Said
Beyonce when she was on stage headlining at Glastonbury. It was one of the many moments that I experienced while at Glastonbury that I expect will remain locked in my memory for a long time. Some of these moments were unbelievably fun crazy and amazing others were a really scary, annoying and depressing. I had a fantastic time at Glastonbury and am extremely glad I went - but let me tell you it had its ups and downs!
We set off for Glasto (yes I am going to be lazy and type it like this for the rest of the blog) armed with our Wellington boots, rain jackets, tents, backpacks crammed with booze and food ready for a fun filled few days. We arrived to Pilton farm and were quickly knee deep in mud as we walked for 40 minutes across a farm feild just to get into the gates. Once we were through and our wristbands on our arms we set off on our mission to find the perfect spot to set up camp.
The festival didn't start offically until the Friday but we decided to go on the Wednesday so we could get a good spot, have a bit of a recon around the festival and get up to mischeif early. By the time we got there there were already thousands upon thousands of tents set up meaning we had to spent about an hour wandering through trying to find a space where we could set up 8 or so tents plus a gazebo. Sophie and I had tagged along with Lance and Sam (my flatties) and allll of Lance's sister Rachels friends. In the end there would have been about 15 or so of us in the one little camping area which did make for good yarns but impossible to find a position. Luckily enough for us we found a spot not to far from the toilets, stages and food stalls with enough room to hang out!
Once we set up we got down to busniess of checking out the festival. Soph and I had a wander around for about an hour checking out the market stalls, food stalls, different stages (very silent and boring but still!) before heading back to the campsite to have a few drinks with the start of our crew. After a quick bottle of Pimms to share - it goes down so easily!- we were well on our way to starting that tipsy festival feeling.
Many of Rach's friends were arriving at different times of the day so once we had most people we decided to head up to the Park Stage that had the big Glastonbury sign (similar to the Hollywood sign) and have a look over the festival. It was extremely overwhelming! There were tents as far as the eye could see and I couldn't imagine any more people squeezing into the area. There were already thousands of people out and about drinking and hanging out and it was incredible to see.
After sitting up on the hill for awhile we decided to head over to the Stone Circle which is where the festival originated. We got there in time to see the bonfire be lit and the fireworks go off. As we were standing there some guy started drumming and another guy jumped up on one of the stones and started playing the bagpipes. It was so cool to see everyone gather round and listen while we watched fireworks in the mud. But amongst all that I was thinking who on earth takes a drum kit and bagpipes camping?! We explored a bit more and then went back to then for a few more drinks before calling it a night in the wee hours of the morning. The first night was a hit - except for the minor downfall of the sole of my brand new Wellington boots coming off!
During the night it was quite hard to sleep because we literally had the smallest tent on the history of the planet and I am outrageously claustrophobic. It was freezing cold so I was trying to combat the feeling of being suffocated whiles trying to wrap myself completely in a sleeping bag - not ideal! I have camped before and never had a problem with being in a tent but since we had a tiny wee little pop up tent that we could barely sit up in without hitting the roof - plus two adults, two blow up mattresses and two backpacks it was all a bit much. I ended up having to stick my head outside in the rain just to have a bit of air. Also during the night there was a commotion around another tent as someone found a stranger in their tent and people were screaming and yelling for them to get out. Combined with that and the noise of thousands of drunk people singing and talking it wasn't easy to get to sleep - and I'm the kind of girl who can fall asleep during anything.
After a rough night all I was up pretty early and ready to head off to find myself some breakfast and buy a new pair of wellies. Soph was getting ready to come with me but couldn't find her hand bag. About an hour of searching later after completely emptying our tent and backpacks there was still no sign of it. There was nothing else to do but report it stolen which was scary because we had both seen it in the tent the night before and been asleep with it in there during the night. It was weird to think that someone might have opened our tent and taken it out but we couldn't really think of another way it got lost.
We walked down to the local security point and they told us that several bags had been taken in our area the night before and the best thing to do was report it to the police which we had to do anyways so Sophie could claim her travel insurance. Thankfully she had left her passport back in London but the bad had all her cash, her cards, her phone (borrowed but still!) and her camera (nooooo!). The other struggle was the police point was literally on the other side of the festival to us so it took us about an hour to walk there. Once we were there they were really helpful and friendly as they took all the details down before letting us use their phone to cancel her credit cards. They recommended popping across to lost property just to see if the bag had been handed in so we wandered across and started the whole process again.
Sophie had to write down a detailed report on what was missing before they went out and had a look. Once the guy we were dealing with had gone off to search some guy was like 'I dont want to get your hopes up but its looking good'. It was awesome to hear but could have also been extremely upsetting if it didn't work out. Thankfully it did and Sophie got her bag back - including all the contents but the money (typical) and the phone which wasn't such a huge deal. We were just relieved to get some of it back and were talking about how lucky she was as we were walking away. About two seconds later we heard someone running up behind us and grabbing us and asking us to stop and it was the guy from the lost and found telling us that they had her money too! They had just locked it away! This was another big win and we were even happier!
Sophie couldn't believe her luck and I was just so relieved that it was all behind us and we could get on with our day. We FINALLY got our breakfast and I got my new wellies so I was a pretty happy camper. This whole process had taken about three hours so by the time we got back to our campsite it was late enough to have a much needed drink. I sat in the sun, read the programme while I had a strong but deserved vodka and orange. More of the crew had arrived by this time so they had gone off for a wander around the festival to check it out so it was good to have a bit of time out. As we were sitting there I got a text on my phone telling me that a phone had been handed in up at the lost property. Soph was such a lucky girl! We then headed back up there to collect the phone before meeting Sam and Lance at one of the bars to have a few drinks. The sun had come out by this stage and it wasn't too cold so it was starting to look like more of a festival!
The next day was the first day of music and it was long awaited! Two days at a music festival and not really hearing any music was the strangest thing really. We headed over to the pyramid stage to check out Metronomy and Wu Tang Clan. We also then hit up Tame Impala before walking over to the Park Stage where the 'secret' guests were. It was a pretty well kept secret up until about two hours before when the rumors were confirmed and everyone knew it was Radiohead. I am not the massivest fan of Radiohead but even I was impressed that such a big name was the special guests. Lance and Matt decided to wait in the crowd and watch a couple of acts before so they got a good spot for Radiohead but as it was pouring down with rain me and Soph decided to head to a bar close by and stay undercover and get out of the cold slightly. While were there we met up with one of Sophies friends Jaharn and her friend Kat and had a good yarn while we waited for Radiohead.
When they came on they played a pretty long set but it was most of their new stuff so I (and most others) had no idea of what songs were playing. We were also up in what you would consider the 'nosebleed' section of the festival because we were on a hill so far away we had to squint to maybe make out a member of the band. Thats what you get for dawdling but it was still good to be amongst the crowd. After
Radiohead we had an hour wait until the next band Soph wanted to see was on. As neither of us were massive fans of U2 (and by that we are not fans in the slightest) and the two other acts we wanted to see were on the the same time as Radiohead we were a bit lost as to who to see. In the end after staying undercover out of the rain and mud for an hour we gave up and headed back to the tent.
The Saturday was our best and busiest day music wise as most of the artists I wanted to see where playing so we made a plan to pretty much just stay at the one stage all day so we armed ourselves with a few sly vodkas in water bottles and went and began our day of music. We saw Tame Impala, followed by an amazing set by The Kills and then a few ciders at the bar before heading up to the Park Stage for another secret show. There were a few rumors around but it ended up being Pulp. I hadn't heard of them but they were pretty famous (if you haven't already realised i'm no music buff - just love listening to anything!) so everyone around me were pretty psyched. They played a good gig and once they played 'common people' i knew who they were!
After that we just checked out a few more gigs before heading over to the Pyramid Stage to see
Coldplay. I had never been a huge huge fan of Coldplay in that I had never had their albums or was a life long lover such as a few of my friends but I had heard they were amazing live. The many people who told me this were right! It was one of the best gigs I've seen in my lifetime. We had managed to get a pretty good spot so we could see the stage and both of the screens without being too smushed so I was happily comfortable while I stood and sung along to their songs with 175 thousand other people. We heard a bit of their new stuff as well as a few of their older classics with the encore being 'fix you' a personal favourite. I was so glad that I had the chance to see them live and now I must say I am a converted fan!
One of the best things about Glastonbury is even after all the acts are done there is partying well into the night. One of the places where you can go to continue the party is to the Shangri La which is an area up in the corner of the festival that opens only after the last gig on the main stage has played. We decided to check it out after Coldplay and ended up waiting in line for an hour just to get in but it was so worth it! When we got it in it was incredible. It was like there had been an apocolypse and we were the lat people on earth. There were cars crashed into the ground, airplanes up in trees that were bars, robots shooting fire and lots and lots of crazy people around. I was not drunk or high (like many of the people there) but even I was having a bit of a freak out the place was so mental. Fun but mental. There were DJ's playing in heaps of different tents (there was a rumor Fatboy Slim was going to play but we couldn't find the tent) and just bars everywhere. We also checked our Arcadia and Sector 9 which were similar sort of places with even more crazy stuff followed by the fairground which was a creepy carnival kind of place. I wasn't sure if the people there were dressed like that because they had been paid to or they were just festival goers but at 2 am walking through a creepy carnival wasn't my idea of fun. I know its probably lame to say as so many people i spoke to LOVED the Shangri La but I think you have to be in the right mood to enjoy it. I was slightly hungover at this stage (as my mid day drunkness had worn off) I was tired and my gumboots were giving me blisters so I could barely walk. Even though we had a tiny tiny tiny tent all i wanted to do was go back and sleep.
The next day was the final day of the festival and our first day of sunshine! It makes such a difference when the sun is out! Even though you still had to wear your wellies it was so much easier to walk around and have places to sit and basically everyone was just so much happier! We started the day by checking out Foster The People who I hadn't heard of but are now my favourite band (I am even going to see them again in November) which was a great start to the day. After that we were pretty much just waiting around to see Beyonce with a few bands in between so we headed over to the Greenfields which we hadn't yet checked out.
The Greenfields are run by Greenpeace and it is basically just a place where you can go to chill out. They have awesome garden bars, healing tents with pillows, free tea places, fresh fruit stalls, jam tents where people just go to play music together. They also have heaps of artwork and sculptures made out of recycled materials and just basically a really relaxed chilled out area for all the hippies. It was one of my favourite parts of the festival and such a different vibe from many other areas. While we were there we saw Foster The People walking around which was a highlight as they are absolute babes.
After that we wandered over to the John Peel Stage to see The Vaccines before meeting up with Sam and Sophie's friend Jaharn to get our spots for Beyonce. We quickly grabbed some food while we sat on the outer edges while Pendulum played before trying to worm our way close for her show. We managed to score a pretty good possy right next to the screen with a pretty decent close view of the stage. Unfortunately over the course of an hour while we waited we had a few very very tall and very very rude people push through and get in our way. Its always going to happen at festivals but it just stinks when it runis your view! It didn't matter too much though because the minute she was on stage all eyes were on the screen and the stage as we danced along to 'Crazy In Love' and 'Single Ladies'. We got to hear some of her new stuff (which of course is now top played on my Spotify) and all the old classics including some Destiny's Child. She was the first solo female headliner for Glastonbury in 20 years and she rocked it. It was a good end to a good festival and as we walked our weary bones back to the tent I was pretty happy.
The next morning we were up bright and early to pack up our tents and do the big walk back over to the bus. This time the backpacks were a bit lighter which made it easier but it was still not the best start to a morning! I was happy to be on the way home even though I had a pretty good time. I am no princess and have enjoyed camping before but after a busy few days dealing with thousands of people, tiny tents, air mattresses, ever changing weather and hangovers and stall food I was looking forward to getting into my home, having a very very very long shower, eating a home cooked meal and sleeping in my own bed.
I had a great time with lots of highs (singing along to Beyonce with 170 thousand other people) and with a few lows (creepy bag thieves) and it is something I recommend that everyone should do in their lifetime. Its a dirty fun crazy tipsy blur of days and nights with some good music in between. You can walk from one end to the other and see some totally different sights. People watching is amazing because people of all ages are here enjoying themselves. I am glad that I was lucky enough to get a ticket and be able to attend it with the perfect partner in crime Soph who made her way from Australia to come with me. It will be one of the adventures that I will remember for a lifetime!
