Glastonbury Festival 2010

What a festival. Glastonbury Festival of Performing arts is Europe’s largest open air festival, and in many people’s opinion, also the best. 2010 amazed punters by being the first festival in years to not have a drop of rain. It made for a sweaty time with record numbers of sun induced medical cases, but for the most part everyone enjoyed the lack of mud.

Tuesday
As ever before the festival people were planning when to arrive so that they could get their favourite spot to camp. This year Michael Eavis (the festival organizer) had decided to open the car parks on Tuesday evening instead of Wednesday morning. This prevented the massive tailbacks on the roads which happened last year when some people took 12 hours to get from Bristol to the festival, normally a 45 min journey – no exaggeration!

It was a straight drive into the car parks which filled up steadily through the night. Most people tried to sleep in their cars with the odd pocket of punters sitting quietly outside sharing beers. It wasn’t a pleasant evening, but it was nice rolling out of the car straight into the queue at around 6am. The main gates opened at 8am and the queue was long but steadily moving into the site. Once pitched up with beer in hand we could start enjoying the festival!

Wednesday
Wednesday is normally the chilled out day relaxing after the long trek onto site and pitching up camp. This year was no exception, the only difference was seeing how quickly the festival filled up. Most punters were checking out the festival, sampling the drinks (Brothers Bar pear cider being a festival staple) and enjoying the sunny weather.

The England World Cup match was played on the Pyramid stage’s big screen and there was a sizeable crowd in attendance to watch it. You could hear cheering from all over the site!

Thursday
Another scorcher of a day. The site already seemed filled up and was bustling with people. The annual eFestivals’ Glastonbury World Cup 2010 was a great success raising over £9000 for WaterAid, with Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs kicking off the event. They were as entertaining as ever with a few new songs thrown into the mix.

In the evening a few acts performed in Cocktails & Dreams in the dance village. It was incredibly packed as there wasn’t much organised going on. Vanilla Ice sang for 15 minutes, ‘Ice Ice Baby’ had the whole tent rocking.

Boy George played all his hits at the Wow Tent, including ‘Karma Chameleon’ and ‘Do You Really Want to Hurt Me’. He was really good even though he was 55 minutes late.

Friday
Another scorcher! Opening the main stage was the superb Rolf Harris. A comedy genius but fabulous at engaging the crowd and getting everyone singing along. Even though it was only 11am there were people as far as the eye could see. He played his didgeridoo and wobble board while singing and joking along with the fans.

The Other Stage had The Stranglers play their way through a classic Punk set complete with ‘Golden Brown’ and ‘Peaches’ which were well received.

Snoop Dog played his way through his set with two burly minders standing at each side of the stage. He even had what looked like a diamond studded microphone with the words Snoop Dog on it!

I spent some time in the late afternoon around the Green Fields which are the soul of Glastonbury Festival, where traditional skills and new ways of thinking combine in an explosion of creativity. They occupy the highest ground at the top end of the site, overlooking the rest of the Festival. In the healing field I opted for a reflexology session which was divine. So relaxing and done by a wonderful lady named Aggie. All the healers are experts in their fields and you can have anything from Tarot readings to Reiki, Astrology to Indian Head Massages. All are done for donations.

We wondered through the craft fields too where some of our group made silver rings. There was also the option to carve stone, do wicker weaving, even glass blowing.

In the evening we headed over to the Circus and Cabaret area which is always good fun. The street theatre really keeps everyone surprised with stilt walkers, aliens, puppets, life guards, flying schools, tea ladies… plus all the acts I haven’t mentioned!

The Cabaret tent was hit and miss with whether the comedian was good or not, however I did manage to catch Irish comedian Nick Doody who was great. Very close to the bone but definitely worth seeing if you get the chance.

The headliners on the Pyramid Stage were the Gorrilaz, Damon Albarn’s musical project with various guests in the line up. They were the replacement for U2 who unfortunately pulled out at the last minute. Their style can only be likened to various genres including dub, hip hop, rock and electronic. They had interesting graphics of their cartoons on the big screen behind them. I thought they didn’t fill the void left by U2 as there were quite a few fans seen leaving during the set. For me the highlight of the Gorrilaz was Mick Jones & Paul Simonon from the Clash who were part of the band.

Later on we headed to the Circus Big Top tent to see the headline acts. First up was a talented slack rope walker who ended up climbing on top of the Big Top tent and slack rope walking from the two main pillars! The main act was called Somnambu, produced by Area 51, which was a superb variety of acts all themed around a dream sequence. There were contortionists, acrobats, fire breathers, jugglers. The most outstanding act was the world famous “Wheel of Death” which towered 30 feet over the audience, this time performed by the incredibly talented Duo Vanegas from Columbia. It involved them spinning the wheel and doing somersaults and blindfolded tricks whilst moving at speed high in the air. The crowd were screaming in fear and it was the first time I’d ever seen an act receive a standing ovation in the Circus area!

Saturday
Opening the amusingly named ‘Other Stage’ were ‘Two Door Cinema Club’, a band from Northern Island. They were good, a band to watch out for. Saturday was another hot day and it was getting increasingly hard to find shelter. Umbrellas made good parasols!

In the day we walked up to the sacred space where the stone circle is. There was a spectacular view over the whole of the festival from there, as well as a fun multicoloured sign saying ‘Glastonbury 40’, similar to the Hollywood sign! The Park was close by which is Emily Eavis’ part of the festival. It was a bustling hive of activity but queues for food and facilities were too long for my liking.

Each day lots of the festival goers dress up. Some just with fun hats, whereas some others took it to extremes with whole groups of people all in matching outfits such as cows, Slash, or my favourite – as Michael Eavis himself!

Seasick Steve played early in the day on the Pyramid Stage doing his usual show with various instruments.

At the park the special guests were Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro, who came on with their fast paced music. The Park was so rammed that security were stopping people coming in.

Then on the West Holts stage (previously Jazz World) we had Jerry Dammers and his spatial aka orchestra. They were playing revamped versions of songs by jazz legend Sun Ra and the Specials, all dressed up as Egyptians, with an 18 piece orchestra and guests, all lead by the general Jerry  Dammers. Highlights for most of the crowd was when they played Specials songs which included ‘Man at C&A’ and a ten minute dub version of ‘Ghost Town’. Guests for the evening were former specials member Rico Rodrigues and reggae legend Johnny Clarke. During the last song ‘Space is the Place’ the ensemble minus Jerry got into the crowd to play the song. Jerry swiftly ran around to the front to join in playing a bongo drum.  While the crowd were chanting the band made their way along the path to the backstage area where fans were stopped at the gate but keep on chanting while the band played with everybody jumping around wildly. You could only see this at Glastonbury.

Also playing at the festival was George Clinton and Parliament. He brought funk to Glastonbury, by cavorting about the stage like puppet master, telling the other members of the band what to do and when to do it.

Later on I went to see the ever amusing ‘Stephen Frost Impro Allstars’ with Richard Vranch. It was done in the same style as Who’s Line is it Anyway with the audience shouting out suggestions. The whole audience were in stitches!

We left a little early as the Scissor Sisters were next up on the Pyramid stage. They played a lively fun set. Kylie Minogue even appeared for one of the songs which the crowd loved!

In the evening most people were making their way to the main stages for the headline acts like Muse and the Pet Shop Boys. We however went against the grain and decided to walk about some of the other areas which were relatively clear of crowds. Strummervile provided a warm welcome with a small stage next to a campfire and of course the shrine stone to Joe Strummer. We took a moment to reflect (and take a swig of booze!) before heading into Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a crazy place with Blade Runner type alley ways, secret passages and numerous projections and beats blaring out. It was as interesting as ever although a shame that it was virtually the same as last year. The only down side of Shangi-La is that it gets too full after the main stages finish and it was incredibly hard making our way out against the flow of people!

Sunday
You’d have thought we’d have gotten used to the hot weather but it really was draining! Tents were hotter in than out but we were desperately trying not to complain about it as it was better than rain and mud!

We took a wander into Kidzfield, which is the largest free children’s festival in Europe. In all my years of Glastonbury I’d never gone into the children’s area and it was a treat. It was super area for children and adults – lots of play areas including a pink princess castle climbing frame, a helter skelter and even a pirate ship. There was a super marquee called the “Making Things” tent which was filled with tables each with a different activity. Kids could make masks, puppets, jewellery, instruments and much more. We caught a comedy show which was in the same league as acts seen in the cabaret tent!

The main act for Sally to see on Sunday (well, the whole festival!) was Slash. Even though 80,000 ticket holders were off watching the England vs Germany football match there was still a considerable size crowd waiting for the guitar legend. Slash did not disappoint – him and his band really set the stage on fire. Miles Kennedy was excellent as the singer and they belted out a number of songs from Slash’s new album as well as Guns n Roses classics. Nightrain was a pleasant surprise to hear, as was Rocket Queen. Definitely a highlight of the festival! Glastonbury needs more rock bands and hopefully Slash will have paved the way.

The Pyramid stage had a good line up on Sunday with Ray Davies from the Kinks playing after Slash, and then Jack Johnson. Both were fairly mellow but suited the worn out hot punters’ mood.

Meanwhile on the West Holts stage Toots and the Maytals were playing. What can I say about this musical legend? He put on an awesome show – reggae and ska on a sunny Sunday evening with the sun setting in the background - this is the kind of music you need to dance away to your hearts content with a great feel good factor. ‘Sweet & Dandy’ has all the crowd singing along. Toots’ voice was soulful and never more so than on the song ‘Reggae Got Soul’. The man is a true legend and at 65 years old he can still perform and dance around the stage. He had the crowd eating out of his hand especially with ‘Monkey Man’ when the whole field were singing. This was the best show of the whole weekend in Dod’s opinion, the energy was totally awesome.

Faithless moved things up a notch on the main stage later on with a banging set, and Stevie Wonder was excellent as the final headline act.

We decided to head home on Sunday night and left before Stevie Wonder finished. We had a clear run out which was a novelty, a friend of ours that left at midnight had to wait two and a half hours to get out of the car park! Everything was covered in dust from the dry ground, some cars were so covered you couldn’t see their number plates. We left sad to be going but so content and happy after a spectacular festival.

Run Down
In all this was one of the best Glastonbury Festival’s I’d been to. I didn’t think the headliners were quite big enough for the fortieth birthday celebration but it did give us a chance to explore other areas of the site.

Glastonbury is not just a music festival. It’s a place where you can escape from normal life and be in a place with love, peace and music. There is nowhere like it on the planet and the sense of belonging and happiness is all encompassing. The only downside of the festival is the inevitable blues you feel when you return back to reality!
 

Words by Sally and Dod M.

Photos -Dod M.-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

More photos of the show can be seen HERE

 
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