By the time Thursday came along everything was in full swing, although so much had already happened I felt like I had been there a week and could barely remember anything before arriving on site..I was sure I used to have a life before Glasto, I just couldn’t quite recall what it was. The festival is so friggin enormous (the size of Sunderland apparently) and so all encompassing you forget there is anything beyond its walls…
New arrivals getting stuck in at The Bimble Inn, which was our favourite venue on site…great vibe, great bands. It is up on the hill in the ParK Area behind the big ribbon tower so people who are willing & wanting to steer away from the masses come here because they know there is a ton of fun to be had off the heavily beaten tracks of the main areas.
If you want to see your favourite band best get there early.
One crucial thing we learnt very early on and from previous years…if you see a crowd heading somewhere en masse go in the opposite direction and you can’t go far wrong. At normal festivals you would do the opposite but at Glasto there is so much cool shit to see it really doesn’t matter where you are. You do not need or want to follow the hoards. You wanna basically zig when they zag. Not everyone realises this as there are so many first timers who don’t really know where to go and you could see them marching around looking for the party not realising that they ARE the party. You make the fun wherever you are not where you were told to go. You have to be adventurous and explore. Glasto rewards the brave and the bold.
But sometimes you just can’t avoid ’em. Glasto has the same sized population as Iceland (the country not the supermarket altho apparently there was a supermarket on site selling sarnies in biodegradable packaging but we never found it) there were times when staying away from the crowd wasn’t possible. On Thursday the site was already rammed with folk there but none of the stages open till the following day so the whole site descends on block 9, unfair playground and Shangri-la, the late night venues scattered across the top end.
Block 9 – just like the apocalypse, but with mebbe less cannibalism and with mebbe more massive sound systems, amazing light shows and munted ravers…
Meet you by the guy with the big sword..
This is Icon the new stage which looked like a cross between 1984 & 2001. The movies not the years..although by the way a lot of the ravers were dressed you would have thought it was 1989 not 2019.
Meanwhile in the Rocket Lounge, vintage vibes rocked & rolled em…
Went to see our friend Gus aka Lazlo legezer in the early hours play a superb drum n bass set in the giant mouth tent (don’t know name) in the Unfair playground that had ’em spinin’ out…
ok, caption comp..the fella on the right has clearly said somit that didn’t go down too well with the girl on left. Please send your entries to babycakesromero@gmail.com and the winner will get a lifetime subscription to my blog…
On the way home we stumbled upon this gang. The girl on right was mc’ing really quite badly to a makeshift sound system in a shopping trolley pumping out D&B but we cheered her on cos that is the Glasto spirit. its all about supporting & rewarding effort…
We even managed to pop to the seaside on the way back, visiting Glastonbury on Sea: a giant seaside pier built out of steel. ‘Nuff said.
Back in the pod, the lucky folk who had bagged it were settling in for the night. Made mental note to try again next night..
You might have noticed by this point that all my pictures are mostly blurred with whacked out trippy light swirly affairs. All I can say is this is what my camera captured. The colours you see are the way it came out. The odd thing is that is mostly how it looked to me at the time. My retinas seem somehow, quite inexplicably, to be able to relay the information they are processing directly into my shutter – how that is possible I know not but am very happy my equipment and my warped sensory perception have this symbiotic connection. The ultimate fusion of man & machine. Or just a shaky hand with a long exposure. I prefer the first theory personally…
Tomorrow’s episode: Friday! When the festival actually officially begins and bands you have heard of start to play. The likes of which I fail to see as am ensconced elsewhere. People who watch Glasto on Tv can’t really comprehend that what they see is only a fraction of the festival, and in my opinion, not the best bit about it all. The greatest thing about Glasto is all the little tents, the bands and djs you have never heard of, the ones you stumble upon by accident…the ones you will never know their name but you will remember the moment forever…possibly. Ok, unlikely, but you lived it and that’s the main thing, right?