Tresuaring Glastonbury Festival

      I love the Glastonbury Festival Of Contemporary Performing Arts.  Glastonbury holds a status now that makes it a target, and saying to someone that I love it will often precede them telling me why I shouldn't, even when it's often the case that they have never been themselves.  And if I hadn't attended before, I may have even conceded their points, as the fact it is covered by mainstream media, and also the way it is covered, makes it seem as beige and tedious as the latest football gossip. 

"Oh, it's all so commercial now isn't it?  Just a place for celebs to get seen, with boring pop acts playing.  Costs too much n' all, used to be able to get in for a quid and get a free bottle of milk, I know someone who jumped the fence anyway, lost its soul when you couldn't sneak in for free anymore."

Sign of the times

I was going to title this 'Defending Glastonbury Festival.'  After some thought, I'd rather use more energy extolling the virtues of the place than having to counter every point people make against it.  It doesn't need to be defended, it should be treasured.  But this negativity seeps through to people who I know would otherwise feel the same way I do if they went.  So a few quick points:

Glastonbury is incredibly anti-commercial for its size.  Nearly all profit goes to charity, and from arrival, everything is geared more to having a good time than rinsing you of cash.  Hey, you can spend a load!  I'm not naive about it, there are people who give money to outside companies to stay off site in some palatial so-called "tent"!  But are they having a better time than us lot inside the walls for the week?  Nahh, I'm not having it!

Celebs exist, and, yes, go to the high profile music festival.  I've seen none in my time mind, other than Marc Radcliffe pondering how he can mask his distaste for who he's gonna be introducing next.  Plus the backstage compound is downright boring and doesn't hold a candle to some of the bars in the rest of the festival where the real people are.
  

One of the many, many public bars/venues

Boring pop acts play, but at the same time as a hundred more interesting acts.  Would it be better if they weren't there?  Maaaaaybe.  Then again, they do have this reputation as one of the biggest festivals in the world to uphold.  But this is a matter I could do a whole post about.  Maybe I will!  And there'll never be X Factor types there, thank god.  (I say, looking around nervously)  The quality, depth and diversity of the lineup is virtually unparalleled.  Compared to other festivals, Glastonbury is incredible value for money.  What they manage to put on inside those walls is utterly astounding.  And there's no restrictions on bringing anything you need with you, and taking it wherever you want.

It's not as good as it used to be? That's an interesting one.  If it honestly was, well I wish I had been there, because what they have now is out of this world!  There's definitely more to do now.  One person who has been making the pilgrimage for many years said on a message board that as much fun as they had in the past, the Park Stage only arrived in 2007, and that's their favourite part.  They couldn't imagine their favourite version of the festival not containing the Park.  An honest option for something to do after the bands finished in the past was dancing to the tunes that a wine bar played.  Nowadays, the options in the dark hours are more numerous and varied.  

Glastonbury 2000 - dangerously packed?

In 2000, the fence-jumping finally got to be too much.  Estimates are that 300,000 people were at that festival, the vast majority without a ticket.  It felt really dangerous at times, both with the amount of people, and very dodgy types patrolling the bridges.  But that sense of danger is missed by some, saying the superfence, introduced in order to get a license for the festival, has precluded the more interesting types of person going to the festival.  As far as I see it, it is still a fascinating gathering of the tribes, truly coming from all over the world, from vastly different walks of life.  Yeah, you've got the normals attending now, and less crusty hippies than there used to be, but the people are still what I come back to as making the festival what it is.  Just about everyone is kind, with estate agents mixing with drag artists, full families having a good time with modern hippies who want to tell people about alternative ways of living in the Green Fields.  I come out of Glastonbury with a renewed enthusiasm, and hope for humanity.  You can't buy that shit off the shelf.  It's wonderful. 

So, that's some of the criticisms dealt with.  I may have failed to keep that part brief, sorry!  What do I admire about this piece of Somerset?  It's powered by love.  Sorry if that makes me seem like I believe in fairies and magic.  But when it comes to Glastonbury, I kinda... do?  Although Reading/Leeds boss Melvin Benn was the one with his name on the license post-superfence, farmowner Michael Eavis took control back a good few years ago.  And from people I've spoken to, the crew is largely back to being populated by festival types of folk.  The kind of person who has been to every festival in the land and knows what makes a good "fezzy" (hate that word tbh.)  While of course there is money involved, this temporary city of staggering scale, with surprises and excitement round every corner, simply could not happen without the huge amount of love people hold for Glastonbury Festival.  With crew bars and parties occuring long before the gates open to the public, there is a special community formed among the men and women that make the magic happen, some arriving several weeks before mid-June and staying the same amount of time afterwards for the pack-down.  And you feel that love everywhere you go.  From a guy who runs a small stage on top of a hill who called me over last year and made me feel like part of their family, to the volunteers literally cleaning feces off toilets because they want to be there and say they've done their bit.  For a week or longer, it's more home than home.

Maceos crew bar, a week before Glastonbury

Some of that crew family were old school travellers from back in the day, who were taken in to the festival by Michael Eavis when they were hounded by Thatcher's government.  The wild creativity they brought in the eighties, with unlicensed soundsystems and mutated vehicles, formed the basis of today's festival's so-called 'naughty corner.'  A feeling, like no other feeling I'd ever felt, shot through me like a lightning bolt the first time I walked down into Shangri La. Had I turned a corner through some trees into a farmer's field, or had I walked through a teleporter to another dimension?  Walls of shock red formed avenues to all sorts of weird and wonderful micro-venues.  Everywhere I looked, provoking images looked back at me.  Windows on the walls, as in Amsterdam's red light district, contained scenes of strange debauchery.  I walked through a hexagon into a room with everything from floor to ceiling painted in black and white swirls, as someone dressed as a mock-rocker played wild guitar on his own on a stage, and fancy cocktails were served at a bar.  There is so much more to say about this area that defies description.  Much like the matrix, you cannot be told what it is, you have to see it for yourself.  Each part of this field holds it's own themed after-hours area, all of which are the best nights you've ever had rolled into one.  A little tip?  Stay out as late as you dare.  After a while, all the tourists go to bed, and the crazies continue to go wild.

Shangri La

Shangers, as well as being a hub of hedonism, is politically motivated. Anti-establishment runs through it's ongoing storyline, as part of the festival's steadfast position in promoting left-wing ideologies.  A large part of the Green Fields message, especially Greenpeace's own field, promotes a way of life utterly opposed to the Tories' manifesto. Billy Bragg runs the Leftfield, a stage which hosts political discussions, as well as left-wing, politically motivated bands and comedians.  I'm a big fan of the organisers using their public profile to stand up for the rights and needs of the most vulnerable in our society, and in the world. And this political motivation traces all the way back to when it was the CND Glastonbury Festival.  In that sense it's part of the festival's DNA, its soul, a soul which is still spirited.

The spirit of freedom pervades the festival on Worthy Farm, at least in my opinion. Of course there's that great wall, bag checks on your way in, uniformed police patrols.  Without these, the festival would not be given its license.  The police are mainly concerned with safety and preventing theft, and once you're inside, restrictions of other festivals are nowhere to be seen.  It feels like you have the personal freedom to do whatever you want to do, go wherever you want to go, be whoever you want to be.  As long as you don't cause those around you, or the farm itself, any harm, a sense of real liberation is yours.

The stone circle has a lawless feel

Part of Glastonbury's soul, and part of why the whole shebang works so well, is how it is fragmented.  Each different field is like it's very own festival, with its own booking team, its own look, its own vibe.  West Holts, one of the biggest stages, has possibly the best soundsystem, which is quite a feat, as the sound quality of the fest is superb.  And it's always a party down there.  Theatre & Circus is low-key the best field of the entire thing, with sheer joy permeating every nook and cranny.  Avalon is like an old country fayre, it even has a country pub!  The Green Fields are incredibly tranquil and peaceful, ideal when the intensity of it all gets a bit much and you need your little moment of zen.  The already-mentioned South East "naughty" corner gives the festival its own counter-culture, what other festival can claim that? 

All these mini-festivals, some of which... aren't necessarily too keen on each other's antics!  Julien Temple's magnificent films about the festival show that some members of the Gaia-loving Green Fields thought the party animals of the naughty corner were pushing​ their luck too much and were just too darn crazy and loud in the middle of the night.  Again, the community aspect of Glastonbury Festival may end up as its own post here. 

The Park, one of the festivals within a festival

And the list of these areas goes on, some not mentioned here, with sections of the festival-goers spending their whole week in these other festivals-within-a-festival, never even going near the Pyramid.  Although the Pyramid is pretty cool, being among a hundred thousand people in front of this iconic stage.

And it all comes right back to the people of Glastonbury.  To get there in the first place you need the will and resolve to get through the process to get a ticket, and so everyone is just so happy to be there.  They make incredible effort to weave lights into their outfits and the lines between performer and attendee become blurred.  As the days pass by, each person becomes less defined by any differences we have in the outside world, and feel as one, as part of the fabric of the festival.  The happiness is truly infectious.  At one point last year I walked through many areas, the drizzle was being ignored, and euphoric scenes could be seen everywhere.  As has happened quite a few times, I teared up in response to how beautiful it all was (and possibly how drained I was from the weekend's exploits.)  Willgoose of Public Service Broadcasting notes in his blog post that there is no crowd quite like a Glastonbury crowd.  The love they show to the performers takes them aback, and so those musicians end up adoring the place as much as the crowds.  They take a lower fee because they want to be there.

There's more, there's always more to Glastonbury.  More than I could simply write about in a blog.  (Off the top of my head: Amazing food, beautiful sunsets, secret bars, the bars that aren't secret, all the bins being painted in a lovely way, the on-site radio station, the on-site newspaper, the bands are alright too.)  That's why it's inspired books, films, why it's a cultural touchstone, why it's special.  It all culminates in an inner peace I didn't think was possible.  A sense that I'm amongst like minded people and everything is gonna be just great.  I walk around the grounds when I'm there, and I'm so, naturally, happy.

A Glastonbury sunset

This year, a few of my closest friends will be among those people of Glastonbury, some of which are coming for the first time.  I cannot wait to share the magical experience of Glastonbury with them.  Some of those tears I mentioned above were shed on my first Glastonbury Sunday, talking with one of them on the phone, partly out of sheer longing for them to be there.  And, honestly, one of the reasons I wrote this was to convince another friend who I hold a lot of love for to come along for the ride as well.  Because the magic is meant to be shared with those closest to your soul.  Because I know you'll feel the same way about it I do.

Never for money, always for love,

Simon