Glastonbury Festival June 2009

The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or Glasto, is the largest Greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world. The festival is best known for its contemporary music but also features dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and many other arts including craft, healing and charity fields. It has 180,000 people in attendance each year including ticket holders and workers.

I don't think there is any-where else in the world where you could go from watching Rolf Harris to watching The Specials, then go to the healing fields to get a massage or wander into a tent at 2 am and find a couple of DJs dressed as power rangers spinning a wheel with different genres of music on it and playing whatever it lands on.

The festival takes place in South West England at Worthy Farm between the small village of Pilton and Pylle, six miles east of the town of Glastonbury. The site is overlooked by the Glastonbury Tor in the mystical "Vale of Avalon". The area has a number of legends and spiritual traditions and is a "New Age" site of interest: several ley lines are considered to converge on the Tor.

After a trek to our campsite (usually the worst bit of the festival) we made camp and met up with all the rest of our friends. Even with no acts playing on the Wednesday an unprecedented 105,000 people turned up on the first day. Each year it is getting fuller and fuller on the Wednesday.

There are so many stages to mention and various fields to visit it is impossible to mention or visit them all. The Pyramid stage is the main stage hosting up to 100,000 fans.

Starting the festival (sort of!) were Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs. EFestivals organized a charity football match in front of the main stage on the Wednesday to raise money for Water Aid. Considering the fact it wasn't an ‘official’ event there was quite a crowd enjoying the music and sun. Hobo Jones play ‘skunk’ music – skiffle punk. Their songs are amusing and their enthusiasm infectious. All watching were drawn in and smiling merrily. It was amusing when a TV crew asked the crowd to be quiet while they filmed one song – the boo’s were deafening as everyone wanted to join in and cheer the band! It was all in good jest, and the Hobo’s finished their set with the ever fantastic “Drunken Sailor”. If you get a chance to these boys make sure you do. After they played the football started, England vs the rest of the world. We didn't stay to watch but heard that England won by quite a few goals. The organiser of the festival, Michael Eavis, even came along to present the trophy to the winning team.

The line up on the main stage this year was great - we saw Lilly Allen who had her own tribute to Michael Jackson by wearing 1 glove. She put on a super show belting out old and new hits.

The Specials were on after her and I had made my way to the front of 100,000 fans to get close and boy they didn't disappoint. Straight from the first chords of “Do the Dog” the fans were dancing away. Then “Gangsters” before playing “Doesn't make it alright” they commented on the fact that the B NP had got a seat on the European elections. “Concrete Jungle” was sung superbly by Roddy. Lynval, Neville and Horace all ran about the stage playing like men possessed and Roddy was awesome on the guitar Terry just kept his dour persona all the way through. They finished the set with “Ghost Town” which had everyone in the crowd singing.
www.thespecials.com

Tom Jones was another act on the Pyramid stage that was highly entertaining, belting out hits like “Delilah”  “Green Green Grass of Home” and “Kiss”. There was a mountain of woman’s underwear laying all around the front stage! He hasn't lost his mojo!

Madness came on and did what Madness do best, they got the crowd singing along to most of their tunes only going quiet when songs from the new album were played such as “The Liberty of Norton Folgate”. The highlight for me was “Baggy Trousers” which featured Lee Thomson being hoisted up on wires and playing his sax up above all the rest of the band.  Chas and Suggs strolled along the stage singing and interacting with the audience. On their last song they invited all their families on the stage, boy did we wish we could join them!
www.madness.co.uk

Other highlights on the main stage included Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Nick Cave and Blur.

The Park Stage was host to reggae legend Horace Andy. He has one the most distinguished voices in reggae and Jamaica. He has also collaborated with massive attack. He performed “Skylarking”, “Government Land” and other songs.
www.myspace.com/mrhoraceandy

Also there were the Easy Star All stars, a reggae group who are based in New York and specialize in doing reggae versions of popular albums. The first was Pink Floyd’s “Dark side of the Moon” called “Dub side of the Moon”. We were given a show of “Radiodread” (Radiohead’s “OK Computer album”) featuring “Paranoid Android” and finishing with “Karma Police”. Hearing these songs with an eerie reggae/dub feeling is a great experience.
www.easystar.com

The Jazz World stage hosted Rolf Harris, who was on at the early time of midday. I don't know why he was on early as the field was full to capacity, he should have been on a main stage. Totally entertaining with a crowd of all ages and people even dressed up as him. Rolf played hits including “Two Little Boys” “Waltzing Matilda” and “Tie me kangaroo down” , whilst in between songs telling jokes. The rapport with the crowd was awesome.
www.rolfharris.com

Also to be seen as we were wandering around was Big Hand putting on a ska show at 1 am in the Bimble Inn. Everyone was weary and tired but true to form Big Hand had everyone on their feet singing and dancing in the tent. Also the next day we saw Robert Llewellyn (‘Kryten’ from the Red Dwarf series) doing a stand up show in the comedy tent.

Glastonbury Festival isn't all about the music. The Green Fields area incorporates Craft Fields, Healing Fields and Green Futures, as well as the more organic food stalls.

This year we paid a visit to the Craft Fields and joined in a jewelry workshop. Five of us spent a good few hours making out very own silver rings from scratch. It was a wonderful experience which resulted in a fantastic souvenir. Other workshops in the craft fields include weaving, felt making, stone carving, wood carving and even glass blowing.

The Healing Fields were set out in their usual arrangement of the four elements. Here you can have a range of treatments including meditation, massage, reflexology and reiki, all done for a modest donation.

Green Futures were as ever full of green political messages, this year with an ‘airport departure lounge’ and a wooden airplane in the center of the field.

As the complete opposite of the Green Fields Shangri La, Arcadia and Trash City were more vibrant and crazy than ever. They are only in their second year but manage to push out all the stops. Shangri La was based on a Blade Runner future with dark neon lit alleys and projected images on stark walls. Arcadia joined Shangri La to the main Trash City field, which contained some of the immense structures from last years Trash City. Trash City itself had its usual array of weird monsters, strange bars and fire plumes. There was even a vampire bar with pole dancing vampires who'd swoop down and ‘attack’ unsuspecting victims. The only downfall with these areas are that at night they turn into an overcrowded ‘sheep pen’ which takes away most of the enjoyment.

Glastonbury is a huge festival with so much going on. I don't think anyone can truly appreciate what it has to offer until they actually go and experience it for themselves. The atmosphere alone is something to be amazed by. On arrival people suddenly change in considerate beings and anything goes. The ‘Glastonbury Spirit’ is something to be marvelled at, allowing you to talk to anyone, be anyone and generally have a sense of well being. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but mostly people find a spiritual home there.

During the day people tend to stick to the areas they want to experience, be it main stages or circus acts, or a bit of healing. Often punters can be found sampling the fabulous Bar Brothers pear cider in Jazz World, one pint of which happily sets people up for the rest of the day. The many food stalls get the mouth watering, too much to choose from! Food from all over the world.

At night people can be found in clusters enjoying music all over the festival. Obviously the main stages have the biggest crowds, but all over site people gather to dance or watch shows in the strangest of places. Little food stalls with sound systems often have a crowd nearby dancing, little tea tents are a haven for relaxing in and catching obscure music, and there are so many secret pleases it definitely pays to wander around until you get lost and stumble across something unexpected.

The atmosphere at night in the campsites is almost serene. Punters can sit around their camp fires hearing distant music in the background, watching the fire lanterns as they float up into the sky from the Sacred Space (where the stone circle is). General chit chat often turns to what everyone’s highlight of the day was.

The worst bit of the Festival…?  Leaving on the Monday and knowing it will be a year until you get to experience the magic again.

 

Words by Dod and Sally M

-Photos; Dod M.-
Big Wheel Overseas Correspondent

 

More photos of the event can be seen HERE

 
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