dangling off that crane as it swings around and if it’s on fire or shooting out electricity that’s going to be a lot of fun.

Block 9. Much bigger and better than previously, London Underground has gone, owing I think to it never getting a consistent crowd in there. This has meant more space for Genosys (the outdoor stage) and a reorientation which made it easier for us to get closer to the action. Haai played an absolutely fantastically heavy set of tech boomers here. I’ve heard her in residency at Phonox in Brixton so didn’t expect her to play so tough, loved it though. Caught the end of Josh Wink on the Sunday too and think I might have missed out by not being there for the whole lot. Genosys is a brilliant idea, very well executed but the new stage, IICON, is just unbelievable. Hessle Audio here put the 3D sound system through its paces, although I think having the speakers arrranged in a massive circle means searching out sweet spots for some. Have a look at videos to get a sense of the staging, they won’t do it justice though. We were all awed by it, one of the group thought it made Tomorrowland’s winking owls and ticking clocks look silly, I agree. What a thing to come up with, build, then put to use for just 4 nights in a field.
The invention and scale of the whole SE Corner puts the Silver Hayes area and its collection of DJs-in-tents into the shade, in fact there can’t be much out there globally that measures up to it. The Common’s new Samula stage alone is better than most I’ve seen at other festivals / events and that’s just the secondary stage in one sub-section of the Corner, crazy. Shangri-La must have 6 or 7 stages with diverse, challenging lineups that rival most other festivals just by itself.

Sunday at the Pyramid Stage. A very pleasant afternoon here enjoying the weather and drinking a defrosted box of Sauvingnon Blanc. Years and Years were perfectly nice lunchtime pop. I had to hide my face behind sunglasses as I started crying uncontrollably when David Attenborough came on which I’m blaming on lack of sleep and serotonin, Boys Don’t Cry after all (but more on that further down). Kylie drew a monster crowd and was the most cited act of the week as a “must-see” from everyone I spoke to. That was also great fun, you have to love Kylie, even if you don’t like her music, although Slow and All The Lovers stand up as solid pop songs for me still and her megahits were a lot of fun. Miley Cyrus is easy to dislike but I didn’t care at that stage having chinned all the wine and started working my way through everything else, she can sing as well and I was having a great time. Enjoyed Vampire Weekend too, forgot how much I played their first two albums back in the day, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa has a great singalong chorus and I got down to my pants to dance to A-Punk, which prompted some strangers to join in, great memories. All just a warm-up though for the Sunday headliners…

The Cure. The only performance I insisted on going to throughout the whole week and worth the great expense, missing the whole of Friday, the massive drives through multiple countries, the lack of sleep, all of that, just to be there for this. Monumental. No confetti cannons, no Chris Martin joining in, no one-off covers, just a band at the very, very top of their game. Huge credit also to the sound engineering / mixing, it was absolutely amazing. As was Robert Smith’s voice throughout, Simon Gallup’s bass, especially on the final part of A Forest, the whole of Disintegration, what a song that is live, the 30 minute encore where they played the pop hits that everyone loves except the band themselves. That melody from The Caterpillar could be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard, finishing with Boys Don’t Cry, I could go on. We’ll miss Robert Smith terribly when he’s gone, thankfully he’ll be around a while yet.

Best place to eat:
Huge variety of options but I maintained myself largely with making big fry-ups for my lot to fuel us for the day then vast quantities of booze. Best that I paid for was the oggie from the Welsh place between Silver Hayes and the Other Stage, very filling and only £5. A lot of the stalls have “food for a fiver” on but didn’t seem like these constituted a full meal.

Money spent:
Tickets are £253 each (£248 + £5 booking fee). Worthy View camping was £575 for a 4 person tent (only 2 of us in it as the other tents sold out in seconds so couldn’t get them but did mean we had plenty of room). Worthy View parking was £45, probably spent about £50-£60 on food and booze at the festival with another £100 or so on that beforehand which we brought with us. Petrol, fancy dress, etc.

Biggest regret:
Missing the whole of Friday I suppose but it really was a beautiful wedding and family comes first. Ducking out also meant a chance to sleep in a proper bed, have uninterrupted, long showers, resupply before coming back in on Saturday with cold beers, ice and meat. So it’s that or seeing naked people trampolining from a distance in the Tipi village and not joining in I regret most or the feeling that no matter where you are there’s always at least 50 other things you could be at and having a great time, except at The Cure.

Going back?:
I think I have to, there is something special about Glastonbury, when they’re old enough I’ll bring the kids along, then it can be theirs too.

Top tip:
I hear lots of the usual festival advice – bring the right kit but not too much of it, stay safe and healthy, all that. Not so much on getting quality sleep when you finally do go to bed. Earplugs, eyemask, a good rollmat (we took our duvet instead of sleeping bags, much better) whatever it takes to make those few hours count. It makes a difference when you’re walking miles and partying for 20 hours a day.
 
A few observations:
I never cease to be amazed at how many creative, hard to find little venues there are which when you do get to them are already full of people partying. Coming back from the SE Corner one night through the Healing Fields (I think) we stumbled across the Magic Teapot, a little hut full of revellers singing Tainted Love whilst someone led on the piano. Glastonbury is a huge canvas that lots of artists are allowed to paint their little bit of and it makes for many surprises.

Littering. Bins everywhere yet still some can’t be bothered to walk a few feet to use them. I’m not talking about those squashed at the front of the Pyramid Stage where it’s not so easy. The volunteers picking it up are quite sanguine about it though except for wet wipes which they hate and those little plastic shot glasses which shatter into tiny shards that are sold by enterprising folk unsanctioned by the festival.

Middle class and middle aged? Often an accusation lazily thrown at Glastonbury but either by the envious or the ignorant. There’s certainly elements of that in the gentler areas but spend an hour or so in the Spaceport in the Glade area to see how rough and tumble a Glastonbury crowd can be. There’s all sorts at the festival, part of what makes it special.

The variety of fun on offer is difficult to fathom. I imagine there’s plenty of people who went last week and spent their time doing tango lessons (which I also dabbled in), listening to poety, seeking out favourite comedians, going to woodcraft workshops, going to one of the cinemas, looking after their children in one of the vast kids areas. I’ve met people who have never even heard of Arcadia, what the hell did they think had been shooting all that fire into the sky every night?!
 
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