Glastonbury 2019

To those who panned it for being a shit line up - there were over 1,000 acts playing over the weekend, everything from singer song writers with an acoustic guitar to classic rock bands, hard heavy metal bands, reggae, rap music, grime music, jazz, djs covering every type of electronic music and a whole bunch more - if there is nothing for you there, you just don't like music.

To those suggesting they are pandering to diversity - modern Britain is diverse, they are not pandering to anything, if you don't like black or brown people, and you only like music by white men with guitars, stick to listening to the juke box at the working mens club. The world is moving on and if it moves on without you and your bigoted opinions all the better. Glastonbury is and always will be accepting of the beautiful rainbow of people on this planet.

To those who "can't believe that they sold 200,000 tickets or that "they would give their ticket back if that was the line up" - You don't get it, you've never been, otherwise you would understand that Glastonbury goes beyond the bands on the stage.

To those who "would never go" cos " its a load of shite". Good, more tickets for the 2 million people registered for the biggest single location festival in the world.

To those that think its a bunch of Posho's or "hooray henry's", you've never been, literally, you have never been otherwise you would realise how far wide of the mark you are. There are posh people, middle class people, people with not a lot of money and there are people who have no money but volunteer for work so that they can be there. There are old people, young people, families, couples, singles and groups of friends there are people of all colours too.

To those who moan at Stormzy for being Homophobic - he has since apologised for comments he made when he was a teenager / young man. I am certain that we all (including you) said something stupid when we were young - just that no-one bothered recording the stupid things you said and even if they had your not relevant enough for anyone to care anyway - lucky you.

To those who think that Stormzy didn't kill his set, either you weren't there or your not the target audience, talk to the people who went, talk to the younger generation, he smashed it, it might not be for you and that's ok, but maybe go and watch something you do like and bring something positive to the thread, rather than watch something that you have already decided is shit and then come on here and moan to others about it.

To those who think the BBC controls the line up, erm, i just, what the, you know your wrong, right...

To those who didn't like Lizzo, the big girl in the Leotard. I'd never heard of her before, My Mrs had. We stopped to get a bite to eat at the back of the West Holts stage just as she started. We had no real plans, so we sat down to watch her - within 10 minutes we were on our feet with the whole field dancing. She was absolutely marvellous. Had the entire crowd in the palm of her hand from start to finish. She sang like a soul queen, rapped like missy elliot, played the flute, danced, cracked jokes. Everyone who was in that field left with a massive smile on their face feeling better about themselves. Her recent set of UK gigs sold out in minutes last week. She will be on the pyramid stage either next year or the year after. Still not my bag in terms of music but that is the massive difference between listening to the radio or on your I pod compared to listening live. Remember: I love you, you are beautiful and you can do anything.

For those of you actually went, well, i don't need to say it, you know. Good luck on T-Day and hope to see you on the farm next year.
 
Southbanken - you are obviously one of the newer breed of Glastonbury attendees. My first year was 1985 and I purely went to see Echo & the Bunnymen and the Boomtown Rats. In those days the crowd was in the region of 30k and it felt a lot more homely. My last year of attending was 2014and in my view it had just lost what it was all about at this point. By it had definetly become a place to be seen and I am sure a lot of the crowd would attend and it was then onto Henly regatta. I also noticed as time went on that a lot more drugs were prevalent as well as people wandering around off their tits. For me I always saw it as more of an alternative music festival rather than an all encompassing festival. I am simply not a fan of Loozi or Stormzy although she is an amazing singer and he does do a lot of good, its just not for me. I would also say, having seen The Cure 3 times previously, this was their worst set at Glastonbury and dragged in some parts. Good to see The Killers finally nail it. I would also say that the cost of tickets is now too expensive- I pulled out my ticket from 1989 and it was £39. If the rumours are true that next year thy will be in excess of £300 are tru, in my opinion, is another sign of who their target audience now is. Personally, I will always watch it on TV but have simply fallen out of love with the "event" it has now become.
 
richardtheref said:
Southbanken - you are obviously one of the newer breed of Glastonbury attendees. My first year was 1985 and I purely went to see Echo & the Bunnymen and the Boomtown Rats. In those days the crowd was in the region of 30k and it felt a lot more homely. My last year of attending was 2014and in my view it had just lost what it was all about at this point. By it had definetly become a place to be seen and I am sure a lot of the crowd would attend and it was then onto Henly regatta. I also noticed as time went on that a lot more drugs were prevalent as well as people wandering around off their tits. For me I always saw it as more of an alternative music festival rather than an all encompassing festival. I am simply not a fan of Loozi or Stormzy although she is an amazing singer and he does do a lot of good, its just not for me. I would also say, having seen The Cure 3 times previously, this was their worst set at Glastonbury and dragged in some parts. Good to see The Killers finally nail it. I would also say that the cost of tickets is now too expensive- I pulled out my ticket from 1989 and it was £39. If the rumours are true that next year thy will be in excess of £300 are tru, in my opinion, is another sign of who their target audience now is. Personally, I will always watch it on TV but have simply fallen out of love with the "event" it has now become.
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Newer than you true, but having first attended as an 18 year old in 1999 with a couple of fence jumpers I’m not exactly a festival virgin either. I first went because, growing up near Reading, me and my friends had already done that festival a couple of times, we liked it and wanted to do it more than once a summer.

Clearly it is larger now than it was - that’s the nature of success and indeed almost all festivals are bigger than they were as festivals are more popular now than ever before. 40k was the number of tickets sold in 1985, not the attendance which is likely to have been higher. I don’t know when mass ticketless entry started but given the super fence went up in 2000 I would imagine there were already a few there without tickets. Is Glasto a place to be seen, of course for those that are into that, everywhere is a place to be seen these days, never seen someone taking a selfie at the Etihad, it’s a place to be seen, selfies at the swamp it’s a place to be seen, outside the old hacienda, it’s a place to be seen. People have taken selfies at Auschwitz for Christ’s sake. It’s not Glasto that has changed, it’s society.

There are more drugs now too than 1985, but again with the rise of dance culture in the nineties, “party” drug use has increased across the board, it’s not a Glastonbury thing. What clearly has changed is the increase in late night party areas, some like it some don’t, i like going for a dance till the sun comes up some nights but equally, I have enjoyed many nights around a fire in the camping area chatting with mates over a few beers. For me the fact that there is something for everyone at Glastonbury is one of its strengths.

I take your point on price it is expensive, and your 1989 ticket sounds like amazing value, although not that great value when compared to your 1985 ticket priced at a mere £17!!!! However, £300 doesn’t exactly make it unaccesible for a 5 day event, when I first went, most of my year at school were doing weeks in Magaluf or Newquay, me and my mates did Glasto instead. Compare it to the cheapest City season tickets £325 for 19 x 90 minute matches = £11.40 per hour, Glastonbury, £300 for 3 days x 18 hours per day = £5.50 per hour of entertainment. Plus with the volunteer culture at Glastonbury, if you cannot afford a ticket, you can still attend, I spoke to some Australian back packers who couldn’t afford a ticket but knew they wanted to do the festival so they signed up with Oxfam and had a blast. Does that mean it’s filled with people going to Henley festival, no that’s nonsense, are there some posh people there, yes, I am not sure why people have an issue with that, and if you do, just spend your weekend in the Greenfields, unfairground and the Leftfield tent - not so many poshos in those areas.

I am not preaching that everyone should like Stormzy or Lizzo, or indeed Glastonbury. It may not be for you and that’s ok. I am not a fan of the Cure, I didn’t see their set, I went to see the Streets instead, I am not sure if I will even watch it on IPlayer because I probably won’t enjoy it. I find it weird that people who aren’t even at the festival chose to seek out and watch it, knowing that they wouldn’t like it, then decide to come on here and moan about it. I WAS at the festival and I didn’t see it, even though I really wanted too, I was in Silver Hayes dancing to some DNB, literally no one is forced to watch it.

I am (not necessarily you here richardtheref) calling out the very thinly veiled racism of the pricks who talk about rap or grime being noise and brap brap guns and bling. Moaning every time a person of colour headlines the Pyramid, says that rap is “not Glastonbury” even though many of them have never been. Fuck you and your racism.

Your point about Glastonbury being for alternative is true and on the pyramid this has been lost to an extent and many more pop acts are now being included, but across the whole festival there is no better place in the country for seeing the variety of alternative artists. There just isn’t, there maybe great alternative festivals that focus on a specific genre, but for range, I’d love someone to show me something better cos I would be there in an instant.

Having over the years attended the IOW, Reading, Standon Calling, Victorious, Global Gathering and others I still feel that Glastonbury has more of a community vibe than any of its comparables. Whether that is the ownership, the areas each curated by different groups, the free toilet roll, free fire wood, the free sun tan lotion, the Hare Krishna tent, the green fields, the lack of corporate sponsors, the millions they give to charity, the embracing of politics from the CND to Extinction rebellion, the history, the people, the place, hell maybe even the Tor and the key lines, I don’t know what it is that makes it special, maybe all of these things. Is it perfect, no, is it the best there is, in my opinion, absolutely.

One final point is this quote that you might find pertinent “more drugs, including alcohol, have been consumed at festivals, where the welfare groups have reported a less caring atmosphere and less support for each other amongst festival goers. Many young festival goers have been less "together" and relied more on other people to organise facilities and services, rather than organising for themselves”. It’s from the festival welfare report ..... from 1983.

Peace out
 
First time I went to Glastonbury was 79 and five times after that, sometime in the the late 80's was my last time as I started to see it change into something that I didn't like.

Just my take on this - enjoy.
 
I have attended T in the Park, Reading/Leeds & Download as well as Glastonbury. By far the best atmosphere & crowd was at Download & I don't even like metal much. Worst, T in the Park - always got the impression that if the locals heard your accent you would get a good hiding & no one appeared sober from 10am. Maybe that's just the locals for you.
 
richardtheref said:
I have attended T in the Park, Reading/Leeds & Download as well as Glastonbury. By far the best atmosphere & crowd was at Download & I don't even like metal much. Worst, T in the Park - always got the impression that if the locals heard your accent you would get a good hiding & no one appeared sober from 10am. Maybe that's just the locals for you.
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Heard good things about Download and the atmosphere, mate of mine goes every year and loves it, he always talks about the good atmosphere there. Never realised how big it is, up at the 100k attendance mark as well i think. The music just doesn't get me going enough to look into it, plus its normally the week before Glasto so misses out on timing as well.
 
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