Category Archives: Glastonbury

Glastonbury Festival 2023

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21st June 2023 – 26th June 2023

Glastonbury Festival 2023

Glastonbury Festival 2023

This was my 13th Glastonbury Festival. I first started going to Glastonbury in 1998, and then 1999. I still have the T-shirts which I wore to Glastonbury. A few suitable comments were made by other festival goers. I took a break for a few years and started attending again. I’ve been to every Glastonbury held since 2009. The Glastonbury Festivals I have been to are 1998, 1999, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 ,2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023.

This year was another dry Glastonbury. A week or so before Glastonbury, showers were expected during the show. As the date neared, the rain disappeared from the forecasts. Those who arrived on Tuesday were rained upon. I arrived on Wednesday, and it was dry and hot throughout the whole festival, with only one exception of a very small shower early on Monday morning.

I drove to Glastonbury in my EV on Wednesday, arriving in the early afternoon. Stopped for a coffee and a quick charge on route. The Blue route, taken by campervans, was empty with no delays. I arrived at Love Fields and was soon installed in my yurt. Love Fields has installed a large building, called The Barn, replacing the Teepee for breakfasts and meals. Breakfasts served downstairs, and cocktails upstairs. The bar and stage area lower down the fields were still in place.

Met up with Ed, Mary, her brother, and Jon while they were still on shift at the Silver Hayes area. Afterwards we had a few drinks, and then watched the opening fireworks. This evening we wandered around spending time in the Green Fields. I was back in Love Fields at 4am.

Thursday

Some bands were playing today in the small venues. I started off at the Rabbit Hole, watching Prima Queen, and then spent most of my time at the Bread and Roses, listening to small bands, such as Duo, The Love Buzz, Frankie Morrow, N’Famady Kouyate. I rushed over to the Southwest corner to see some metal, but the place was so packed I gave up and returned to the principal areas. It’s a shame I somehow missed the Vlure playing at Bread and Roses. Not to worry, the Glasgow band was playing again on another day.

Friday

The main days of the festival open. I started off with an exercise class run by Joe Wicks. Twenty-five minutes, plus a warmup session beforehand. I met up with Ed and Mary, it was their day off. After a while I went my own way and headed to West Holts stage. It is my favourite area, good cider, decent food and good music. I watched Louis Cole, Young Fathers and the headline act Kelis.

Saturday

The first band of the day was The Last Dinner Party at Woodsies (the new name for the John Peel Stage). Here I met Mark and his daughter. They were standing two rows in front of me. After this show I rushed back to the Greenpeace Stage to watch N’Famady Kouyate., again. He was playing five shows during Glastonbury and had won the emerging talent show at the Pilton Working Mens Club. Then it was Sudan Archives before rushing over to see Vlure at BBC Introducing. At the Other Stage, I watched the Manic Street Preachers, Plenty of room. Next for me was Guns and Roses on the Pyramid stage. I was disheartened because the area looked full for Lizzo. But after Lizzo finished, space opened up and I was able to find room in front of the barrier. Despite the reviews, the show was enjoyable, the crowd were ecstatic. Rumours circulated that Paul McCartney may come on to sing Live and Let Die. This did not happen. Shame it would have been a nice touch. After the headline act, I went on over to The Glade to watch the The Steve Hillage Band.

Sunday

Already I was nearing the end of the festival. First off was a hike up to the Crow’s Nest to see Professor Alice Robers with Rebecca Wragg Sykes talk about early humans and archaeology. Now back to normal, The Chicks at the Pyramid Stage, Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen at the Acoustic Stage, followed by a fabulous show by Toyah Willcox and Robert Fripp. I wasn’t going to miss the Mongolian Metal band, The Hu, at the West Holts. Saw them at Download. I then watched Barrington Levy at West Holts and headed over to the Other Stage to see the end of The War On Drugs and finally Queens of the Stone Age. It was a shame for the The War On Drugs, when so many people left to get to the Pyramid Stage to watch Elton John. Queens of the Stone Age were excellent.

Monday

Pack up and leave. Join the queue on Pylle Road. This can be slow as the mobile homes are allowed out onto the road from the same exit. It took me an hour to go the few miles. Once I was on the A37, there was no problem. I did hear that some people leaving the festival from the main car parks were held up for 7 hours. I count myself lucky. What I don’t understand is that despite all the walking, I seemed to put on a kilo.

Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza 2022

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5th August 2022

We have been visiting Glastonbury Abbey Extravaganza for several years, missing the COVID years when music festivals were forbidden. R enjoys it, camping for two nights, and a half day of music is enough for her. The campsite is getting busier, the early arriving vans were packed tight to ensure there was enough room for all the booked vans. Those arriving later had more than enough room and were spaced further apart. Tents are now in a different field, and cars parked in yet another area.

It is a basic site, there are the Glastonbury Festival long drops, a breakfast van, and water points and a hand basin. So, Friday was the drive to Glastonbury, parking and (much against my better judgement) decorating the van. I walked up the Tor for a pleasant view of Hinkley Point nuclear power stations and the world’s largest crane called “Big Karl”. This year I also managed to see the Pyramid Stage. On previous occasions I had not looked in the correct direction.

Saturday, the day of the Extravaganza, we walked into Glastonbury along the main road, and then up Wells Road to the East of the Abbey grounds. Along Abbey Road there are quite a few stone plaques describing the history of strategic locations. We walked along the High Street visiting some of the shops, having a coffee and ordering an Italian picnic box for supper. We made our traditional visit to the “The Who’d A Thought It” pub for lunch. There is a lovely mural painted on the wall of the house opposite. So much detail goes into the picture. You also have the odd procession walking down the street to complete the Glastonbury scene.

We queued early for entrance to the Extravaganza, so we could get a reasonable position, once our place had been located in the queue, I went back to the Italian Deli and picked up our supper box.

Once inside we seated ourselves a little distance back from the stage, located along the path which goes from one side to the other. Spectators around us were setting up huge meals and breaking open the bubbly. We consumed a few pints of beer and Pims from the bar.

The music started with the Black Dyke Band, followed by Seasick Steve and then Paloma Faith. She did turn up to sing this year. Paloma had been booked to play in 2018. She had turned up but did not perform because of laryngitis when Michael Eavis flew in Tom Odell. an excellent replacement. He had been called up during a family BBQ supper and flown by helicopter to Glastonbury. R not keen on Ms Faith, preferring Tom Odell & Rodney Branigan.

The usual firework display finished the evening’s entertainment, and then we were whisked off by coach back to to the campsite.

Next day, I was up at 4am to walk up Glastonbury Tor to catch the sunrise and hopefully to meet Michelle Cowbourne a photographer, who walks up there most days to photograph the sunrise. I did not find her, she had been there, but from lower down the Tor. There were many people there waiting for sunrise. It was a lovely morning, mist in the fields with the golden orb of the sun shining.

I departed and made my way back down for breakfast.

We packed up quickly and headed over to see Sue and Ken for lunch. Being a tad early we made a short visit to a National Trust house called Lytes Cary Manor. It is a house you can hire as a holiday let but it does allow visitors around the gardens and chapel. It was a short visit, so we were soon on our way for lunch at the Old Inn.

Gallery Pictures

Glastonbury 2022 Sunday

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26th June 2022

Glastonbury festival goes so fast. This was already the last day. I had heard that George Ezra was doing a ‘secret set’ on the John Peel Stage. He was the third band playing. I wanted to see him and get up close, so decided to head on over there and watch the previous two bands. I did not want a repeat of Thursday where I had tried to get to see Bastille at Williams Green and failed to even get into Williams Green.

Just Mustard, John Peel 11:15 12:00

I arrived at the John Peel Stage and managed to get to the crowd barrier at the front of the stage, slightly to the right. I should get an excellent view from here. I had to watch Just Mustard play, a band from Dundalk in Ireland.

Sports Team, John Peel 12:30 13:30

The next band was Sports Team, an alternative rock band based in London. They met while they were studying at the University of Cambridge, often playing at the Portland Arms. The lead vocalist Alex Rice managed some crowd surfing and climbing the tent support. A remarkably interesting act.

George Ezra, John Peel 14:00 15:00

Now it was George Ezra. I was slightly pissed off because about 60 George Ezra groupies were herded into the photographers’ pit, with the barrier being moved towards the centre of the stage. My view was now restricted! Damn. His set was fine, I have some reasonable photographs and video of him. There must have been huge crowds outside the tent, because after the show it took me a very long time to get out of the John Peel area.

Six-minute video of the George Ezra show. This features four songs, Budapest, Listen to the Man, Shotgun and Pretty Shining People.

Search for Mary and Ed

Having escaped the mayhem of the John Peel Stage, I decided to meet up with Ed and Mary. Eventually I met them at Williams Green where we had a few drinks. Still tasteless beer, Covid has a lot to answer for. We headed to the Pyramid Stage to see the last few minutes of Elbow playing. It is remarkably easy to get reasonably close by walking down the matting track in the centre, down to the mixing booths. Must remember that for next year.

Elbow, Pyramid Stage 17:45-18:45

The Bootleg Beatles, Acoustic Stage 18:30-19:30

We all headed up to the Acoustic Stage to see the Boot Leg Beatles. After which Ed and Mary had to go to work, so I left for the West Holts stage.

Angélique Kidjo, West Holts 20:00-21:00

Angélique Kidjo is singer-songwriter, actress, and activist. Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz, gospel and Latin styles. This was an excellent performance, and she came into the pit, so was awfully close to me at one stage.

The rest of the evening descended into a blur, with much time spent in the theatre area, watching the walkabout theatre groups.

That was the end of Glastonbury 2022, and on Monday I headed back home with very little delay getting out of the site.

Glastonbury 2022 Saturday

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Another day started. No queues for showers, and yet again an excellent breakfast at The Love Fields. Yes, I ate a full English, but also breakfasted on a couple of large excellent pastries. I was spoilt. I headed down to West Holts, where I spent the early part of the day.

Kikagaku Moyo – West Holts 11:30 12.30

First up was a Japanese band who played easy listening music. A few members of their entourage came out into the pit to watch. Later on, some of the band members came out to watch other bands.

Brass Against – West Holts 13.00 14.00

Brass Against is a collective group of musicians who share the goal of creating music to inspire social and personal change. The band curates songs from a variety of influences from Tool, Rage Against the Machine, Soundgarden, Black Sabbath, Run the Jewels as well as their own compositions in a heavy brass filled symphony.

This Is a Work Event

After Brass Against finished playing, I had a message from Rosemary about a flag seen flying, ‘This is a Work Event’. It just so happened to be in the West Holts crowd. Rushed on over to the flag, and cajoled is owners to photograph me holding it. Interestingly it disappeared in 15 minutes, and I never saw it again.

This is a work event
This is a work event

Black Midi West Holts 14:30 15:30

After the picture opportunity I went back to watch Black Midi, an English rock band from London, formed in 2017 by Geordie Greep, Cameron Picton, Matt Kwasniewski-Kelvin and Morgan Simpson.

Glass Animals Other Stage 17:15 18:15

Finished at West Holts and walked over to watch Glass Animals on the Other Stage. I was far, far away and did not have an unobstructed view. Watched them for a few minutes before attempting to meet up with Ed and Mary who had gone their separate ways. Tracked them down to the Williams Green and had a pint of beer with them before we headed over to the Pyramid Stage.

Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Pyramid Stage 19:15 21:00

We met up with Jon watching Noel Gallagher. It is quite easy to get down in front of the mixing consoles, there is a path in the centre of the arena from the back to the mixing decks.

Ralph McTell Acoustic stage 20:00 21:00

After Noel, we headed to the Acoustic Tent. We had quite an advantageous position to see Ralph McTell. Managed to grab a video of him singing his famous Streets of London

Glastonbury 2022 - Ralph McTell

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Glastonbury 2022 - Ralph McTell

The Waterboys Acoustic Stage 21:30 – 23:00

The final band on the Acoustic Stage was The Waterboys. The Waterboys are a folk-rock band formed in Edinburgh in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott. The band’s membership, past and present, has been composed of musicians from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England.

Theatre and Circus

I spent much of the late evening walking around the circus and theatre area, watching many walkabout acts, before finally watching a show at the Circus Tent, Briefs Bite Club, I had great expectations for the show, but it did turn out to be rather tedious.

Glastonbury 2022 Friday

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After a good breakfast, I walked down to the West Holts Stage. The West Holts tends to play Jazz, and World Music. It is one of the major stages of Glastonbury, and not overly crowded. You can easily get to the front, or just relax sitting on the grass. The stage is well provided with food and drink. The famous Brothers Bar and also the Goan Fish Curry stall are located on either side of the stage. The West Holts stage is also one of the few stages where they have artist signings.

Nubiyan Twist, West Holts 11.30 12.30

The first band today was Nubiyan Twist. They describe themselves as a UK Afro-Jazz 9-piece band lead by Tom Excell, fusing groove driven music with sound system culture and improvisation.

Nova Twins, Greenpeace 12:30 13:15

Having enjoyed watching the Nova Twins the previous day, I tried to go and watch them again at the Greenpeace Stage. A very short walk from West Holts. I was able to get up close to the barrier and grab some close-up pictures. This was a totally different experience to last night, a far tamer crowd more worried about climate change than moshing.

John Peel Stage

I walked over to the John Peel Stage, quite a trek and watched a couple of bands playing, Girl in Red, followed by Sigrid.

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss 18:15 19.15

Walking from the John Peel stage, along the track high up on the pyramid stage field, I spotted Robert Plant and Alison Krauss finishing their set. The crowd was thin, so I walked down to the edge to take some photographs.

Bonobo, West Holts 20.20 21.30

Back at West Holts there was an excellent set by Bonobo. Their music is soothing, combining club music with world music delving into jazz.

Little Simz West Holts 22.15- 23.45

The final band, the headline act on West Holts was Little Simz, a black woman rapper. I’m not particularly into rap, but she was good and got the crowd moving. As you can see, I was on the rail at the front, much to the annoyance of the younger generation around me. What was amusing, I received a DM tweet from Mark, someone I worked with years ago. During the performance, this tweet appeared, telling me I had been spotted on the Little Simz set. His daughter and wife had been watching the live set on BBC THREE. Yes, that is me with the hat, next to the rabbit.

Little SIMZ Glastonbury 2022, Friday West Holts stage.
Me on the Little Simz set.

Glastonbury 2022 Thursday

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On Thursday, the main stages have not opened, but some of the smaller stages get going during the afternoon. There are hordes of people crowded around the bars, and it can be quite a fight to get a drink. So, I did not bother. This year I drank extraordinarily little and carried around a few cans in my backpack to keep hydrated. Beer had temporarily lost its lustre for me, I could not taste the difference between cider, ale and lager, they all tasted the same, sweet water. COVID had caused me to lose my sense of taste. It was the same with the food, the delicious offerings tempted me very little. I tried, but nothing tasted as it should.

After a full British breakfast and some exploring, I headed to the Rabbit Hole. It is in The Park, which is terribly busy on a Thursday with Stonebridge bar doing roaring trade. I waited until the Rabbit Hole opened and watched three bands. The Rabbit Hole is a small tent with a small bar, DJ set and stage. Many famous musicians come here late at night. (I have yet to see one!) The Rabbitt Hole used to be further up the hill and required a little effort to reach it. The last two Glastonburys have seen it move down into the main area of the Park.

Thursday was a very sunny day, and I had forgotten to put suncream on my face and arms, so finding venues undercover was a promising idea.

Eva Scott Rabbit Hole 13:00 – 13:30

Sofy (Glastonbury Emerging Talent Finalist) Rabbit Hole 14:00-14:30

I had come to see Sofy, a band from the Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition. They were well worth the wait.

Lewis Mclaughlin, Rabbit Hole 15:00-15.30

Beans on Toast, Truth Stage 18:20-19.00

After grabbing some lunch in The Park, I headed over to the Truth Stage in Shangri-La to see Beans on Toast. Beans on Toast is a singer songwriter who produces an album every year and is rumoured to have played Glastonbury more than anyone else. He will be playing at the Cambridge Folk Festival this year. His songs are political and easily sing-along-able.

Williams Green TBA 19:45-20:25

The Glastonbury programme always has several TBAs. The TBAs are the unannounced bands who will be playing. The secret for Glastonbury organisers is to spread the word to a few people to get someone along to watch the band. Sometimes this goes wrong, and the word is spread everywhere, and thousands of people descend on the stage. The secret sets are from quite high-profile bands. I had subscribed to a twitter account which announced the rumours, so I knew Bastille would be playing at Williams Green. I tried to get to Williams Green. The whole area was cordoned off, the crowds were dense. I got through the cordon, but nowhere near the stage. I gave it up as a bad cause and eventually headed back to the Truth Stage. If you want to see a TBA, get there at least while the previous band is playing, or better still the band before. I remember watching the band Pulp years back because I had heard a rumour. I had a good place to watch the band, but the Park Stage was also cordoned off long before the band started to play. So many people had descended on the stage.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs, Truth Stage 20:30-21:15

I arrived to see the punk band Pigs Pigs …Pigs. and watched from the back.

Nova Twins (EARCHE) Truth Stage 21.45-22.30

After the 7 pigs, the crowd thinned, and I was able to get nearer the stage for the Nova Twins. They put on one fantastic show. I would go and watch them again at the Greenpeace Stage the next day. The crowd was wild, I did edge back a little to remain out of the mosh pit.

Glastonbury 2022 Walkabout

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I will be blogging each festival day with videos and pictures of the bands I saw. I have put together a short video and pictures of the different areas of the Glastonbury Festival site at various times and days. It is not complete. There are areas I did not visit, or somewhere I forgot to take photographs. For instance, I have yet to visit the pier at Glastonbury-on-Sea. I did walk past, but I have an anathema of queuing.

The video is of the Theatre area, where there are so many interesting walkabout acts to watch. The Theatre area is the first area you enter coming in from Pedestrian Gate C. I can imagine some people camping in other areas of the site will never get to this area.

The areas of the Unfairground, Block 9 and Shangri-La get going in the late evening and continue until the very early hours with the last music ending at 6.00am.

My three ex-work colleagues (John, Mary and Ed) from Walker / Elevon were working as stewards in the Silver Hayes are. This is a dance area and also goes on until 3 am and later.

The Peace Garden is located above Greenfields, near to the Stone Circle. In the sun it was a peaceful area to relax and catch up with some sleep.

I ventured onto the hill above the Park Stage, this is where the GLASTONBURY version of the HOLLYWOOD sign is located. At night there is a fabulous view of the whole site, with the Ribbon Tower in the foreground, and Arcadia in the background. I failed to get to Arcadia, the crowds were too much to get through, when there was any music playing. You need to get there before the main stages end. I made it just as the last DJ finished at 3am.

The old battered painted cars are at a ‘Drive In’ Cinema called Cineramageddon. To watch films, the cars need to be booked in advance .

Glastonbury Theatre Field

Glastonbury and Ludgershall Bike Night

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That was it. Glastonbury was over. We showered, packed up and The Love Fields at 7 am in the morning. Stopped off for a Costa and arrived home.

Ravi and Simon stayed over, so we entertained them to some local village life. The Ludgershall Bike Night. Thousand of bikes parked up in the village from 6 to 9. Stalls selling beer, fish and chips, burgers were doing a roaring trade. We opted for the pig roast which was run by a local Kingswood man. Was accosted by the Air Ambulance, who saw we had been to Glastonbury and then talked at great length about the event.

There was a fabulous American truck unit on display. Rosemary saw it pass our house that evening. The event earns money for the Air Ambulance and other charities.

Glastonbury 2019 Sunday

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Our last day at Glastonbury, up early to the loo and the showers were still closed. Looked out again shortly before 9 and they were in the process of being opened. Quickly told Simon and Ravi and then I dashed off to the showers before there were any queues. The word spread around the yurts like wildfire.

Today I was heading over to see Jeff Goldblum at West Holts and Vampire Weekend and The Cure at the Pyramid Stage.

Ambled over to the West Holts and stopped in the Circus Field to watch a musical performance. Interested in the patter that got me into the little stage area, anyone walking by who peered in was fair game for the compere, and if you walked on by, you were grossly insulted.

After this brief entertainment, I stopped at the model of Glastonbury, many clay figures on the ground with caricature models of the stages and festival areas. See some of the pictures below. This was at Glastonbury before but looked more expanded this year.

At the West Holts stage, I was in time to see Hollie Cook, a dramatic reggae singer who was a former member of The Slits. It was fun, pop, reggae with a nice dancing beat.

With a Brothers cider beside me, I waited for Ravi and Simon to arrive for Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer band. Jeff was on stage chatting with the audience during the soundcheck, he also had a humorous repartee with the BBC woman who came on stage and asked him when he was starting. His response was he had already started, at which point the microphones were cut off until the official start time. Jeff also did a signing, and despite the long queue, I bought a vinyl album which he signed for me, and I shook his hand.

While I was queuing, This is the Kit played, earthy indie-folk music, and then the Fatoumata Diawars. At this point, I raced back to Love Fields and dumped my Vinyl and headed over to the Hospitality Area. Simon and Ravi had seen Kylie Minogue and I assumed they would be watching Miley Cyrus. I grabbed a drink and a burger, and then found Simon and Ravi in the Hospitality area also eating. They had given Miley a miss.

I headed off to see Vampire Weekend, quite close to the front and then moved further forward for The Cure. While waiting for the Cure, I spotted Mark S (Walkerite) and his daughter across the other side of the barrier. The atmosphere waiting for The Cure was intense. They came on and played for two hours. Just music, no fireworks, no flares, no paper, just music and lights. For the final song ‘Boys don’t Cry’, I was grabbed by a girl who wanted a quick final dance with me. It was such a beautiful and intense moment. All the old classics played. My recording of The Cure on my phone is absolute crap. Good pictures, bad sound. I have now bought an external microphone for the phone, I will be testing it at Latitude.

I waited for the crowd to disperse and said hello to Mark and his daughter while they did the mandatory selfies.

Glastonbury 2019 Saturday

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Disaster, the showers were all closed this morning and would remain closed for the rest of the day. The Love Fields and other glamping sites had been requested to close their showers. The water supply in the festival site was in a dire situation, and with a very hot Saturday forecast they did not want the water to run out. My only comment is, who drinks water at festivals when there are Brothers cider and real ales in abundance?

We started the day at the Pyramid Stage to watch The Proclaimers. (Watch and hear Ravi singing along in the video.)

The rest of the day appears to be a haze, spent mainly at the West Holts Stage watching The Ezra Collective, Slowthai and Lizzo. I think it must have been the Brothers cider and the hot weather.

In the evening there was an abrupt change in temperature, the wind changed and the temperatures plummeted, the showers were still closed.

The evening was spent at a bar next to the Acoustic Tent where I had a JD, (no queues) and then some Real Ale. Simon bought some comfort food, Cheese Mac. So simple and so delicious. Suitably fortified we were then ready for Hawkwind. Simple, no graphics just smoke and flashing lights accompanied by their layered acoustics. Not a big crowd, but then The Killers were headlining the Pyramid Stage. You can see the age profile of those attending Hawkwind by looking at the bar photographs. A nice crowd though.

We three then went for a walk around the South-East corner before the crowds arrived, visiting Block 9 East (IICON), The Common (The Temple and Rum Shack), across to Shangrila to read the slogans on The Lanes and listen in at the Truth Stage. Leaving through the Unfairground, we went across into Block 9 West to see the Meat Rack. Was unable to persuade Ravi and Simon to enter the Meat Rack.

We parted ways, so I left R and S to walk through Avalon home, while I headed off down the railway line (busy) and diverted through Green Fields, to miss the crowds, and up to Strummerville where I sat near the fire and listened to the DJ. Headed down to The Park and hopefully Pangea. It was absolutely heaving in that area. I gave up trying to get anywhere near the dance area and only viewed Pangea from the distance. I had wondered what the huge sphere built around the base of the crane was. It was a screen, and what I saw was a huge iris and pupil rotating around looking like an eyeball. Watch at the end of the video. Fabulous, they will be next year, as I believe the crane will be there for four years.

I decided to head back to Love Fields. Showers still down.