Wandering Glastonbury Festival, UK

Worthy Farm, Glastonbury, in sleepy Somerset. A dairy farm with 1000 cows, transformed into the land of the biggest and best-performing arts festival on planet earth.

In June 2019 200,000 plus Glasto-goers descend in search of a cowpat free patch of grass to pitch their tent, ready for the time of their lives.

If you could bottle that energy, that excitement and that sheer belief in the goodness of humanity, then the whole world would be a better place.

I’m here as a steward working four six-hour shifts during the 5 days of the festival. You can read more about it here in Diary of a Glasto Virgin. The festival runs with over 5000 volunteers. In lieu of pay, we receive a much sought after entry ticket and Glastonbury donates money to a wide range of charities, including mine The Growing Space, in Wincanton

So what makes this festival so special?

1. The sheer scale of things.

As newbie stewards, we’ve been allocated a campsite outside the main perimeter fence. Seeing this fence gives our first insight into just how big this event is. It’s a super fence 4 meters high and is 8 km long. We see it way off in the hilly distance and it’s quite a hike to get to work!

We walk nearly 75 km’s during the festival just getting around. There are nearly 100 stages. You will never see it all, but you will get fit attempting to!

Glastonbury is as big as the cities of Bristol or York and requires an extensive infrastructure in terms of security, transport, water, and electricity supply.

EE the festival’s technology partner sets up 5 temporary masts. In fact, they say the surrounding village of Pilton has one of the best WIFI networks in the country! EE expects an unprecedented amount of downloads at this festival, equivalent to 784 million Instagram posts – eek that’s BIG!

The medical team and on-site medical centres with two pharmacies are impressive and include emergency and x-ray facilities. They are seeing an ever ageing crowd, next year is after all the fiftieth anniversary of Glastonbury. You are probably better off at Glastonbury if you need medical assistance than many places in the country.

In fact, you are better off at Glastonbury for lots of things! Food, friendships, fun…

2. The variety of acts

Whilst many people may think of Glasto as the Pyramid Stage, with headline performers, such as The Killers, the Cure, Stormzy, or the Legends like Kylie Minogue, you may be surprised to know that you can come across opera singers under Bella’s Bridge or a Shakespeare performance in the Woods.

Not to mention, a certain young lady playing a recorder from her umm, nether regions, in the Mavericks tent past midnight.

Or in complete contrast what about the Langa Methodist Gospel Choir that Michael Eavis discovered in South Africa? Their first gig outside Africa is to perform on Sunday morning on the Pyramid Stage? I’ll give that a standing ovation.

Glastonbury has everything from a Kidz Zone to risqué. It’s as shocking as it is zen and calming, it is hippy new age meets middle England.

It is, in fact, many festivals within a festival. Anyone of the different zones would make a brilliant festival in their own right.

You quickly get to work out where’s your tribe. I liked the Avalon area. Michael Eavis & friends kick off with a great set on Thursday evening, he sings I will always love you, with his daughter Emily Eavis to a hero’s welcome from an appreciative crowd. You suspect those lyrics are chosen to be is aimed as much at the audience, who have made Eavis a household name.

And sad but true, Bananarama’s Venus will go down as one of my all-time favourite 2019 highlights with the epic Avalon crowd spilling out of the tent, filling the entire field.

‘She’s got it
Yeah, baby, she’s got it
Well, I’m your Venus
I’m your fire….’

Ok well moving on…

You could actually spend the whole event not listening to any music. Such is the choice, there is dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret, and many other arts. Or in the Green Fields how about some healing, or yoga, or fancy joining me at the Sacred Stone circle or escaping the heat in the tranquil and theatrical area The Wood?

3. The Glasto vibe

They say that Glasto is like no place on earth and they’re right. It feels like everyone is respectful of each other’s part or place in making Glastonbury so diverse.

Glastonbury Festival themselves say:

“It’s like going to another country; a thrilling and vibrant cultural melting pot and inspirational Brigadoon that appears every year or so. Coming to Glastonbury involves a fair amount of travel, (Ha were they talking about me from Bangkok?) and probably a queue to get in but, when you get past these impediments, you enter a huge tented city, a mini-state under canvas. British law still applies, but the rules of society are a bit different, a little bit freer. Everyone is here to have a wild time in their own way.”

Back to sing loudly please:

‘a Goddess on a mountain top, I’m your fire, Venus was her name!’

4. Love the Farm. leave no trace

The ethos of Glastonbury which starts with the aim to be as environmentally conscious as possible, and probably ends with a vegan lunch, is infectious.

Sir David Attenborough was a surprise guest on the Pyramid stage. He thanked the festival for going plastics free, saying there was now a million less plastic water bottles going into landfill.

The Speaker’s Forum was full of interesting and visionary environmentalists and leading lights of Green Celebs.  Extinction Rebellion in collaboration with Greenpeace held a march for climate change attended by 2,000 people.

It is inspirational and there are probably 200,000 people in the world since Glasto who will think more deeply about such issues now.

Pass the eco glitter, please!

I could go on and on… All the details on upcoming festivals are found on the Glastonbury website and will take place at Worthy Farm, Pilton, Somerset next June (TBC) with tickets expected to go on sale in early October. Rumours include: Fleetwood Mac, Madonna, Paul McCartney, Elton John

Who wants to join me?