A mate picked me up in his car on Wednesday morning (5am!) and we headed off. Turns out we werent the only campers off to an early start - there was no shortage of cars on the motorway packed to the roof with camping equipment. We arrived near the site at around 730 in the morning, only to be caught in a long queue of cars waiting to get into the carpark that opened at 8. Expecting the worst, I was happily surprised when we were parked in the carpark by 9. We unpacked the car, loaded up the sack truck with tents, camping chairs, rucksacks etc and headed off towards the gate. The queues were mercifully small and we got in pretty quickly.
Unfortunately we had made a bad call on the car park. Where we were planning to camp, the Dairy Ground, was exactly opposite to the festival entrance that our car park was near. For those who've been to Glastonbury before, you will know that it is a long walk from one side of the festival grounds to the other. We eventually got to where we wanted to camp and started setting up the tents. After the most of the tents were up we realised that we werent actually where we thought we were ... i.e. not in the Dairy Ground camping area, but the Park Home Ground area. They are neighbouring camp grounds but it just goes to show how disorienting the huge festival grounds can be (especially when you have been up since 4 in the morning !!) We decided to stay put as I was already sick of putting up tents by that stage - we had 3 tents and half a gazebo already put up. 2 tents and the rest of the gazebo left to go.
We finally got all the tents set up but unfortunately our work wasnt over, we had to make a trip back to the car to get more camping essentials, most important of which was beer (its a lot cheaper to bring beer in than buy it onsite - the only downside being that it gets a bit warm !!) Half way back to the car we stopped off a for a cider - thankfully just the one otherwise we would have never made it back to the car. Eventually we dragged ourselves back up the hill to the car, loaded up our backs and the sack truck again and headed back to the campsite via, surprise surprise, the Brothers Pear Cider tent. It was a great feeling once the campsite was sorted out - time to relax.
It was surprising how many people had already arrived first thing on Wednesday morning. The festival proper doesnt kick off until Friday so there is not much live music on for Wednesday / Thursday. I wont bore you with the rest of Wednesday and Thursdays escapades apart from the fact that they were filled with cider and sunshine (i.e. NOT filled with rain or mud!).
Friday morning we woke up to rain. Fortunately it didnt last long and by the time I struck out from camp to go see some bands it had stopped and the mud wasnt too serious. First up was Metronomy on the John Peel Stage. Cool gig. Followed by Friendly Fires on the Other Stage. They were absolutely awesome. Then off to Dance East to see Layo and Bushwacka. Final gig for the day was Neil Young on the Pyramid Stage. Brilliant. What a legend. Did I mention it had been sunny all afternoon .... After Neil had finished I headed up to Trash City and thats where I found myself (or maybe that was lost myself - the place was pretty crazy) until early hours of Saturday morning.
Saturday. More sun. More cider. More bands ? Hmmm. Now that I think about it the only live "band" I saw on Saturday was Rolf Harris. He pulled a massive crowd which was good to see.
Rest of the day was spent wandering around at random and ducking into the dance tents to see Deadmau5 and Erol Alkan. That night we headed up into Arcadia / ShangriLa which was amazing - so much strange stuff going on. Managed to catch a brief 3 song set from Billy Bragg by a campfire. That was amazing - singing along to A New England by a campfire with only about 50 other people - totally random !!
Sunday. More sun. But some very sore heads. A large part of Sunday was spent lazing back at the campsite under the gazebo. Finally made it down to see Tom Jones and Madness before ducking up to my tent for a brief kip before going back down to see Blur on the Pyramid Stage at 10pm. The Blur set was incredible - they were in fine form - Damon looked like he was loving being back on stage. After Blur I headed back to the campsite and had an "early" night (i.e. the sun wasnt coming up yet ....). It was a bit sad crawling back into the tent for the last time - although I was more than ready for real toilets and a shower.
During the night there was a thunderstorm and it absolutely chucked it down. I thought my worst fears had been realised - we were going to have to pack our tents up and make our way back to the car in the rain. That is what happened last time I came to Glastonbury which was definitely a lowlight. Fortunately by the time we got up the rain had cleared. Some of our friends had got up at 4am in the morning to head back to London - they had to work - not pretty. We got away at around 10. There are tales of massive queues, hours long, getting out of the car parks but we were lucky and managed to drive straight out. Unfortunately our luck didnt last the whole way home - we got stuck in a massive traffic jam for about an hour just before Stonehenge. Once we had passed that it was smooth sailing back into London. Got back home around half 3 - put my tent out to dry, jumped in the shower and collapsed in front of the tele.
Its funny reading back what I just wrote - it doesnt sound like all that - but there is just something about Glastonbury. Hanging out with good mates. Drinking cider in the sun. Wandering around at random exploring. People watching. There is just something special about the atmosphere - such a diverse range of people all there to have fun. Good times.
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