Glastonbury 2023

Ah brilliant, @MadYaker. Great pics, loved the review. Fair play to all of you who made it over. An exquisite marathon. I'm exhausted reading about it.

Whew.. few busy days since I got back and needed some recovery time, but another great festival IMO!

Wednesday:

Settled about 7pm and just wandered in - grabbed a very decent chicken wrap with halloumi at back The Other Stage.

Few drinks, fireworks, bit of a wander around Silver Hayes and an early night.

Thursday:

A mighty hot day and grabbed a lovely shaded area upstairs in Avalon.. lots of pints / Pimms / mojitos on board.

Wanted around for the evening dipping into various tents and bars.

Tried Anna Mae's Mac N Cheese.. overrated beyond belief!

Friday:

Honestly, out of the 6 Glastonbury's I've been to.. Friday was a belter of a day for music IMO.

Caught end of The Hives who were unbelievably busy for second act of the day, but were full of energy and crowd were loving them!

Lightning Seeds were also very good. Ian Broudie's voice still sounds incredible.. we opted to move not long after Three Lions started though!

Texas were also brilliant and Sharleen's voice still is holding up. So many great tunes and weather was perfect. Sound was a wee bit iffy at times though - but always a risk at Pyramid / Other I find from speaker stacks due to the slightest bit of wind.

The Churnups / Foos were brilliant as always, but was too short a set.

Fred.. Again was good but hard to fully enjoy due to a messy crowd around us who wouldn't shut the f*ck up for the entirety. Watched it back on iPlayer since and enjoyed it more.

Hot Chip who are always reliable delivered in spades at Woodsies. Sore legs and back going in were quickly remedied with a boogie!

Saturday:

Bit more wandering on Saturday.

Sat outside Woodsies listening to Wunderhorse - quite like their debut album but was all to warm to really enjoy their music, so just lay in the shade.

Watched Tom Grennan who was good fun.. excellent voice on the lad. Music not for me, but a good show man and put on a helluva performance!

Watched the first 15 minutes of Lewis Capaldi but was a shame to watch him clearly struggling on stage. All the best to the lad and hope the time off does him well. Great voice and presence!

Watched first 20 minutes of Manic Street Preachers who still sound excellent, though a few in our crowd wanted to move on to see..

Lizzo - not really for me. Don't particularly enjoy her music and was all a bit too over-the-top... maybe that's the nature of her shows but wandered on after a hour ago.

Grabbed a very decent Jerk Chicken wrap from around West Holts... nyom!

Up towards The Park and Bimble Inn for a few pints of Guinness (grand by the way!).

Stayed on for Leftfield who I might watch back on iPlayer but bit on the heavy side for me, and then Fatboy Slim who was great fun.. good crowd loving it and really got the place going.

Wandered down to Silver Hayes for a bit of a look.

Sunday:

Dragged my group to Black Country, New Road on West Holts but was a bit too mellow to open a Sunday afternoon, so think I was the only one that enjoyed.

Caught end of Teskey Brothers - who sounded very good - and the start of Dermot Kennedy who wasn't really for me.

Wandered towards Pyramid to stake out our place for Elton. Watched Blondie (Debbie's voice was pretty atrocious unfortunately) and Lil Nas X who seemed to be another extravagant show but not for me.

Elton was just brilliant - voice still fantastic and despite a few sub-par guests (Stephen Sanchez?), was just hit after hit after hit. A very memorable closer to the festival full of singing and was great to see him.

Took about 75 minutes to get home through crowd - went around back of Pyramid via San Remo / Silver Hayes and took about 75 minutes to get back to where we were staying.

All in all - a great festival.. after 6 in a row, definitely might knock it on the head for a few years though. Maybe some European festivals next year!

Few observations:

• Always find it incredible how well run it is in terms of traffic management... I did see complaints about Orange route but bar 2015 traffic / 2016 mud, we've always sailed in and out. Maybe we've been lucky!
• The crowds coming out of Elton were veering on dangerous at times.. to be expected I suppose and maybe not much that could be done though.
• Didn't think much of Carhenge.. always loved the vibe of Williams Green and think it's a step in the wrong direction IMO.
• Levels stage in Silver Hayes looked fantastic!
• Stayed in Sticklinch.. shower situation was pretty ridiculous (twice the amount of cubicles for women and far longer queues for men etc), food choice was poor with long queues. Wouldn't be in a hurry back being honest.
• Card machines at vendors/bars were incredibly unreliable - took 200 sterling with me and was almost out of it by Friday morning.
• Absolutely no reason to run out of T-Shirts on the Friday... maybe an limitation due to agreement with bands to sell their merch though.

That's why cash is king.

If a food vendor only accepts card they may get my business once but not a second time. I prefer to have a choice.

Most likely an urban (rural?) myth about the card overcharging. The odd error but a sustained rip-off agenda by staff is almost certainly untrue.

Personally I almost entirely use cash anyway, far easier to monitor my spending. Several machines down at Glasto last year so cash required anyway, the three bars by West Holts never seemed to work.

It seems legit. I can't remember where I read it but 3 people got overcharged on separate occasions.

I think it was a clothes stall though.

The customers will have proof on their bank statement, so it's up to them to seek a refund.

You are right.It was a bad year weather wise. I remember Christy Moore on the pyramid when the heavens opened. Everyone scarpered bar a few rows at the front.

I have it in my head that it wasn't too bad. Yes it rained and there was mud but overall grand. However, looking at pics it was definitely worse than i remember! I had a very good time😁

Really looking to Glastonbury next year.

Have my deck chair and suncreen ready.

Great time at Glasto 2023

I can see you're excited, Paul.

High demand and high cost. And its pot luck where you end up. Could be a 20 minute walk from the gate to get into the festival. My advice, having done both, is to get a good tent. Gave up on the campervans years ago.