Friday 27 June 2014

Glastonbury. What does it signify to you?



I'd like to try something. I'd like you to put into the comments just what the Glastonbury festival  means to you. What image does it conjure up? What message, if any, does it convey? What are the positives and negatives of the great music festival? 
Do you have tickets? Do you stay up into the night watching the bands. or is the whole thing a massive irrelevance to you.
Put into a few words or phrases..

Some starters.

Young
Diverse
Noisy
Middle Class
Self Induldgent
Environmentalism
Drug ridden
Free Spirited
Huge 
Fun

Over to you.


29 comments:

Sebastian Weetabix said...

My father was very prescient. He said in 1977 that young people's music is rubbish. Finally he is correct.

Nick Drew said...

Mud

Achingly trendy

(aching in other ways too)

extra points for making someone in a kaftan jump in a ditch

Weather watch said...

Expensive
Corporate
Massively over hyped
Wet

Janet S. said...

Fun
Expensive, but not for what you get.
Diverse music.
Families catered for.
Varied.

andrew said...

The beginning of summer

APL said...

Mud

Electro-Kevin said...

Open ditch for a loo.

40/50 somethings looking shit after a night in a tent.

I saw MUSE at Reading a couple of years back. Booked into the local Travel Lodge. The only way to do it.

PS - The atmosphere at such events is fabulous. Hardly any trouble or police needed. Quite the contrast to the Notting Hill Carnival.

CityUnslicker said...

distant
passé
vibrant
eco loons

Anonymous said...

"He turns revolt into a style" - someone (Nik Cohn?) on Elvis Presley

"Turning rebellion into money" - the Clash

Modern Glastonbury is just the 70s gone mainstream. About as alternative as McDonalds. I think the big change was some time between 83 and 88, when one could no longer take a vehicle on site and sleep in it, or run a freelance curry house or cider shop from it.

Now you can "glamp" in a VIP area, if you have the cash.

Malcolm Tucker said...

Open space,indulgent, self congratulatory, muddy, druggy heaven.

dearieme said...

F all.

Anonymous said...

Not interested. Didn't even know it was on.

Anonymous said...

Immensely enjoyable but at a price.

The enjoyment is proportionate to the amount spent.

But then I've done Glyndebourne too.

Raedwald said...

Passé. It was OK up until about '98.

Reading? Last time we did Reading we hired a 5-berth cruiser (festival site is right next to the river) and buggered off during the day from breakfast to mid afternoon, mooring up again at the site for the main gigs. Only prob was the popularity of the towpath for couples looking for a place for a quiet shag ...

Now Genesis at Knebworth in '76 - THAT was a gig ....

Anonymous said...

Used to be great, but now like all festivals has been marketed to death as an essential life experience and is therefore overrun with pretentious ok-yah types all trying desperately to be different by camping in a Kath Kidston tent.

K said...

I did most of my festival going in my teens. They all have a preponderance of self indulgent types there for the "experience".

General rules back then was that new festivals (at the time that was Ozzfest/Download, V Festival, etc) have a good atmosphere but once a festival became established it attracted the worst people.

I never did Glastonbury but going by those rules I can only imagine how bad it is.


No need for police? Probably about 50% of festivals I went to had at least one minor riot at some point. They're not reported because they're so common.


I've heard interesting things about the American "festivals". They tend to be more commercial, shorter, family orientated, most people don't camp, etc. Not a true festival by UK standards but apparently they're pretty good if you're too old for the rain and mud and are done with "proper" festivals. I wouldn't mind trying one.

Anonymous said...

(Glastonbury) is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

Not often Karl Marx nails it in the contemporary world.

CT said...

Muddy
Its OK but used to be better, back in the day.
Bit boring now.

Electro-Kevin said...

K - I said there were no police. Not that they weren't needed - that there really WEREN'T any (a van parked outside and that was it.)

No rioting either. Not even a hint of it in the air. Same with beer festivals actually. Copious amounts of booze but no police and no hint of trouble.

So where does football and the NH Carnival get it wrong ?

Anonymous said...

Not been for 15 years, but it was enjoyable.

Watched some good comedy, danced to REM at the tail end of the brightest part of their career and got godawfully muddy.

Got a whiff of what it was to become with a couple of piggy eyed skinheads looking rather confused at Bjorn Again rather than simply enjoying the sun and silliness.

The main issue with the British festivals is, well, the British Yoof. Been to a few festivals on the continent, and the dickhead quotient tends to be much smaller whilst the organisers could, well, organise. Something the British ones don't particularly excel at.

MyFestivalName said...

Can never understand why people in their 30s/40s/50s want to go to a music festival. Grow the fuck up.

When I was a kid I'd have been mortified if there were 'old' people walking round. How rubbish would that be? Glastonbury = the sad geriatricification of our culture.

As an aside, I know one 40-ish year old went to a festival and found himself dancing with a group of nubile young females. Bumping and grinding was marvellous until one of the pretty young things shouted 'I wish my dad was as cool as you'....

PS - can you do SOMETHING about those text confirmation things please - they're nearly impossible to read.

Bill Quango MP said...

Nope sorry. Text confirmation is google.
Mrs Q's sister us at Glastonbury. She's 35 .. Just about sneaks in?

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Rob Van said...

It was OK up until about '98.

Reading? Last time we did Reading we hired a 5-berth cruiser (festival site is right next to the river) and buggered off during the day from breakfast to mid afternoon, mooring up again at the site for the main gigs. Only prob was the popularity of the towpath for couples looking for a look out here place for a quiet shag .

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