Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 3, A Face From The Past.

Friday had arrived at Glastonbury and I was looking forward to a long day of music. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and even early in the morning it was already quite hot. After breakfast Odele was off to do some yoga so I walked with her as far as The Park. We stopped off at the Terence Higgins tent where they were giving away free sunscreen which was essential. After I said cheerio to Odele I had a couple of hours to kill before the music started so I thought I’d go up to the top of the Ribbon Tower. It has been a feature at Glasto for at least ten years, but I’d never been up there before. You get a fabulous view of the whole site from the top and I took a few photos.

View from top of Ribbon Tower.

After that I went for a walk along the pier which is a new feature at Glastonbury. It is built on the side of the hill so you really get the feeling that you are at the seaside. The sounds of sea gulls and waves adds to the effect. The only difference is you look out at a sea of tents and not a real sea. They have all the seaside attractions such as Punch & Judy, fortune tellers and amusement arcades. I wanted to play on the machines but didn’t have the right change on me. It was all good fun. At the entrance to the tipi field there was a café in a yurt so I sat in the shade and had a cup of tea.

Punch & Judy on the pier.

Then I wandered on towards the Stone Circle. As I approached the stones an ambulance drove by me. There was a woman unconscious on the ground, and they couldn’t wake her up. She must have been up there for the party the night before and passed out. Why it took until 10.00 in the morning to notice her I don’t know, and where were her friends? Anyway, they put her in the ambulance and drove away. I expect she was ok because I didn’t hear any stories about fatalities or bad injuries this year. You have to remember that it is a temporary city of nearly 200,000 and any city is going to have incidents over a weekend.

Incident at Stone Circle.

Finally, it was time for some music. Lankum were the first band I wanted to see. They were on the Park Stage at 11.30. They are a young folk band from Dublin who I had heard great reports about and seen on YouTube. They are Ian Lynch (uillean pipes, tin whistle, vocals), Daragh Lynch (vocals, guitar) Cormac Mac Diarmada (fiddle) and Radie Peat (harmonium, accordion, vocals). They didn’t disappoint and played a blistering set of songs and tunes. They aren’t afraid to voice their political views either. You could say they are Irish folk with a punk attitude. After that rousing set, I had my first pint of the day in the shade of one of the beer tents.

Lankum on the Park Stage.

We get these things called lanyards that you hang around your neck. It has all the info about the acts on the various stages. Sheryl Crow was on the Pyramid Stage at 2.00 which I would liked to have seen but the sun was really hot now and I didn’t fancy sitting in it. I decided to head for the bucolic shady area of the Acoustic Stage. It is nice there and if you sit at the edge there is a nice cooling breeze blowing. When I arrived, there was a singer on called Grace Petrie. She is a socialist, activist singer who isn’t afraid to say what she thinks. By the end of her gutsy performance I thought she was great. 

Julie Felix at Isle Of Wight 1969.

I met up with Peter and Helen and Helen’s mum. The next act was called Lucy Rose who I had never heard of although she has made four albums. I thought she was boring because every song sounded the same. She claimed to have technical problems and kept stopping and restarting songs and complained it was difficult to sing when the audience were talking. I suspect they were talking because they lost interest in her. I passed the time telling silly jokes to Peter & Helen.

Julie Felix at Glastonbury 1987.

The next act I was really looking forward to seeing. In the 1980’s at Glastonbury I used to do a little unofficial bookstall. It was quite successful and used to pay for my festival. I had some famous people visit my bookstall. John Martyn was one and actress Margie Clarke, but my favourite was American folk singer Julie Felix. I had a nice little chat with her back in 87 and I thought she was a really nice lady. I have several of her albums although I hadn’t seen her in the 32 years since. I was delighted to hear that she was on the Acoustic Stage this year. “I bet she does Masters Of War”, I said to Helen when Julie appeared, and she did!. She played a wonderful set. I can’t remember every song but one highlight was “Hey,That’s No Way To Say Goodbye”, which I remembered from her TV show in the 60’s. Julie was a good friend of Leonard Cohen before all the fame. You can see a video below if you scroll down. I wish I had written down a setlist, but I didn’t. Another song I remember was Tom Paxton’s Last Thing On My Mind. Julie is 82 now but still as politically active as ever, campaigning for peace, feminist issues and other left-wing causes. I think she is great.

Me & Julie Felix.

After her performance I thought I would check out Bastille on the Pyramid Stage but as I was leaving I noticed some people hanging around the merchandise area. I wondered if Julie might come out, and she did. I bought a programme from her 80^th birthday concert at the Royal Albert Hall and Julie graciously signed it and we took a photo. I tried to tell her about our previous meeting 32 years ago, but she was probably in shock after her triumphant performance and had other people to talk to as well. It was certainly a highlight for me I can tell you.

The Mavericks.

I watched some of Bastille on my way back to base camp. I had a shower and dinner then set out again for the evening. On the way back down I watched about 20 minutes of Ms Lauryn Hill who I have an album by but I couldn’t get into it. I made my way back to the Acoustic where I had a wonderful evening. The Mavericks were fantastic. They deserved to be on the main stage. After that it was Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets who were brilliant. I have seen Nick Lowe many times but this was the best performance ever. You must go and see them if you get the chance. Nick took a break and the band played some amazing guitar music. What’s So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding? And I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock And Roll were great songs I remember and Nick came back for a solo performance of Alison which was a hit for Elvis Costello.

The great Nick Lowe.

On the way home I listened to a bit of Stormzy on the Pyramid but it’s not my cup of tea I’m afraid. I got back to Tom’s field and sat around drinking with a few people until I finally went to bed at about 2.00. Another exciting day at Glastonbury was only a few hours away and what a day it would turn out to be!

TO BE CONTINUED……………….

Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 2, Crisis At The Crossroads.

It was Wednesday morning at Glastonbury. The sun was shining, the gates were open, and 130,000 music fans were pouring onto the site. I collected my veteran’s t-shirt and my gloves from the office and met up with my team at 8.00. Because I had broken my litter picking stick Odele had lent me hers as she didn’t need one in her job of trader information. I was a bit wary of borrowing it because she had used it for about ten Glastonbury’s and I was worried about losing it or breaking it. (More on that later) 

Tipis & Yurts.

Our team leader was Andy who I had worked with before. There were fifteen in our team and I remembered a few of them especially Pete and Sean. Once we had all arrived, we set off across the top of the site following our leader. There wasn’t all that much rubbish to pick up as people were only just arriving, so Wednesday was quite an easy day. Every year at Glastonbury there is less and less waste for various reasons. Firstly, this year there was a ban on the sale of single use plastic bottles. That made a huge difference, people could refill their own water bottles at various places around the site. Secondly, people don’t smoke so much these days. Every year there are less cigarette packets and dog ends to pick up. Thirdly, people are much more environmentally aware these days and conscious of looking after the planet, especially with speakers like Caroline Lucas and Sir David Attenborough at the festival. Another thing that made the job easier this year was the nice weather which meant you weren’t picking stuff out of mud.

One amazing thing I had never seen at Glastonbury before was that we met hundreds of people out on an organised early morning 5K run around the site. They had all the running gear on and were taking it very seriously. That never happened in the olden days. We wandered all over the site picking up any garbage we could find. Stopped for an hours break at 1.00 and went round the same route in the afternoon and finished at 5.00. The afternoon was the most tiring because of the heat. In the evening I had a couple of drinks in the Bread & Roses saloon and went for a walk to the stone circle to see what was going on. I was tired though and it was too hectic. There was about 10,000 people up there partying. I sat in the Peace Garden for a bit of tranquillity and then wandered home and crashed out about midnight.

Thursday was much more dramatic. Emily Eavis had asked us to go to the Park area. Because the music didn’t start till Friday everybody had been up that end of the site partying till dawn. The rubbish bins had overflowed and there was quite a mess. We worked really hard that morning and got it all looking nice again. I had a disaster. I went to pick up a can with Odele’s stick and the handle broke in half in my hand. Oh no, I felt really bad about that.

In the afternoon I had another disaster. We were working our way along to the old railway line where it was very busy with multitudes of people going in all directions.

In The Woods.

 I was having a chat with Sean about music. I stopped to pick up some rubbish around some bins, looked up and I couldn’t see my team anywhere in the crowd. It was at a crossroads, which is the worst place to get lost. I had to guess which direction they had gone. I walked one way for about 100 yards but then noticed some rubbish on the ground. “If they had come this way they would have picked that up”, I thought to myself. So, I retraced my steps and tried another direction and the same thing happened. I was getting more and more frantic. The world had suddenly become a lonely and threatening place.

Some of our team.

 I felt like a little kid who had lost his mum. I was the only member of the team who hadn’t bothered to take Andy’s phone number in case of such an eventuality. I decided to go to the Glade and stay there and hope the team walked by. After half an hour there was no sign of them. The only thing to do was go back to the office and report myself lost. By the time I got there I was really hot and bothered I can tell you. The office staff phoned Andy and found out where they were and I was finally reunited with my team by the John Peel stage at about 4.00. I had been missing for about two hours. It made the afternoon go quickly that’s for sure. We finished work at 5.00 and had no more work until Sunday evening.

Fiona with Michael Eavis.

That evening it was the recyclers party. I was watching a band from the entrance to the marquee when a security man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to move slightly. I turned around and there was Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis and Fiona which gave me the chance of a couple of close up photos. Later on, a couple asked me if I knew the way to the Rabbit Hole so I said I would show them. That involved a long walk. I had a couple of drinks up in The Park then walked back via the Tipi Field, Strummerville, Field Of Avalon and ended up in the bar at the Acoustic Stage. It was nice and quiet in there which suited me. I had a chat with a nice couple from Northern Ireland and said I'd meet them at the Park Stage tomorrow morning. I finally went to bed about 2.00 but I was quite excited because tomorrow the music would finally begin!

TO BE CONTINUED……………

            

Glastonbury Festival 2019: Part 1, Return To Avalon.

Two long years had gone by and it was time to return to Worthy Farm once again. This year was the 40^th anniversary of my first visit to Glastonbury Festival. If anyone had told me back in the summer of 79 that I would be still going to festivals 40 years later I would have thought they were bonkers, but here we were. I caught the 1.02 train from Westbury for the short journey to the normally sleepy little town of Castle Cary. Although the gates didn’t open to the public for another three days the train was crowded with site crew workers. At Castle Cary we boarded the shuttle bus which took us to the festival site at Pilton. Sitting on the front seat who should I meet but my friend Odele who I first met at Glasto in 2013. As the bus drove us through the Somerset countryside, we caught up with all the news since last time we met. Soon we arrived at Red gate A and made our way to the recyclers cabin where we handed in our letters and collected our wristbands. Then we hauled on our rucksacks for the long walk across the site to our camping area in Tom’s field near the farmhouse. It is called Tom’s field because a horse called Tom used to live in there. The walk seemed a lot easier than last time, maybe because it wasn’t so hot. Almost the first person we saw on arriving was Fiona who organises the huge crew of recyclers. We had a little chat with Fiona then set up our tents. When I unpacked my rucksack, I discovered I had broken my litter picking stick which was a bit annoying.

Odele in her tent.

Once I had sorted my tent out, I went for a walk down to the market area. There weren’t many places open because most traders hadn’t arrived yet, but I found one nice place and had some food and a cup of tea. Later in the evening I spent a pleasant couple of hours drinking cider in the crew bar at the back of the Acoustic Stage. When I got back to Tom’s field there wasn’t a lot going on, so as soon as it got dark I retired early because I knew I had many long days ahead.           

When I woke up on Monday morning, I looked at my alarm clock and it was 4.45, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing in the trees.  I tried to get back to sleep but at Glastonbury that is impossible. I crawled out of my tent and went to the workers marquee where I sat outside drinking coffee and talking to people I remembered from previous years.

Giant crane in Arcadia.

Then I set off on a long walk around the site. In Arcadia they had replaced the giant spider with a huge crane which they had salvaged from Bristol docks. At night-time it looked awesome when all lit up. They were also frantically putting the finishing touches to Glastonbury On Sea which is a huge pier they have built to give the illusion of being at the seaside. I made my way to the Tiny Tea Tent which has been a favourite place of mine since the 1990’s. I sat there for about two hours chatting to other people, drinking tea and watching the world go by. 

In the West Holts field, I visited Leon’s Vegetarian Cuisine which I knew from previous years. Leon is a nice guy who takes real pride in his food. He has even written a vegetarian cookbook. He was explaining to me all the different dishes he had available. I couldn’t decide what I wanted so he offered to give me a bit of everything for a fiver. That was a great deal and I ended up with a huge plate of delicious quiche, aubergines, red cabbage salad, tomatoes and some sort of green beans that I had never seen before. I eat a lot better at Glastonbury than I do at home.

Tiny Tea Tent.

 It was getting hot now and I stopped in Williams Green for a rest and another cup of tea where I bumped into Odele who was on her lunch break from work. After that I returned to the Acoustic crew bar where I spent the afternoon sitting in the shade.

That evening Martin and Peter and me decided it was time to get a campfire going. We had a bit of trouble getting it started at first until I remembered a trick I learned in previous years. The hand sanitiser outside the toilets has alcohol in it so a couple of cupfuls of that soon got the wood blazing away. Then we sat around the fire drinking and telling jokes. It is amazing how quickly a fire attracts people. Before long there was quite a gathering around the fire. People have sat around campfires since man first learned how to control fire thousands of years ago. There is something prehistoric and magical about it. It was a shame that this year our wood pile was depleted by certain people nicking our wood. I had intended being sensible and having an early night but ended up drinking about six cans of Thatcher’s Gold cider. It was only when it started spitting rain that I finally went to bed.

Leon's Vegetarian Cuisine.

When I came to my senses on Tuesday morning it was to the sound of rain on my tent. That didn’t matter though because it stopped at 9.00 and there was no more rain for the rest of the week. In fact, later in the week another drop of rain would have been welcome because it got very hot indeed. After breakfast I sat outside the marquee chatting with Bob & Paula who are a nice couple from Nottingham who I know from previous years. Then I set out on another epic walk. My feet were aching from the previous two days of walking and not having the proper footwear. The grass was still wet from the rain and hadn’t been cut around the edges of the big ground in front of the Pyramid Stage, so I took my shoes and socks off and walked barefoot through the lush clover. My feet loved it. It was really refreshing. I walked all the way to the Beat Hotel before I had to put my shoes on again. 

Lush grass in front of Pyramid Stage.

Then I carried on through Silver Hayes and had a look at the amazing shanty town that had been built.  I carried on past the John Peel stage and into The Wood. This is a very peaceful area and you can go right up into the canopy of the trees and look at the view. This year they had Shakespeare being performed in the wood, but I didn’t get to see that. Eventually I had a slow meandering walk back to Tom’s field for lunch. I discovered some rain had got into my tent, so I sorted that out then had a kind of a nap.

At the quiz, Robin, Odele & Me.

In the evening it was the recyclers quiz. Our team were The Glastafarians. We won the quiz when we first entered it a few years ago and came second another year. We were hoping to reclaim our crown. There were four original members, me, Odele, Peter & Robin. This year we also had Peter’s wife Helen plus a couple of Peter’s friends. Sadly, we only came 3^rd this year. That was a bit disappointing, but we will get our revenge next year. I was quite sensible and was in bed by midnight because tomorrow at 8.00 I would start work. As I drifted off into restful slumbers little did I realise the dramatic events that lay ahead…….

TO BE CONTINUED.

Glasto by night.