Words by Josh Jones and Laura Martin
Photos by Steve Bliss, Dan Wilton and Nick Roe
Glastonbury, the stalwart of the UK festival scene, how far you’ve come. From its ’70s knees up with Marc Bolan and one pound entrance fee (including free milk) to the epic, 175,000 crowds dancing to an eclectic mix of Snoop, Muse and all-night raves in fire-breathing industrial cages, we festival goers are indebted to Michael Eavis’ utopian hippy dream.
It was the 40th anniversary of Glasto and stakes were high. Previous years have been mud-drenched washouts, tents swept away in brown seas, but all soundtracked to the best music from around the globe from well known acts to breaking bands.
The Glasto weekend has become known for its legendary status in the summer festival calendar and this year was to be no different.
Laura: Being a Glasto virgin (a combination of perpetually shit weather and humungous crowds always put me off) I started off with a Larry David-esque staring contest at my wellies early in east London on Thursday morning. Yes, the Met Office promised a sweltering weekend of sun, but what do they actually know? Would I look a rain-sodden, crying, muddy mess at this moment and curse the skies? Well so be it, as the boots went back under the bed and I made my way to Worthy Farm.
The festival actually opened the day before, with 120,000 campers already choosing to bed down in the mammoth site even though the live music wouldn’t officially begin until Friday. So Thursday was a time to acquaint yourself with the festival, from the main Pyramid stage, Other Stage and Park Stage over to the furthest point of the site and the more, um, creative (read: party) Shangri La, Arcadia and Trash City areas.
There were rumours Vanilla Ice was in the vicinity, but no-one could quite work out at what point Michael Eavis saw him fitting into the bohemian festivities. An ironic late night slot on the Other Stage? Surely not the Special Guest on the Park stage? More fittingly Van-Ice was to appear on the sleb-magnet tent, Playstation 3 SingStar stage, belting out his “hits” to the likes of Kate Moss. We caught up with him backstage to quiz his rapping credentials i.e. could he rap on the spot. LOLZ ensued when he hit us back with this ditty:
“Remember Ice Ice Baby drove you crazy, when I was big as Jay-Z, I got paid and I got Swazye, that beat got me kind of lazy, I got 10 cars and it made me lazy, I’m out in the woods, nobody knows where I live, I gotta beautiful wife, two kids, but I’m married to hip hop, that’s how it is, and I’m chillin’ in Glastonbury”
And that was pretty much the highlight of Thursday.
Josh: “Stevie Wonder isn’t even blind. He just can’t dance.”
That was the vicious rumour that was being spread around when I arrived at Worthy Farm for this year’s sweltering Glastonbury (I may or may not have been involved with starting it). Over 100,000 sweaty people had already got there the day before to watch England play some football against someone on the massive screens, so the festival was already in full swing. Sitting down for my first pint, Alex James wandered past, then I walked off to the campsite and Michael Eavis drove past with Prince Charles in the passenger seat. A slightly random mix of festival royalty, Britpop royalty and, erm, royalty royalty to see right next to you. “This is gonna be a good one.” I thought.
As none of the big stages are in action on Thursday, it’s all about trying to find the other people you know are there and drinking, so we started on neat Zacapa rum (toasting Marisa) and gin. It turns out that sitting in the sun drinking a lot of that and cider makes your head squirm. But it’s not all about the stages – Glastonbury is full of all kinds of mental things going on. Not least the famous Arcadia area – a spider like stage with fire blowing out of the top and men fighting each other with lightning staffs (no, really). Also London Underground (massive tower block with a subway car stuck in it), the Unfair Ground and Club Dada where I caught Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. This is where I spent pretty much all of my time Thursday night, staring at the madness and trying to work out what the hell was going on…
