h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/2770683.stm

Hopefully sanity will win through and I'll get to go and see REM again...might even be able to get my tent to stay up too

good luck !REM

Its on!!!
Do you know who the headliners are yet, I hear Radiohead may be making an appearance... But whatever, its Glastonbury, Id go even if I hated every band...

According to the BBC site they've only confirmed REM as to the others it's all rumour.

Hubby won't go with me (understandable but annoying seeing as the disabled loos are backstage) but there's no way I'm missing REM *again* so I'm going on my own.

And this time I'm taking plenty of cash instead of trying to carry masses of cooking equipment and food accross the site, and I'm taking my own tent instead of relying on someone elses

I always take loadsa packet rice meals and sh*t. But then you get there and your body converts to Glastonbury mode, and you can survive on a bag of doughnuts, a pot noodle, and some wierd hippy food you bought in the greenfields..

My plan this year is to bring a cheap kids tent and use it to stack firewood in at the start of the festival, that way you dont find yourself digging through mud for soggy wood on the Sunday.

If you are going on your lonesome, feel free to camp with me and my mates. Of course, if you did, you have been warned...

I might take you up on that

Although (and this sounds really bad) I'm quite looking forward to spending a few days doing exactly what I feel like when I feel like it. I've always been to concerts and stuff with other people and find myself doing exactly what they want to do - It will be quite liberating to do just what I like in the knowledge that noone knows me and noone really cares

Now I've just got to find the cash and hope I can get hold of a ticket (last time my mum paid...but then I was only 17). Hubby's sister always tries to bunk in or gets in with some of her nutter friends who run stalls but I'd rather have a ticket than pin my hopes on getting lucky on the fence.

I wouldnt bother with the fence this year, I only heard of one person who made it over last year, and Im from Bristol, the home of Glastonbury fence dodgers! From the Glasto before that when most of the people I knew got in over the fence to this one thats a hell of an improvement they made.

Well, we wouldnt stop you doing exactly what you wanted, but if you want to share our space(tents are less likely to get broken into when they are part of a group) and our fire from time-to-time feel free!

Oh Glastonbury. I love the place so much. I love sitting up all night tripping on mushrooms, sat round a fire talking to random hippys in a stone circle, watching the sun rise. Its amazing...

thanks for the offer - I didn't have to deal with the camping side last time (97 - our tent blew down before we put it up so we had to sleep in the car). Didn't mean to sound a bit shirty - and I didn't mean I thought you would stop me fom doing what I wanted - I'm just looking forward to being a bit selfish and anonymous for a few days

Actually I'm looking forward to *everything*

It will be nice not to have to do a 5 hour drive to get there and back too.

I knew what you meant... I feel a bit the same about this Glasto, in that all the ones I went to before were when I was with my ex, and bumped off my mates a bit cause I was with her. Now Im going as part of a full-on mates package, and with an independant soul, so Im gonna wander off tripping with a spliff hanging out of my mouth whenever I feel like it this year thank you very much!

How far is Glasto from Southhampton anyway? its less than an hour from here, and if I want to hitch, the main road at the end of my road is the Bristol-Glasto Road, so every year as long as I can remember theres been buses and VW campers and all kinds of madness travelling down that road...

It's about an our and a half from home (in bournemouth) according to multimap...far closer than coming down from liverpool

Aaah, but that doesnt count the Glasto traffic, which clogs the surrounding roads doubling journey time...

But yes, its a hell of a lot closer than Liverpool.

Talking of which, according to security last year, almost all the Car park ticket muggings and outside crime was scousers who came down, couldnt get in and wouldnt go home until they felt they had got something...

Ahhh but the bloke who was murdered in 97 was a scouser so we're victims as well

£100 for a concert ticket is a huge amount, although having been once I do think it's excellent value for money (it would cost me £40 just to go and see REM again...if they ever tour again). It's pretty hard to convince someone who's never been or who couldn't get a ticket though.

Hopefully after last year being so good at keeping bunkers out this year people just wont bother making the trip.

all this talking about it makes me want to go *now*....I'm getting far to excited at the thought.

See, Id go even if I didnt like a single band. I dont count Glastonbury as a music festival, I count it as a festival with lots of music... It's like an alternate country where everything makes sense (apart from the hygiene and the little pikey kids). Which reminds me, if I want some of my special mushrooms for Glasto Id better order the grow kit soon...

This is what I keep saying to hubby - even it it rained and he couldn't get about without me dragging him through the mud - he could sit in the dance tent with his head in a speaker for three days - or he could get drunk on cheap sangria and fall asleep in the accoustics tent - or he could just loiter around backstage trying to get freebees from the stars.

Or we could just spend the whole time doing absolutely nothing in an environment where people wont look at him like he's a freak.

Whatever you end up doing (even sleeping in a car) it's well worth the money.

Considering the uni give me a massive 34 days holiday a year I might just take off a whole week and get there early and leave late and beat the stress of the traffic at both ends.

And on top of glasto my mum has just offered to pay for a hotel in london for our b'day presents so we can get to this yrs notting hill

I have a feeling that this year is going to be quite good fun - starting with hubbys jelly(vodka) and icecream party this saturday

Im considering being there from start to finish... But Ill probably be changing jobs around that time so it might be a bit dodgy...

Whatever you do, dont stay until Monday afternoon. It gets mightily depressing when the traders have all cleared up and you're the last few left on site who arent part of a traffic jam...

AS for this year, its gonna be nothing like my last yr- Glastonbury, Amsterdam, Turkey... But I got into a lot of debt last yr paying for two to do all those things, at least this year anything I spend will be on me alone...