In Praise of Glastonbury
8 July 09
Picture: Kate, 'The Dark Knight', Joe, the Joker
It was a Sunday morning last November that I sat in front of a computer for three hours trying to log onto www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk to get tickets for this summers’ festival. Those three hours seemed like an eternity and made me question whether the struggle was worth it at all. Well folks, after returning home from what was the greatest musical experience I have ever witnessed I can categorically say, ‘YES, yes it was’.
Glastonbury leaves any other music festival I have been to trailing on so many levels. The sheer size of the place is mind boggling, it is like a make shift city pops up for five days of music and fun. But despite the intimidating size I can’t remember one occasion where I got lost, and with my sense of direction not to mention Kate’s, that is no mean feat. The site is just very well laid out and there are information tents and staff on every corner to supply you with a map and point you in the right direction.
The real music side of the festival kicked off on Friday but we arrived on the Wednesday to gather our bearings and take it all in, which was a good idea. Even without heading to one concert over the weekend you could have a great time at Glastonbury. You could spend hours roaming the ‘Green Fields,’ it’s kind of a hippy village with little gardens, free arts and crafts; like painting and glass blowing, and you will find some of the best veggie food you’re ever going to eat here. Then you could venture into the cinema tent and lay back to watch classics like Spinal Tap or Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Or maybe you could find some inspiration in the ‘Poetry and Words’ tent from the likes of the brilliant John Hegley. For something a bit different you can head to the circus or to the theatre and at night when most festivals finish up around 12, Glastonbury is only just starting, in ‘Trash City,’ a city made of trash and ‘Shangri-la’ you can dance until 8 in the morning.
One of the nicest aspects of Glastonbury is that a lot of the food, drink and clothes stalls are from the Summerset area. All the alcohol sold at the festival is produced in Summerset and a lot of the electricity at the festival is solar powered with the Greenpeace showers, which were fantastic and free, being completely solar powered. Music wise your not going to be let down whether it is rock, pop, country, electro or dance, you will be provided for. My highlights were Neil Young, who was incredible, Florence and the machine and Blur, who looked better than ever.
I’ve been to quite a few festivals and I suppose the closest thing we have to Glastonbury in Ireland is Electric Picnic, which has borrowed quite a few ideas from it, but EP is merely trailing on the heels of Glastonbury. Glastonbury has something for everyone, you have music to suit all tastes, comedy, cabaret, circus acts, strange people dressed up as strange things, arts and crafts, poetry, great food, warm showers, some brilliant thrift stores and an atmosphere that just can’t be replicated anywhere else. And if you consider the tickets only cost £150 compared to €215 for Oxegen and €250 for EP, it's an absolute bargain. So if you do one thing next summer I suggest you get your hands on a ticket for Glastonbury 2010.
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- Joe Whyte, Mediacontact.ie
