Glastonbury 2024

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).

Great summation. There were definitely some errors/miscalculations with the placement of some of the acts alright. I didn't see The Sugababes but they maxed out Avalon 2 years ago so they should have moved them to a different stage than West Holts. While WH is one of the larger stages it is such a traffic jam with lots of smaller areas there which draw many people. That decision was madness.

There have been some serious crowding issues at The Other Stage over the years (Rumours of an Oasis reunion at Liam Gallaghar's 2017 set for example). Was up by the barriers for "Nothing But Thieves" (They were our beachballs) and trying to get out of there was a nightmare. Spent about 20 mins trying to get to the nearest path. Ended up in the middle of the food stalls and then took another 20 mins trying to get out (Eventually got out by The Glade). That was insane. She was one of the most anticipated acts (Whether you liked her or not) and would have been MUCH more suited to play after/before Shania Twain on The Pyramid.

Scouting For Girls at The Acoustic was another overcrowding issue. Have never seen it that bad.

I don't believe there are too many people there but there were some serious organisation miscalculations that need to be addressed. Some are unavoidable: Acts/line-ups are determined months in advance and some acts have a breakout hit that suddenly propels them into a MUCH larger audience. But some CAN be arranged better. There does seem to be more of a focus on one-upping the previous year with regards to spectacle. Especially on Friday/Saturday nights. Assuming they got Madonna for Sunday night, Madonna/The National would actually have been a good balance. She would have had a HUGE draw of course but The National also have a large and dedicated fanbase. But previously there was always the dreaded clash. Of course there are still multiple clashes but they don't seem as… heartbreaking as before :)

Obviously many of the acts are already planned for next year and some line-up positions will already be locked into place but they DO need to plan better in the fallow year (Confirmed 2026)

Speaking of crowds/planning though, I know they are commenting on the crowd for SZA being small but my god there was a tiny crowd for The Idles. I was shocked. We were at The Acoustic for The Bootleg Beatles and wandered past The Idles at The Other and the crowd barely reached the back of the soundstage and didn't seem all that packed even there. Have never seen such a small headline crowd

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Was referenced a lot in articles about SZA's set being the lowest attended apparently since...

Do the fighter jets still do flyovers in the morning?

Think it was Thursday afternoon this year.

Oh was that it?! Thought it was Thursday. Makes sense though, was back at the tent before Simz.

For those of you with more money than sense, Cassidy Travel are offering VIP Hospitality Packages for next year.

any idea what this package would cost?

If you had the absolute line up of a lifetime, that 5k wouldn't be that bad a price(although i have my doubts about exactly what this VIP Bar behind main stage is)

Gives the impression you could be sipping on champers next to music legends. Maybe you could, or they could be in an all together different "VIP" section