Glastonbury 2024

Probaby wouldn't have been able to hear you anyway! Was really difficult to hear what anyone was even ordering. Couldn't really have a chat with the other volunteers when behind the bar. After our Friday shift one of the girls I was working with remarked she couldn't believe there'd been three different DJs on that night as they all sounded the same. I couldn't believe there'd been three different songs!

Glad you had a great weekend!

That didn't stop Sza getting a headline slot.

Maybe some people went off to try find a way to watch the England game?

The English game was all but over when she started her set i believe. Anyway, festival goers, especially Glasto, will pick a good gig over watching poxy England 10 times out of ten

The site was still busy. They were close to closing off the Acoustic field at one stage for Gypsy Kings. Justice was busy at the West Holts. The National was busy enough.

Even when the headliners were on there were a fair few people still milling about in the markets getting food etc.

Fair enough regarding the England match, was only throwing it out as one possible reason. I'd like to think very, very few would interrupt their Glastonbury experience to watch any match occurring out there in the normal world. I treasured every second of my time at Worthy Farm, doing nothing but festival.

Different strokes for different folks. Loads of people were watching it on phones in the bars. I don’t have a problem with it.

But I have to say it was a bit sad watching them celebrate like they’d won the tournament because they managed to squeak a win in extra time against Slovakia who they should be hammering.

https://x.com/dubslife1/status/1807499795319365994?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Bloody X links!!!!

Wow. 6 days, 140km, about 35 gigs later - finally got back home around midnight last night from what was an unbelievable few days at my first Glastonbury. It certainly lived up to the hype! A truly amazing place where everyone including artists, DJs, punters and staff all brought their A game. Before going I did worry I'd set my expectations dangerously high but it did indeed justify those expectations, no small part down to the perfect weather we had the entire time. Having said that it wasn't all smooth sailing and not an 'easy' festival either - I'll get to some of the challenges below for anyone going first time in future. I've been to a lot of festivals over the past 15 years or so and generally find I know what to do at new ones but this weekend I really found myself having to relearn how you do things and adapting as you go. It is a different ball game from anything else.

Musically this is what I saw (with some retrospective help of clashfinder), bolded are the highlights:

Thursday: Dar Disku b2b Nabihah Iqbal > Foundation FM Takeover> Taylah Elaine & Friends > Kevin & Perry rave > Job Jobse.

Friday: Barry Can't Swim > The Mary Wallopers > Sugababes > LCD Soundsystem > Jungle > Sofia Kourtesis > Daphni > Gorgon City > Dreems & Jacoby > Optimo > Sofrito presents (a few guys b2b @ HMS Sweet Charity)

Saturday: Cyndi Lauper > Keane > Bloc Party > The Streets > Coldplay > Joy Anonymous b2b salute > Hot Chip DJ set > Eric Prydz > Chimpo > Maddison Moore > DJ Stringray

Sunday: James > Alvvays > Avril Lavigne > Two Door Cinema Club > London Grammar > The Feeling > some indie disco at the Taphouse > some DJ at HMS Sweet Charity > Bad Cop, Worse Cop (Scissors)

The Good

• Festival site and scale. Just incredible. It was so enjoyable just wandering around taking it all in, such thought and detail has gone into every area of the festival and each area had it's own unique feel and aesthetic. I probably only scratched the surface but could not believe how special it was.
• Performers bringing their best. At almost every gig it really felt like you were witnessing a special performance that meant a lot to the band. Definitely going to watch a lot of them back over the coming days.
• The weather. Man of the match really. It was scorching hot at least 3 of the 5 days and even the other 2 were bone dry. Perfect conditions.
• Food was of a really high standard and it seemed like every stall had an option for £6.50 which was great. I'm not a huge foodie at festivals as I often just go for something convenient, but the range of options were brilliant. I'm sure if I was arsed queuing a bit more I'd have eaten every better!
• Crowd behaviour - it was a very civil affair aside from a small % pushing through crowds, no bad behaviour, no arguments or aggro heads, very little people completely out of their heads on drugs/drink - quite a difference from festivals at home! Couldn't believe how well respected the no peeing on the farm rule was observed.
• Campsite crew - essentially volunteers in each campsite dedicated to helping out - they were so friendly and positive, helpful with telling you where to camp, went around the campsite giving out bin bags, timetables, tote bags, LED bands for Coldplay, offering advice and generally having the craic. If you forgot something I'm sure they had it with them to make your experience as smooth as possible! Lovely touch.
• The Park area was deadly. The views from the Glastonbury sign/hill, the food and quirky bar options, late night areas such as Scissors and HMS Sweet Charity were probably my favourite of the whole site.
• Variety and depth - at so many points over the weekend you stumble across things you just would not get anywhere else. Bands, DJs, comedy, theatre, circus, food, spoken word, cinema, storytelling, art… you name it and it's there. I remarked on the first night all it's missing is a post office and low and behold we walk by one the following morning. It truly has something for everyone and the attention to detail and depth of what is on offer is hard to comprehend. I would say it is for this reason more so than the strength of it's lineups that people continue to go for such a long time.

The Bad

• Traffic getting in wasn't pretty. We arrived in Bristol airport around 9am and were back from Tesco with our booze and supplies with well over an hour to spare for our bus leaving from the airport at midday. However the bus was almost 2 hours late, then it took 3.5 hours for what should have been a one hour journey. So we probably arrived close to 6 hours later than we had planned and it was realistically about 9pm by the time we were set up, had some food and set off to explore the arena.
• The drone show. Just a complete waste of time. It dragged thousands of people up to the pyramid field for an incredibly underwhelming and totally silent drone show and then it took ages to get out due to everyone leaving after 10 mins. The fireworks display looked much better in the distance. Backed the wrong horse here but really would have been better off just continuing our wander.
• Stage scheduling/placement - many gigs could not handle the crowds that turned up, but what made it worse was some of these seemed very predictable before hand. Barry Can't Swim, Sugababes, Avril Lavigne the main 3 I attended. BCS we were so far back we could more so hear the Stonebridge bar, Sugababes the field got shut down before hand but thankfully we arrived early enough to get in and enjoy it, Avril Lavigne was just an insane amount of people - opted to go towards the back of the crowd as I felt so uncomfortable and squashed on the way in. Should have definitely been on the pyramid.
• Overcrowding - It did overwhelm me a bit how busy the place was. I don't think I've ever been anywhere as busy as Glastonbury. There were numerous points over the weekend where entire areas or fields were shut off due to being full (South East Corner, Silver Hayes, other gigs mentioned above). The foot traffic after these gigs or late at night made it very unpleasant getting around at times, again numerous times where you are stuck in traffic and just not moving either direction - although in fairness to the stewards they were good at redirecting you and trying to close off paths or make them one way. But this was definitely the thing that took me by surprise the most and at times took from the enjoyment.
• Toilets - kept relatively clean in fairness but there just didn't feel like enough in some areas, particularly around the Pyramid and Silver Hayes. Also some just didn't have any urinals which felt like a poor mistake. I've never encountered the same queues at toilets at a camping festival in Ireland.
• Crowd friendliness - OK, this is a very minor and personal one, but I kind of expected to have more chats and craic with strangers over the weekend, but compared to the likes of ATN, B&S, EP before it got very young, BTP I felt the crowd kept to themselves much more and weren't as open to random interactions. Maybe it's not as much of a done thing in the UK? Also a lot of people barging past you into space that wasn't there and big groups of people turning up to gigs 15 mins late then linking hands to squeeze by - a bit annoying and not the etiquette I was expecting.

Apologies if any of that sounds negative but just wanted to elaborate on some of the issues if anyone's going in future. Would I go again? Absolutely a no brainer and I hope to visit again. I would have slight concerns about going on a year where it lashed all weekend and became a mudbath - I think the muck combined with some of those issues and travelling over from Ireland would make it a real challenge. But thankfully that was far from the case this time around and the juice was certainly worth the squeeze!

PS thanks to all for the numerous tips, advice and answering questions over the months!

The lack of urinals/toilets in several areas has been an issue for years. Don't understand why they don't sort it out, especially when they're so concerned about pissing on the land and getting into the water table.

P.S I'm the same regarding a muddy Glastonbury possibly changing my views dramatically, we had perfect weather too in 2022. I'm not sure I could hack the other type of Glastonbury (but I'm in my late 50s so there is that excuse).