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.