My Glastonbury Experience - Part 1
Every person must attend Glastonbury Festival at least once in their lifetime! It doesn’t matter if you are a musician, a poet, a lawyer or an ophthalmologist - at least once in your life you should sign up for the tickets’ sale, sit in front of the computer for two hours in an online queue, give away your precious £238 and rave to all your friends that you’re going to Glastonbury until they can’t take it anymore.
Despite not being among the lucky ones this year, I had an amazing opportunity not just to attend but also to play at Glastonbury in 2016. For me, performing at the festival represented the apogee of all music dreams. Even playing on a teeny-tiny stage for ten people seemed like a massive achievement! The karma clearly favoured me back in 2016, and I managed to book four gigs on different stages and even get a live session with the main local radio station ‘Worthy FM’. Glastonbury is a truly magical place where one can see all their idols in one place, meet the most influential event organisers of the music industry, enjoy the fascinating atmosphere of cabaret and circus, get caught in the pouring rain without getting upset about it and feel the happiest even after a swim in the mud… This article is written to honour my most amazing weekend I had at Glastonbury 2016 and to help me come to terms with the fact that this year’s festival will have to cope without me. I also included a few tips for those who are just about to experience their first ever GLASTONBURY!
For those who’ve been living under a rock for the previous 20 years and not sure what Glastonbury Festival is, I have to briefly state that it’s the biggest music festival in the UK situated in Pilton, Somerset. It has been running since 1970 and has been organised by probably the most famous farmer in the world – Mr. Michael Eavis. Every year, around 135,000 people attend the festival’s site, which covers over 1,100 acres. The festival is known for its mind blowing variety of music and its amazing headliners, among which in different years were music giants like David Bowie, Coldplay, Jay-Z, Rolling Stones and many more. This year the headliners are Radiohead, Foo Fighters and my forever-favourite Ed Sheeran (I might have paused writing for a little cry…). The festival is also famous for its amazing light shows, the main stage in the shape of a pyramid and numerous dance, folk and theatre performances with a mixture of artistic expositions. Whatever your heart desires to see, you can probably find it at Glastonbury.
Usually the adventures begin on Thursday. Despite the fact that the festival opens its doors on Wednesday, it’s Thursday that tends to be the main day of arrival. There are probably bigger queues and more traffic on Thursday, but it’s the decision one has to make when it’s best to show up on the site. I would imagine Friday could be less troublesome, but it could also result in skipping half of the festival… So, I woke up early on the Thursday morning, did most of my packing, because getting ready in advance is not a thing for me; got a massive bag of spare clothes knowing that Glastonbury is famous for a horrible weather and MUD; packed all the glitter I could find; realised I had not space left for my music equipment, so I had to rearrange all the bags again; and that was it - I was ready for the most amazing weekend of my life!
Every festival is like a quest: you get stuck in traffic and try to avoid sticking in mud, you find your parking and almost pass out from the heaviness of your load before you get to your camping site. It might sound stressful, but you will never see a sad face at a music festival, especially at Glastonbury. Any problem you might encounter looks like an adventure rather than a catastrophe – and this is the true festival spirit at its best! I did mention before that Glastonbury is huge, which automatically implies a lot of walking! I mean A LOT. OF. WALKING! Once you park your car and change into your shiny wellies, you have at least a 40-minute walking journey to your campsite with all your belongings on your back. Unless you are Adele, there will be no exceptions: parking is permitted only at specifically allocated spots and you have to carry your stuff from there.
So, here I was, proudly dragging my 10-kilo pedal case, my guitar, a bunch of bags and all the camping stuff across the fields. I almost lost my already not so shiny boot in the mud puddle, and managed to turn my brand new pedal case into a horrible dirty rag all covered in mud, but nothing could ruin my blissfully happy mood!
The security checks always take a while. I know for a fact that with the recent tragic events, this year’s checks would be even more severe. But it’s a good thing! It keeps us safe and, as annoying as it is to stand in a massive queue instead of sipping cider and sitting somewhere in the sun, it has to be done! Another obligatory thing is that you have to get lost on the site at least once! If you haven’t got lost and haven’t wandered to a weird hipster place with lots of smoke and fairy lights, you haven’t experienced Glastonbury! I managed to get lost straight away, so I wandered around for two hours looking for the office where I was meant to get my wristband, my permission for camping and other important documents along with the festival map. It was exploring at its best! If only my pedal case was 5 kg lighter… Finally, all the ticks in the long list of pre-arrangements were checked and with a beautiful purple wristband on my hand I was officially registered as the performer at Glastonbury.
I never tried to hide the fact that I’m absolutely horrible with navigation of any kind. I am so bad that once on my trip to New York I kept walking back and forth ignoring my hotel for good two hours because I couldn’t recognise the street in the dark… So, no wonder I spent the rest of my Thursday memorising the festival’s map and trying out the best routes to stages because no one wants to miss their first ever performance at Glastonbury because they happen to be geographically-challenged…
Despite working on Wednesday and Thursday with some amusement here and there, it’s Friday that signifies the beginning of the real fun! Overdosed with excitement, I played my first set at 1 o’clock at a little shed called ‘The Buzz Stop’ not too far from the Pyramid Stage. I’m not sure if the place has returned back to the festival this year, but at that point it was a lovely hipster place with great music and nice chilled crew. As expected, an early set didn’t attract a massive crowd, but it didn’t discourage me at all. I was like a child in a candy shop, looking at the world with wide-open eyes, thinking that it was the best day of my life. And it truly was! My performance at the Buzz Stop was a perfect “rehearsal” before bigger stages and the live session on Worthy FM (87.7 FM), which was scheduled straight after that set.
So, I headed to the main site of the farm called ‘Worthy’, after which the radio station was named. The radio is an invaluable source for important updates, news, announcements and even some secret insider information. It also invites different guests from all the areas of the industry and chats to them about their careers. I had the pleasure of being a guest on Suzi Purdie’s show. Suzi is a freelance radio host, who works on BBC and Made In Bristol, and she interviewed me about my favourite artists and songwriting inspirations before asking me to play my debut single ‘Dance With Me’.
After a great time at the radio, the business part of my day was over and I finally had a chance to look around the festival. As a real organising freak, I combined a carefully considered schedule of artists I wanted to see in between my work commitments. Planning in advance where you want to go is essential at a massive festival like Glasto. Wandering around and hoping that you’ll come across something fun is a great thing to do, but because Glastonbury’s stages are placed quite far from each other, you really don’t want to leave it to chance. So I made a schedule with the locations of the stages in mind and did my best to stick to it. It’s also important not to forget such obstacles as super crowded paths and mud pools…
That day I managed to see a few incredible artists! First were the Lumineers. I’ve heard so many good reviews about the band and they didn’t disappoint! They were absolute charmers and I couldn’t wish for a better opening of the festival. Then I headed to see Jack Garratt, a real champion of a one-person band with his two synths, a real drum kit, a bunch of guitars and perfect vocals. After that, I had to make an important decision between Bastille, Disclosure, Sigur Rós and Muse… I absolutely hate when the acts I want to check out clash, but I guess it’s unavoidable at any festival. That’s why planning in advance is so important! I remember half of my friends told me they wouldn’t speak to me if I didn’t see Disclosure; another half kept “bullying” me to go see Sigur Rós. Older generation couldn’t wait for Underworld to get on stage… Feeling torn between so many choices, I decided that most of all I wanted to check out Muse and to see the Pyramid Stage in action! The stage was spectacular, but the live performance of the band was a bit of a disappointment. Muse looked like they stopped enjoying playing live a long time ago and their staged poses felt over rehearsed. Don’t lash out at me, because there was a whole field of people who had a great time and enjoyed Muse’s every note, so it was clearly just a matter of preference.
Two days at Glastonbury passed, but I still had a bunch of my favourite artists to look forward to and three more live appearances to make, including a secret gig backstage! And let's not forget a whole weekend of partying! What was coming next became the best weekend of my life!
[To be continued…]
Based on the article written by Ria Timkin for Rock-Vector N25 (45).
