Glastonbury 2014

robinph

Have moved 20ft in the last two hours of queuing to get out of the camper van fields. Think someone has broken down on the road so we are all going to be stuck here for a long while yet.

A Neurotic

Wow.

I'm in my hotel room in Bristol for the night. What a weekend. So many good bands, so much to see and do. Highlight for me was John Grant at The Park - what an entertainer.

Low point was spending £10 on trying an Oculus Rift and having to stop halfway through due to nausea.

Did anyone happen to catch Cassette Boy? A kind of DJ/MC act on one of the small stages yesterday. Absolutely hilarious. Had me (and everyone around) in stitches while queuing for the aforementioned unfortunate Oculus Rift experience.

bodhrandude

siblers

but1er wrote: »

Dont forget are own here, kodaline got a great crowd chuffed

Wouldn't be a huge fan of Kodaline but they put on a great show. The English ballet crowd were brilliant as well.

Blisterman

A Neurotic wrote: »

Wow.

I'm in my hotel room in Bristol for the night. What a weekend. So many good bands, so much to see and do. Highlight for me was John Grant at The Park - what an entertainer.

Low point was spending £10 on trying an Oculus Rift and having to stop halfway through due to nausea.

Did anyone happen to catch Cassette Boy? A kind of DJ/MC act on one of the small stages yesterday. Absolutely hilarious. Had me (and everyone around) in stitches while queuing for the aforementioned unfortunate Oculus Rift experience.

Ha ha, I had the same experience with the Oculus Rift. I don't even get motion sick normally, but that had my stomach churning.

Toast

Saturday was grim as all hell. Haven't been that depressed on site since 2007. The mud was one thing but it seemed to infect people who became far more dickish, a real rare thing for Glastonbury. Almost got taken out by a drunk asshole on a mobility scooter in the Pixies crowd. I'd probably have paid any money for an airlift straight home at that point had it been offered to me. Sunday saved the festival. The perfect weather, the worst of the mud dried up and some really great performances. Will have to seriously think about going again as a whole festival of that Saturday is not something I would ever want to consider.

aka accounts 2010

Just back home in the past hour. What an incredible weekend and what a magical place!! Simply mind blowing!!

Will post a detailed report tomorrow of our 5 days on site.

But for now, I'm off for some sleep!!

circular flexing

Overall it was a good weekend. Best act I saw was probably Jurassic 5 - just such great fun with an incredibly tight group of people who don't take themselves seriously at all. Bonobo was also really great and perfectly suited to a Sunday evening sunsetting timeslot.

Managed to catch the AFX set, there was huge queues outside the venue for him and they sneakily put him on at 2am (instead of 3am as advertised). The set was good, didn't recognise anything during it but he played mainly acid, some dubstep-ish stuff (I think) and finished off with some slamming jungle.

I thought Arcade Fire were very good. It was very empty around the time they stated but I think it started to fill up. I'm a big enough fan anyway, so I may be slightly biased. For sure the set was heavily leaned towards the new album but I thought the songs worked well live and the band put a lot of energy in to the set.

I skipped Metallica in favour of Jon Hopkins and Mogwai. Jon Hopkins was great, I've never heard any of his stuff before but it was really enjoyable. Mogwai were good too, and the crowd at The Park was small so it felt a bit more intimate. Just before Jon Hopkins, I saw some of the Pixies. First time I've seen them live, thought they were very good. It is interesting the way they just play without any chat at all.

Got stuck watching Dolly Parton, the sheer scale of the crowd there meant moving across the field was just impossible. I thought the whole thing was a bit bizarre really, I much preferred Kenny Rogers last year in the same slot.

It was only my second Glastonbury and the first one with heavy rain. The rain and mud made the festival very hard work (and wrecked my feet and back) and I would have to think long and hard about going again. I also always had this nagging feeling that there was something better going on somewhere else...

Sandwell

Just in the door after getting the overnight ferry from Pembroke to Rosslare. Had an absolutely fantastic time. Yes, the weather was rough at times but if you're properly prepared and not in a rush to get around then it's fine. We took shelter under random gazebos several times and had the craic with strangers. The mud was much worse in 2011.

Musical highlights for me were Four Tet in the Park, Despacio (where we spent most of Friday night). Kelis was fun on Saturday afternoon. Saturday night I really enjoyed Jackmaster at Arcadia before heading over to Block 9 to see Prosumer and Virginia, both of whom played fantastic sets, in particular Virginia who closed the stage with a spine tingling version of 'Yours'. I saw a good bit more on Sunday due to the dried up site being much easier to negotiate. Melt Yourself Down and Public Service Broadcasting on West Holts were both really good. Later on St Vincent blew me away for the second time this year. We finished off the Sunday in the NYC Downlow, raving with the drag queens to top quality disco from the Horse Meat Disco guys, Tama Sumo and ND Baumecker.

I saw no headliners, missed half of what I'd planned to see yet had an amazing time. Glastonbury is what you make it and there's little or no correlation (in my opinion) between what you see on the BBC and the actual festival experience. Most of the interesting stuff happens well away from the main stages and cameras (thankfully!).

My only negatives were one of the lads getting punched by an aggressive asshole in the Glade on Thursday night, the idiots going around in Native American headgear etc., the rain (obviously) and the depressing sight of thousands of abandoned tents yesterday morning. Glastonbury does, unfortunately, attract a fair few spoilt and obnoxious rich kids. Oh, and Lana del Rey. I like her music but she's a dreadful performer. Time for bed I think.

Furious-Red

Only got around to watching Kasabians set from Glastobury and thought they were great even though serge's guitar was out of tune for re-wired. The crowd looked deadly during Vlad the Impaler with nearly everyone jumping up and down.

Will agree their post show interview wasnt their best even me as a fan was cringing wheh watching it, but suppose you never no how you will act after headlining the biggest music festival in the world for the 1st time

bodhrandude

Someone upped a clip of AFX's set at the Temple stage, woo hoo EP fecking book him.

bodhrandude

And another.

Easy Rod

What a weekend, still trying to recover from it. The amount of walking is phenomenal and was made tough by the mud. The logistics of something that size must be ridiculous and all in all was very well organised.

Friday was pretty miserable alright but didn't bother me too much as i was in tents for most of the day. The John Peel & Other stage running behind caught me out so missed a bit of Wild Beasts.

Highlights for me were War on Drugs, Arcade Fire, Mogwai, Hozier, Bombay bicycle club, dry the river, block 9 in general.

Got lost for most of Friday so missed a lot of bands on Saturday to make sure i stayed with friends.

Met Michael Eavis at the Avalon on Saturday which was cool.

S.M.B.

bodhrandude wrote: »

Missed this cause I was having too much fun at Metallica.

Fatfrog

Wow what an experience!! But very tough going!
Landed in the river mead camp site around 1am wed night/Thursday morning after travelling by car from Holyhead zero traffic. River Mead was a nice spot, close to gate A and the main stages. X5 days of camping and not a bit of rubbish on the ground!!

Been to plenty of festivals but wasn't prepared for the level of mud, normally patches around the high volume areas/junctions, but every part of Glasto open to the public had 8" deep muck! Even some of the camp sites! Making it difficult to walk or sit and rest tired legs!

Managed to get almost at the front for Metallica, was a big fan of their early stuff, they were just alright, but you could tell they were really chuffed to be playing.

Can't say I'd ever taken a s**t in a wheelie bin until now but surprisingly the compost layering really kills the smell, would certainly prefer this type over long drops or portaloo

High points;
Arcade fire
Arcadia
View from the hill above Tipi village
Metallica fox hunting video
War on drugs
Jagwar ma
Massive attack
Nina Perrson
Variety of different bars + their opening hours.
Seriously hot English women!

Low points;
Really deep tiring mud.
John Peel constantly full.
Food stalls absolute muck!!
Tent must have been >30deg every morning. Lack of sleep.

A Neurotic

Blisterman wrote: »

Ha ha, I had the same experience with the Oculus Rift. I don't even get motion sick normally, but that had my stomach churning.

Which 'experience' did you go for? I got through flying around mountains OK but could not handle the on-a-rail movement of the haunted house...

Toast

Fatfrog wrote: »

Food stalls absolute muck!!

You were eating in the wrong places so. Avoid anything near the main stages. Best stuff for me was near Williams Green. Place did a Lamb tagine and salad there that was fantastic. My general rule of thumb was if it was served in a bap or roll avoid it.

Professey Chin

Toast wrote: »

You were eating in the wrong places so. Avoid anything near the main stages. Best stuff for me was near Williams Green. Place did a Lamb tagine and salad there that was fantastic. My general rule of thumb was if it was served in a bap or roll avoid it.

There was a place near the pyramid basically doing a sunday roast in a giant yorkshire pudding. Couple sausages, shredded port, stuffing, potato and onion gravy. My god it was amazing. They were the exception more then the rule though.

The mud wasnt actually that bad this year. Compared to 2011 anyway. Never had much trouble with sticking or slipping.

At my desk now depressed off my head its all over for another year

S.M.B.

I had some great food as always.

The samosas near the other stage are great. Had to have the Goan fish curry a few times it was so good.

Some of the larger "chains" were ghastly though.

robinph

Anyone complaining about the mud must have only been going for a couple of years, they did a fantastic job with the drainage on the site over the last few years, and the wood chips and metal road ways make a massive difference to how easy it is to get around the site.
Also, if you thought the food was bad then as said above, you were going to the wrong places. There was masses of different food options to pick from. Find a stall without a queue serving something you cannot pronounce and it it probably the best option in that area. If there is a queue for the burger and chips stall then avoid.

A Neurotic

Best food/value I got was rotisserie chicken in a roll with stuffing, by the acoustic tent. Loads of delicious meat for £5.

Also: Square Pie. So good.

Blisterman

A Neurotic wrote: »

Which 'experience' did you go for? I got through flying around mountains OK but could not handle the on-a-rail movement of the haunted house...

It was the nightclub one. I made the mistake of going overboard with the jetpack at first and flying and spinning all over the place.

aka accounts 2010

Right guys, said I better give my review. Only returning to the land of the living today. Spent yesterday trying to catch up on many hours of lost sleep!

Firstly, what a weekend! Amazing!

Left Rosslare Tuesday night (24th) on the 21:00 sailing to Fishguard. Arrived at 00:30 and drove to Glastonbury. Arrived in CV West just before 06:00 (after two 30 min breaks and another 30-40 mins stuck in traffic outside the site)

Wednesday:
Went through ticket check and got wristbands via CV West Gate at 08:10, spent less than 5 mins in a queue. Explored the site for the entire morning before returning to CV West mid afternoon. Met some great people and proceeded to have a bit of a party. Very late night and plenty drink.

Thursday:

Similar to Thursday. Spent most of the morning and early afternoon on site exploring and taking in the sites, bars and food. Returned to CV West around 5pm and again had a party which finished up around 5am I reckon.

Friday:

Went to see;

Kaiser Chiefs (11am opening act)
Blondie
John Newman (missed first 30 mins)
Rudimental (until the storm arrived) (got socked and decided to get fresh set of clothes)
Interpol (last 15mins)
Paolo Nutini
Arcade Fire

Headed along to SE Corner for 2-3 hours after Arcade Fire

Saturday:

Went to see;

Kelis
Kodaline
Imagine Dragons
Jack White
Metallica

Headed along to Arcadia after Metallica

Sunday:

Got up early and went up the Ribbon Tower, up the hill to the Glastonbury sign, into the Stone Circle, over to SE Corner, down around West Holts and back to set up camp at The Pyramid.

The 1975
Dolly Parton
Ed Sheeran
The Black Keys
Kasabian

No late night entertainment for me as hit the road early for Fishguard Monday morning. Got the 14:30 ferry home Monday afternoon.

So many highlights over the weekend. Met some amazing people and saw some amazing acts. Enjoyed all three headliners. Outside of them, I loved Imagine Dragons, came out covered in mud and had so much energy. Kaiser Chiefs and Blondie were great fun while Paolo Nutini was solid. Was really surprised at how impressive Kelis was while I was slightly disappointed with The Black Keys, never really grabbed the crowd. Could go on and on really.

Had some excellent food, never had a bad meal thinking back.

The mud on Saturday was bad in patches, but dried up nicely on Sunday. The place is really non stop 24/7. The volumes of people at every turn is mind blowing and the friendliness is so much more evident than Irish music events. I didn't see one ounce of trouble all week.

Without going to Glastonbury, you will never get an appreciation of how big the place is, it's truly a city in the countryside with a population much bigger than Cork City.

Roll on ticket sale day!!

Professey Chin

Heard the same about Black Keys from a few people. Definitely made the right choice with Ellie Goulding. Not everyones taste music wise but when someone is clearly absolutely delighted to be there it really shows and carries through the crowd. She put on a brilliant performance.

Toast

robinph wrote: »

Anyone complaining about the mud must have only been going for a couple of years, they did a fantastic job with the drainage on the site over the last few years, and the wood chips and metal road ways make a massive difference to how easy it is to get around the site.

Most of it was acceptable most of the time. However the run between the dance village and other stage was godawful on the Saturday. I was there in 2007 and it reminded me a bit too much of that horror (I know '07 was worse but it was similar enough to dredge up all those wounds). By the time I had to walk through an actual river of muddy piss going into urinals where more than half of the people were just using the walls rather than the urinals was when it started getting a bit too much for me. 7 years ago I could just about deal with it but I'm getting a bit old for that and had it not cleared up the next day I'd probably have been considering heading to Bristol a lot earlier. Probably nothing that can really be done about it but I only mention it as people who are considering going need to know it isn't all flower wellies and blitz spirit when it rains like the BBC like to pretend. Maybe if you are young and fit and can drink away misery but those days are gone for me.

Sheog

God I really think the mud situation could have been far far worse, and I had a decent fall in it at least twice! Does anyone not remember the state of the Oxegen site most years in the torrential rain?

Had a fantastic weekend and have to say I was dreading how bad the rain and mud was going to be before we even left Ireland, but found once there that it wasn't so bad. When they had to power down the main stage during Rudimental, we made loads of 'friends' by sharing various forms of improvised make shift shelters. I've never seen fork lightening before, there was something a bit magical about the whole experience!

It did make it really slow and difficult to move around though. Last year we saw and experienced a far greater variety of things, and had more time to soak up the randomness of Glastonbury, but this year we kinda had to bunker down and stay put a lot more, because we were loosing too much time trying to get around.

Best bits for me had to be Jack White, Elbow and Metallica. (Although I did feel like I missing out on Pixies.)

I Have to say that even though people love to hate Kodaline, they put on a really great show, and did us proud. Was great to see one of our own drawing such a huge crowd, who sang along to every song in the pouring rain. These guys are really going places!

I'm not at all into Dolly, and was really surprised at the massive crowd she pulled. She's some entertainer, especially for her age but I have to agree with one of the previous comments, I enjoyed Kenny Rodgers last year far more. It was just a far more chilled out atmosphere.

We managed to find the underground piano bar this year too. Talk about the weirdest set up you've ever come across. It was like the Shire from Lord of the rings in there (once you managed to blag your way in!) Great craic!

circular flexing

Took 2 pictures from same spot using same focal length on Tuesday and Wednesday - working at it which meant I was onsite from Monday

(click through for full size)

Empty:


Full:

mickeyboymel

All In All. My Third Glasto & Definitely The Best Yet. I only realised the difficulty in returning to the tent on Sunday Night in the dark, as it dawned on me that I had not been back to the tent any other night before 7am in the daylight. I had no agenda at all this year which meant for the first time, I discovered much much more of the site.

I arrived on site at 3.05am on The Wednesday morning after a leisurely drive from Corby where I stayed on Monday Night. I was given the choice of Orange or Yellow Parking, and as there were only about 3 dozen cars in Yellow, I parked up right beside the q for Gate A. It was perfect, was through wristbanded and all by 8.15 and down to Oxylers flags up (Yes We were the ones with the Tricolour,Peace & CND Flags) and space held at 9am. It was a long wait in the sun until the first 2 of our group arrived so I could then take a break. Wednesday was spent mainly helping the rest of the group in; some arrived by car and more by coach but by 11pm, we were all set up, so we spent the rest of the night drinking at the campsite, watching the fireworks & The Bonfires.

Thursday was spent doing a lot of wandering from Brothers Bar to The Cider Bus & Beat Hotel to Thursday Night In Block 9, and The NYC Downlow until the small hours. Great Fun With The Drag Queens Who singled one of our party out and slagged his clothes off, with the spotlight trained on him.

So Friday we all knew it was Kaiser Chiefs as the opener, so being in Oxylers - we listened from our tents as we had breakfast. Caught the first bit of Blondie then headed for The War On Drugs who were brilliant. Rudimental Then The Stage Closures meant a change of clothes too. The Rain was phenomanal but to all you muck haters - it really was nothing compared to 2011 - I only got stuck once in Shangria La on Saturdasy Night. Caught Interpol Palo & Back to The Pyramid For Arcade Fire. The bar on way back from Pyramid were playing rocking tunes so we went in for 1 and stayed until 4am, then on to the silent disco (LOL I still have the headphones, wonder will they work at The Picnic!!)

Saturday Our gang headed to The Riptide Movement early which by all accounts was a great gig despite the bad sound in the tent, I started my day with Kodaline followed by Robert Plant and then I dragged some of the gang along to see Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott in the Acoustic which was Brilliant. We spent the rest of the night wandering and ended up in NYC Downlow & On To Shangria La Till Daylight!

Sunday we brought the chairs to The Pyramid for 1975, Dolly, Ed Sheeran & The Black Keys. My tank was completely empty as I had partied too hard so I ducked over To The Acoustic to lie on the grass and chill right out - caught the tail end of Clannad and Seen Allison Moyet - had no energy left for Suzanne Vega so headed home tired and happy,catching a bit of Disclosure & Massive Attack En Route.

Monday morning was a doddle getting everything packed up and back to the car. We were ready to pull out by 11am but actually left the site at 4.15pm which was hard as we had no food or water. Never seen it this busy on exit but it was only a small blip on a perfect weekend and thanks to the sat nav with the live updates we were seated in Sedgemoor Services By 5pm tucking into an all day breakfast.

4 of our group were first times and the other 12 all agreed it was the best to date, sometimes it's not all about the headliners - I'm thrilled I seen so much this year but still never managed to get to The Park Or Arcadia. Roll On 2015

PadraigOK

Back into work today and feeling surprisingly fresh. The extra night in Bristol on Monday certainly helped.

Highlights:

Metallica (just thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it and with not being a fan I was surprised, headbanged more than I'd ever care to admit)
The War On Drugs (first time seeing him/them and will def be back for more)
Robert Plant (really enjoyed most of the new stuff he played)
Bonobo (great way to begin Sunday night)
Dolly and the 5 songs that I saw (crowd was loving it and you couldn't help but get caught up in it all)
Smoothies over at West Holts (saved my bacon on the Saturday afternoon during Daptone)
Rotisserie Chicken wraps (delicious)
Goat Curry at Williams Green (excellent)
The sunshine on Wed and especially Sun, made the ground much easier to navigate.
The view coming down from Worthy View every day (breathtaking).

Lowlights:
Jack White (I'm not a huge fan but thought that with a back catalogue as varied as his he'd have delivered, to me, it felt like he didn't)
Missing parts of the Horrors and Pixies sets due to clashes with Dolly and Metallica respectively.
Completely missing Young Fathers, Melt Yourself Down, Royal Blood and a few others.
Not getting to see enough of the SE Corner and totally missing the Park and Arcadia, again.
The rain on Saturday (I too could have happily left the site on Saturday afternoon, the missus was in the same boat too)
The showers in Worthy View on the Saturday (a queue a mile long and greeted with a trickle, was not best impressed)

Hopefully get to visit the place again as there really is nowhere like it.

robinph

Toast wrote: »

Most of it was acceptable most of the time. However the run between the dance village and other stage was godawful on the Saturday.

That's your mistake right there. Keep away from the area between Other and Dance at the best of times, but especially when it's wet.

Was it just me or did anyone else notice, despite it being the same people all over the site, there was a lot more disrespect for the site over the Dance/ Other stage areas and far more peeing in the hedges, litter and slight feeling of rowdiness from people when at that end of town? It just seems to be a happier feel amongst the population in the Cider Bus side of Pyramid compared to Mandela Bar side, and once you venture further afield towards West Holts Jazz side of town and towards the Green Fields is just a nicer place to be.

Maybe I've just spent too much time looking down on everyone from my spot in the campervan fields on top of the Hill Of Death (tm) and can no longer handle the unwashed slightly less baby wiped people who reside down in the flat muddy parts of the site.