The Glastonbury Festival
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Glastonbury Festival, properly known as the Pilton Pop Festival, has taken place each Summer (bar a few, I think) at Worthy Farm, Pilton. Home of famer Michael Evis, Worthy is actually some way out of Glastonbury down winding lanes, sited in a huge natural 'bowl' in the landscape. While awe-inspiringly beautiful, this unexpected (by some) location results in cavalcades of annoyed festival goers trapesing tent-encumbered from where they thought the festival was to where it actually takes place.
Somerset locals are consistently amazed by the sheer number of people squeezing into this space during the festival's three days. What is for the rest of the year a working dairy farm (which can be seen on numerous web cams - the BBC's Radio 1 site had one up during the festival) turns into a de facto town, complete with food courts that would impress any mall-going American, acres of shopping space and rows of extremely public conveniences (advice: the 'open to the sky' permanent toilets are far more salubrious than the enclosed, and dark, portaloos), not to mention its two massive stages and numerous other performance areas.
Festival-goers staying for the full three days pitch their tents (there is no other accomodation unless you chose to try for a B&B in Pilton itself - and many would say that camping is 75% of the festival experience). If you go, get there early. This is an extremely effective demonstration of space efficiency and those arriving late will find themselves downwind of a stinky and leaky portaloo site. And that is if you're lucky. The best sites however are awesome - those in the know can end up able to watch acts on the main stage from their 'front door', thanks to the camp sites' locations on the higher ground surrounding the main performance areas.
Some good and less good things that surprised me about the festival:
*It is a great place for kids, provided parents are fairly liberal.
*You will not feel out of place if you fall outside the imagined-dominant group of p***ed and grungy 16 - 24 year olds. My mum and dad (aged 50ish) LOVED it, even though we had to smuggle them in in a pig lorry
*You could enjoy the whole thing without ever seeing a band - there are theatre and circus acts, storytellers, stand-up comedians (some woeful though), etc. etc. etc.
*There is a group of people who spend the whole time completely naked (you may feel inspired to join them)
*Many men still feel it is acceptable to p**s in ditches, rather than walk 5 yards to a latrine. While the negative impact for others is significant, the attitude adjustment required to change this would be really rather small.....
*Most people never see the town of Glastonbury itself. Though logistically difficult (transport in and out is a nightmare due to queues, labyrinthine parking arrangements, and the vagaries of public transport), this is 100% worth the visit, if not just to calm down.
Somerset locals are consistently amazed by the sheer number of people squeezing into this space during the festival's three days. What is for the rest of the year a working dairy farm (which can be seen on numerous web cams - the BBC's Radio 1 site had one up during the festival) turns into a de facto town, complete with food courts that would impress any mall-going American, acres of shopping space and rows of extremely public conveniences (advice: the 'open to the sky' permanent toilets are far more salubrious than the enclosed, and dark, portaloos), not to mention its two massive stages and numerous other performance areas.
Festival-goers staying for the full three days pitch their tents (there is no other accomodation unless you chose to try for a B&B in Pilton itself - and many would say that camping is 75% of the festival experience). If you go, get there early. This is an extremely effective demonstration of space efficiency and those arriving late will find themselves downwind of a stinky and leaky portaloo site. And that is if you're lucky. The best sites however are awesome - those in the know can end up able to watch acts on the main stage from their 'front door', thanks to the camp sites' locations on the higher ground surrounding the main performance areas.
Some good and less good things that surprised me about the festival:
*It is a great place for kids, provided parents are fairly liberal.
*You will not feel out of place if you fall outside the imagined-dominant group of p***ed and grungy 16 - 24 year olds. My mum and dad (aged 50ish) LOVED it, even though we had to smuggle them in in a pig lorry
*You could enjoy the whole thing without ever seeing a band - there are theatre and circus acts, storytellers, stand-up comedians (some woeful though), etc. etc. etc.
*There is a group of people who spend the whole time completely naked (you may feel inspired to join them)
*Many men still feel it is acceptable to p**s in ditches, rather than walk 5 yards to a latrine. While the negative impact for others is significant, the attitude adjustment required to change this would be really rather small.....
*Most people never see the town of Glastonbury itself. Though logistically difficult (transport in and out is a nightmare due to queues, labyrinthine parking arrangements, and the vagaries of public transport), this is 100% worth the visit, if not just to calm down.
