Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury
Sometimes to understand the whole you have to examine a slice and this random woman featured above is the perfect example of the glorious gusto which Glasto creates. This was an incredible display of what can only be described as part experimental dance, part shakin’ her thang, part freak out. Whatever it was, it was uncontrollable, uninhibited & quite unbelievable to watch as she gave her all on the floor of the Deluxe Diner as people sat around and ate their lunch. This is what Glastonbury does to people. The festival hadn’t even properly started yet. This was on the thursday. At At 3 o’clock in the afternoon!
But this is where Glastonbury is weird. At most festivals it takes people a couple of days to get into the swing of things. At Glasto people are full on from the off, they arrive and they go immediately hells bells. They are wilder, more fun and far more ready to give it their all from the moment they get there than anywhere else on the planet. I don’t completely understand how no-one seems to need a run up. My own personal theory is that decades of positive energy left on site from all the previous festivals hangs in the atmosphere and infiltrates everyone on arrival. I’m not sure what else can account for the instant exuberance that the Glastonians demonstrate.
After the wild woman finished her routine she calmly sat back down with her friends as if nothing had happened. What sealed her in my mind as a true representative of what is great about Glasto is that she had written on her arm with a sharpie “Friday, 3pm, Bandstand” which I took to mean that she anticipated getting utterly wasted before then and the only way to guarantee her arrival at a designated meet point for a gig or to hook up with friends was to scrawl it in indelible ink on her body. That way, the reminder would always be there for her or for anyone who happen to stumble upon her in the following 24 hours. Genius.