Glastonbury 2002
Jul. 8th, 2002 01:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fluffymarkYay! I went to glasto and it was fun and fab and there was no mud. Yay! Yay! And now i've finally found the time to write about it.
So there I was, monday morning (2 weeks ago now) with everything finally packed and ready. I even remembered the suncream (just in case). Train out of paddington had all the usual delays, but that resulted in free food, so that was good, and I was in no rush. Good excuses for train delays 'A lady is sitting on the track'. Finally got to Castle Cary station, which is in the middle of nowhere. Waiting for a taxi i make friends with Tessa and Liz, who I end up camping with and generally spending the week with. Very bizarrely Tessa turns out to be the sister of Mat Helme, an ex of Val. Small world. Taxi takes us to festival site which of course is still virtually empty, as it doesn't open to the public until wednesday. Tents are pitched in Tom's field. Tessa and liz have failed to bring supplies so very quickly my entire cup-a-soup stash and half my chocolate hoard are shared out and consumed. Wandering around the empty festival site is fun - some of shops are open, but its eerily quiet, and theres a atmosphere of anticipation, like the calm before the storm. Explore many areas of the site, and have a sit around the stone circle (devoid of people at this time), watch people making sculptures at the tiny tea tent, and all the other things already going on. It then gets dark and cold and we find a convenient camp fire to sit and chat the night away. Yay!
Tuesday morning is the start of work. 'Work' being litter picking. This is a complete joke, there being a total absence of litter, but the organisers can see this and are totally laid back (this *is* glastonbury) and theres no pressure to do anything really. This must be the easy way to do glastonbury for free. Highlight was picking up the one piece of litter in the entire field in front of the pyramid stage. Got let off shift early, as there was nothing to do. Enjoyed hot shower and hot food (they gave is 3 free meals a day - isn't that nice!) and headed off towards the stone circle again to watch the sunset, where people were playing bongos and bagpipes and dancing and other strangeness was going on. Yay! Another campfire as found and more friends were made.
Wednesday other people started arriving! After all the quiet I'd almost forgotten that this was going to turn into a crowded festival, and it was a shock to see all these tents slowly appearing, springing up all over the site. We were working the late shift, starting 4pm, so we had the day to find supplies, needing more chocolate, bread and alcohol. The plan was to head to glastonbury town itself - not realising that this was over 5 miles away we started walking. And walking. And then thought of a better idea and we hitched a lift. Theres few things better than riding in the back of a truck, through the green countryside, on a nice hot day, with the wind in my hair, without a care in the world. Yay! Glastonbury town is full of hippies and new age shops and the like - its all very pretty and wonderful. If we'd more time we could have gone up the tor, but it looked a long climb, and we had shopping to do. Safeways was located and we emerged triumphant with essential supplies. Another nice friendly man in a car saw our thumbs and drove us back to the festival site. All in all a successful trip out. Today's work was not litter picking (although there was now slowly litter appearing), we were handing out recycling bags at the gates. So thousands of people entering glastonbury got a very perky goth (me) wearing a sarong and my 'Nobody knows I'm a Lesbian' top bouncing up to them waving bags in their faces saying happy bouncy things about being green and recycling and the like. Deary me! *giggle* Shift was supposed to be until midnight (ouchies!) but we were let off when it got dark, as very few people arrived after then. Tried, exhausted. Cocoa. Sleep.
Thursday worked the early shift (arrrgh!) - more of the same - until we ran out of bags and that was that. End of work. Freedom! Yay! I'd earned my ticket to glasto! A slight scary shower (I'm not used to mixed showers, and being the only male in a shower full of several women was slightly awkward, especially as i'd been working with them the last few days and so weren't total strangers.......although i'll admit it was a turn on) to clean the mess off and we headed off to the stone circle and met Verity there, who now has short red hair. Nice to see her again, but very odd place to do it. Watched a very nice druidic ritual (blessing of the festival, and a handfasting) and wandered about the Green Fields, exploring all the things going on, including a very lovely session going on in the small worlds cafe. Went to watch a fab film (not sure of the title, involved some nutcase with some obsessive accounting diary taking out his frustration by killing innocent people) at the cinema field, and almost froze - suddenly realised that i'd packed *no* warm clothing, and all my long-sleeved tops had ripped sleeves with holes in.
Friday morning the festival started properly! Yay! Lots of pretty things going on already! Yay! Yay Yay! Got up early and ventured around the shops for many hours, watching many other things on the way (theres so much going on!) and found something warm (yay!) and some yummy breakfast. Watched the odd band that afternoon, although the highlights were definitely Attila the Stockbroker and Queen Adreena, who i'd recommend to anyone to go and see, and i'll definitely want to go and see again! Yay! Found various people I know there, Verity was watching Attila, and Kitty was also seen and talked to. There was even a message for me on the main message board, but i failed to locate Evil Pixie Kazza. If I listed everything I saw it would take all day. That evening I located Tessa watching Spiritualized, and then the hour before Garbage appeared was a bonus - an hour of Goth music from the DJ - played out to a field of many many thousands of people. Made my day, and Garbage were fab, although they seemed to have leaned a bit too much towards the 'dance' side now. Another film ('requiem for a dream') and another late night. Exhausting but fun.
Saturday saw more of the same - more wanderings around - particularly the green fields area - and still finding entire huge regions of the festival site i never even suspected existed - whole fields and rows of shops i'm sure weren't there before. Glastonbury is huge. Theres a lovely cider bus that sells hot spicey scrumpy that's just *deadly*. Or maybe i'm a lightweight - it went straight to my head! Some amazing poets read their work in the poetry tent - it's delightful and relaxing and refreshing. Bumped into Missy (rob) in the sacred space and he introduced me to more people, wand we went around and eventually saw Robert Plant, who was fantastic, although for some odd reason he'd been put in the small Acoustic tent, and from the crowds of people wanting to watch it was impossible to get even *near* the that for ages. Absolutely amazing though. Wow! And then another film (24 hour party people - about the history of Factory records, which basically meant lots and lots of Joy Division. Yay!) and more wanderings and then sleep.
Sunday looked like the first day with a real threat of rain - until now it had been gloriously sunny and i'd almost run out of suncream. Still, the sun didn't give up yet and came out for Rolf Harris (actually very amusing!) and then the last few minutes of the World Cup final (in silence as they'd buggered up the sound system) were seen on the main stage screens. Brazil won, and then I raced off to get to the front for New Model Army. Jealous to see that Verity had managed to wangle a backstage pass. *green*. Shortest NMA set i've ever heard, but at least Justin seemed in good spirits this time around. Fund, bouncey and I started the first slamdance. Recovered my energy in the Hare Krisna tent, who were as usual giving out free food, which was very very nice food too. I think I overdid it on the Vodka/Redbull thing and got very bouncey and stared dancing to some weird stuff i'd usually never want to listen to, but this is glasto and i wasn't afriaid of embarrassing myself. I needed to dance, and it was fun. Yay!
The weather finally turned drizzly by the time Roger Waters appeared, who to my delight played a whole 2 hours of Pink Floyd material, including the entirety of 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond' (parts 1 and 2 - all 25 minutes of it!). This was the high point - I was stunned. Wound down a bit after this, listening to Air, and had a final wander around, enjoying the people, the atmosphere, the sounds, the party, the festival. The world is pretty here. But the festival is now coming to an end.
The return to the real world hit us with a lurch on monday morning. After the highs of the last few days, the sheer dullness of being trapped waiting for a train for *ages* at the Station (they was a ***long*** queue just to enter the station) and then having to take a long convoluted route back home almost killed off the happiness i'd achieved - but not quite. Said my goodbyes to Liz and Tessa and headed for home. Glastonbury - pretty, fab, fun, and i want to go next year! *bounce*
So there I was, monday morning (2 weeks ago now) with everything finally packed and ready. I even remembered the suncream (just in case). Train out of paddington had all the usual delays, but that resulted in free food, so that was good, and I was in no rush. Good excuses for train delays 'A lady is sitting on the track'. Finally got to Castle Cary station, which is in the middle of nowhere. Waiting for a taxi i make friends with Tessa and Liz, who I end up camping with and generally spending the week with. Very bizarrely Tessa turns out to be the sister of Mat Helme, an ex of Val. Small world. Taxi takes us to festival site which of course is still virtually empty, as it doesn't open to the public until wednesday. Tents are pitched in Tom's field. Tessa and liz have failed to bring supplies so very quickly my entire cup-a-soup stash and half my chocolate hoard are shared out and consumed. Wandering around the empty festival site is fun - some of shops are open, but its eerily quiet, and theres a atmosphere of anticipation, like the calm before the storm. Explore many areas of the site, and have a sit around the stone circle (devoid of people at this time), watch people making sculptures at the tiny tea tent, and all the other things already going on. It then gets dark and cold and we find a convenient camp fire to sit and chat the night away. Yay!
Tuesday morning is the start of work. 'Work' being litter picking. This is a complete joke, there being a total absence of litter, but the organisers can see this and are totally laid back (this *is* glastonbury) and theres no pressure to do anything really. This must be the easy way to do glastonbury for free. Highlight was picking up the one piece of litter in the entire field in front of the pyramid stage. Got let off shift early, as there was nothing to do. Enjoyed hot shower and hot food (they gave is 3 free meals a day - isn't that nice!) and headed off towards the stone circle again to watch the sunset, where people were playing bongos and bagpipes and dancing and other strangeness was going on. Yay! Another campfire as found and more friends were made.
Wednesday other people started arriving! After all the quiet I'd almost forgotten that this was going to turn into a crowded festival, and it was a shock to see all these tents slowly appearing, springing up all over the site. We were working the late shift, starting 4pm, so we had the day to find supplies, needing more chocolate, bread and alcohol. The plan was to head to glastonbury town itself - not realising that this was over 5 miles away we started walking. And walking. And then thought of a better idea and we hitched a lift. Theres few things better than riding in the back of a truck, through the green countryside, on a nice hot day, with the wind in my hair, without a care in the world. Yay! Glastonbury town is full of hippies and new age shops and the like - its all very pretty and wonderful. If we'd more time we could have gone up the tor, but it looked a long climb, and we had shopping to do. Safeways was located and we emerged triumphant with essential supplies. Another nice friendly man in a car saw our thumbs and drove us back to the festival site. All in all a successful trip out. Today's work was not litter picking (although there was now slowly litter appearing), we were handing out recycling bags at the gates. So thousands of people entering glastonbury got a very perky goth (me) wearing a sarong and my 'Nobody knows I'm a Lesbian' top bouncing up to them waving bags in their faces saying happy bouncy things about being green and recycling and the like. Deary me! *giggle* Shift was supposed to be until midnight (ouchies!) but we were let off when it got dark, as very few people arrived after then. Tried, exhausted. Cocoa. Sleep.
Thursday worked the early shift (arrrgh!) - more of the same - until we ran out of bags and that was that. End of work. Freedom! Yay! I'd earned my ticket to glasto! A slight scary shower (I'm not used to mixed showers, and being the only male in a shower full of several women was slightly awkward, especially as i'd been working with them the last few days and so weren't total strangers.......although i'll admit it was a turn on) to clean the mess off and we headed off to the stone circle and met Verity there, who now has short red hair. Nice to see her again, but very odd place to do it. Watched a very nice druidic ritual (blessing of the festival, and a handfasting) and wandered about the Green Fields, exploring all the things going on, including a very lovely session going on in the small worlds cafe. Went to watch a fab film (not sure of the title, involved some nutcase with some obsessive accounting diary taking out his frustration by killing innocent people) at the cinema field, and almost froze - suddenly realised that i'd packed *no* warm clothing, and all my long-sleeved tops had ripped sleeves with holes in.
Friday morning the festival started properly! Yay! Lots of pretty things going on already! Yay! Yay Yay! Got up early and ventured around the shops for many hours, watching many other things on the way (theres so much going on!) and found something warm (yay!) and some yummy breakfast. Watched the odd band that afternoon, although the highlights were definitely Attila the Stockbroker and Queen Adreena, who i'd recommend to anyone to go and see, and i'll definitely want to go and see again! Yay! Found various people I know there, Verity was watching Attila, and Kitty was also seen and talked to. There was even a message for me on the main message board, but i failed to locate Evil Pixie Kazza. If I listed everything I saw it would take all day. That evening I located Tessa watching Spiritualized, and then the hour before Garbage appeared was a bonus - an hour of Goth music from the DJ - played out to a field of many many thousands of people. Made my day, and Garbage were fab, although they seemed to have leaned a bit too much towards the 'dance' side now. Another film ('requiem for a dream') and another late night. Exhausting but fun.
Saturday saw more of the same - more wanderings around - particularly the green fields area - and still finding entire huge regions of the festival site i never even suspected existed - whole fields and rows of shops i'm sure weren't there before. Glastonbury is huge. Theres a lovely cider bus that sells hot spicey scrumpy that's just *deadly*. Or maybe i'm a lightweight - it went straight to my head! Some amazing poets read their work in the poetry tent - it's delightful and relaxing and refreshing. Bumped into Missy (rob) in the sacred space and he introduced me to more people, wand we went around and eventually saw Robert Plant, who was fantastic, although for some odd reason he'd been put in the small Acoustic tent, and from the crowds of people wanting to watch it was impossible to get even *near* the that for ages. Absolutely amazing though. Wow! And then another film (24 hour party people - about the history of Factory records, which basically meant lots and lots of Joy Division. Yay!) and more wanderings and then sleep.
Sunday looked like the first day with a real threat of rain - until now it had been gloriously sunny and i'd almost run out of suncream. Still, the sun didn't give up yet and came out for Rolf Harris (actually very amusing!) and then the last few minutes of the World Cup final (in silence as they'd buggered up the sound system) were seen on the main stage screens. Brazil won, and then I raced off to get to the front for New Model Army. Jealous to see that Verity had managed to wangle a backstage pass. *green*. Shortest NMA set i've ever heard, but at least Justin seemed in good spirits this time around. Fund, bouncey and I started the first slamdance. Recovered my energy in the Hare Krisna tent, who were as usual giving out free food, which was very very nice food too. I think I overdid it on the Vodka/Redbull thing and got very bouncey and stared dancing to some weird stuff i'd usually never want to listen to, but this is glasto and i wasn't afriaid of embarrassing myself. I needed to dance, and it was fun. Yay!
The weather finally turned drizzly by the time Roger Waters appeared, who to my delight played a whole 2 hours of Pink Floyd material, including the entirety of 'Shine on you Crazy Diamond' (parts 1 and 2 - all 25 minutes of it!). This was the high point - I was stunned. Wound down a bit after this, listening to Air, and had a final wander around, enjoying the people, the atmosphere, the sounds, the party, the festival. The world is pretty here. But the festival is now coming to an end.
The return to the real world hit us with a lurch on monday morning. After the highs of the last few days, the sheer dullness of being trapped waiting for a train for *ages* at the Station (they was a ***long*** queue just to enter the station) and then having to take a long convoluted route back home almost killed off the happiness i'd achieved - but not quite. Said my goodbyes to Liz and Tessa and headed for home. Glastonbury - pretty, fab, fun, and i want to go next year! *bounce*
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-07-08 11:00 am (UTC)Glad you had a good time :)
am annoyed with self for being so disorganised, n not managing to come with you :(
sounds fantabulous :)
go you for being sorted :)
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
no subject
Date: 2002-07-08 04:50 pm (UTC)I'll try and be organised and organise everyone else into going along too! :) It'll be fun and pretty with lots of people there! :)
Re:
Date: 2002-07-09 03:07 am (UTC)(i will be organised next year i will be organised i will be organised....)
:)
xxxxx
no subject
Date: 2002-07-08 03:20 pm (UTC)when i went to reading 2001 there were lots of blokes with "nobody knows i'm a lesbian" t-shirts, so i got hetti to write "everybody knows i'm a lesbian" on my stomach and went around in a bikini the rest of the festival. tee hee :)
don't know what i'd put now though..."everybody knows i'm a lesbian, with the odd exception which is as much of a surprise to me as to everyone else but this is a good thing"...would have to start at the neck & use small writing! :)
no subject
Date: 2002-07-08 05:00 pm (UTC)I think I know a lot of people who define their sexuality in a similar way to yours (hello