 |
| My Recycling Team. |
It was Wednesday morning at Glastonbury. The sun was shining, the gates were open, and thousands of people were pouring onto Worthy Farm every hour. I was up and about early, bright eyed and eager to play my part in keeping the place tidy. After breakfast I put on my recycling team t-shirt, got my gloves and my litter-picking stick and made my way to the office to meet the rest of our team. As well as Odele, there was another old friend called Dan and several people who I recognised from previous years. As we were all veterans, we knew the drill by now. We helped ourselves to rubbish bags from the wheelbarrow, white bags for organic stuff like cardboard, paper cups, plates, wooden knives and forks etc, blue bags for plastic bottles and tin cans and black bags for stuff that can’t be recycled. I think Glastonbury generates about 2000 tons of rubbish, of which about 70% is recycled.
 |
| Wednesday Evening. |
Once we were sorted out, we followed our team leader down the lane to start work. I learned a new word from our leader this year, which is bimble. He kept saying things like, “We’ll have a quick bimble in here to see if there is any rubbish lying about”. Wednesday was quite an easy day because people were just arriving. We had a bimble outside the perimeter fence and along the queue of people and picked up quite a few discarded cans. Mainly we were bimbling around the market areas. The litter picking has got easier over the years. I think people are remembering the motto Love the farm, Leave no trace. Also, years ago we used to pick up lots of cigarette butts and packets, that has vastly diminished. One annoying thing is finding lots of little metal nitrous oxide containers. Although it was quite leisurely work, it got very hot. Every time I saw a water tap, I stuck my head under it to cool off. We stopped for lunch at 12.00 and went back to base.
In the afternoon we carried on in the market areas and along the main drag as far as the old railway line. There was one bit of drama in the afternoon when we lost a team member. She had tripped over a guy rope earlier in the day and injured her leg. She bravely tried to carry on, but it was no good. The paramedics diagnosed a torn ligament. I think she was found a sit-down job back at the office, so that was good. We finished at 5.00 and collected our meal tickets. I was gagging for a drink and my feet were aching from all the walking, so I stopped off at my favourite crew bar on the way home for a refreshing pint of cider. After dinner that evening I didn’t go far because I had done enough walking for one day, and I knew the next day would be gruelling in the heat.
Thursday was the hottest day of all. I think it must have reached about 30 degrees C. The work wasn’t too bad at first but got harder as the morning wore on. We were sent to the Park area which is Emily Eavis’s pride and joy, and she likes it to be kept clean. Because the music on the main stages didn’t start until Friday about 100,000 people had been partying in The Park all night long. The rubbish bins were all overflowing, so we had to bag up all the excess rubbish that lay everywhere. It was especially bad near the food outlets and bars. We were busy, but at least the time went quickly. Because there had been no rain it was also very dusty. We worked our way up through The Park, past the famous Ribbon Tower and up to the GLASTONBURY sign. The last part was really steep. It was like climbing Glastonbury Tor. Thousands of people had been up here the previous evening because you get a fabulous view of the whole site. They left a lot of rubbish up there as well.
It was gone 12.30 when we stopped for lunch, and our leader said to meet back at Tom’s field at 2.00. It took ages to walk back to base where I found a massive queue for lunch. I was hot and irritable and tired. I couldn’t be bothered to queue up, so went to the counter where they were handing out packed lunches. You got a baguette, an orange, and a piece of cake. “What sort of cake would you like?”, asked the girl. “I don’t care, just give me a cake”, I snapped. (Sorry about that) I sat in the shade outside and cheered up. The afternoon was a lot shorter and easier. We finished work at 5.00 and everyone was in a good mood because we had done the difficult shifts. There was no more work for us until Sunday evening.
 |
| Me and Fiona. |
On Thursday evening it was the recycling team's party. Michael Eavis sent a message thanking everyone for their work and apologised for not being there. He did turn up later. I got Odele to take my photo with Fiona who organises the recycling crew of 2000 people. I thanked her for inviting us back every year. Fiona is responsible for a lot of friendships being created. The big news was that Paul McCartney was playing a surprise Glastonbury warm-up gig in the small nearby town of Frome. I bet the citizens of Frome were chuffed about that. Tomorrow morning the music at Glastonbury 2022 would begin, and what an amazing incredible day it would turn out to be…….(Continued below)
No comments:
Post a Comment