Glastonbury Festival @ Pilton England 24th - 28th June 2009
Written by admin on June 29th, 2009
Set in the stunning Somerset Countryside Glastonbury is one of the worlds longest running festivals and it shows. Everything is planned to perfection, from the free bus from the train station at Castle Cary (only two hours from central London) to the free souvenir fabric bag you receive on entry, there’s something distinctly different about this place. Rain on Thursday meant the famous mud was there on arrival but thankfully the rain had eased for Friday. Bang on queue after finding a spot to pitch the tent the rain was back and so rather appropriately to the chorus of Fucked Up belting out from the nearby John Peel Stage the tent went up rather slowly and painfully! At Glastonbury the camping is actually part of the arena, if your lazy enough you could sleep in all day, open the door and watch the bands play! If you want sleep though you’ve come to the wrong place. With approximately 140,000 people on site each day and music and parties running all night, Glastonbury is more than a festival, it’s a mini city.
Officially the festival kicks off on Friday afternoon but there is plenty going on for those who arrived early on the Thursday. Maximo Park were the highlight of the first night, bassist Archis Tiku said
“we played to what felt like 20000 people bursting out the sides of the tiny Queens Head Stage last night, it was pretty wild!”.
Archis also said he was well excited to see Bruce Springsteen and the Horrors and revealed the band were staying in a B&B in Wells where the Simon Pegg movie Hot Fuzz was filmed!
With a lineup boasting heavy-hitters Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Blur you might expect lesser acts to pepper the lower echelons of the bill. Not so, all across the bill are exciting artists from hotly tipped new bands like The Soft pack, Mumford and Sons, The Temper Trap, Marina and the Diamonds, The Smoke Fairies, The Big Pink, Slow Club, Passion Pit and Broken Records to the biggest acts to emerge from 2008 Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and Glasvegas. You can see why at his traditional Sunday morning press conference Michael Eavis called this
“the best Glastonbury ever”.
There are also a host of surprises over the weekend including the special guest at The Park Stage turning out to be none other than Jack White’s new band the Dead Weather playing and none other than the Black Eyed Peas turning up to play the awesome Jazz World Stage (above)! The only problem with Glastonbury is that there were too many choices to make, Bon Iver or Bruce, catch a bit of Franz then Bruce, Soft Pack or Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Gaslight Anthem or Kasabian, Doves the Horrors or Neil Young…Bloc Party…overload!
Wanting us to feel at home the organisers had brought in a team of Scottish security stewards (with their own private supply of Irn Bru!) to cover most of the site. Us Scots weren’t just in charge of who got backstage, oh no, there was also a heavy Scottish presence on the stages, Franz Ferdinand headlining The Other Stage on Saturday, Glasvegas late on Sunday afternoon crowning an incredible year and Paisley’s finest Paulo Nutini stepping up a gear at The Other Stage. Edinburgh’s superb idie folksters Broken Records were our favourite catch of Saturday afternoon, from the stage singer Jamie Sutherland said
‘we had three ambitions when we started a band, to get signed, to play Glastonbury and to do a John Peel session’.
Throw in Slam, Calvin Harris and The View and the Scottish takeover is complete. Speaking of Franz, I ran into Alex early on Saturday morning. Not content with sitting in their tour bus, Alex told me he’d been out exploring the site with his brother and was looking forward to catching La Roux and The Horrors,
‘you can walk round Glastonbury and not see any bands and you will still have a great time, that’s what makes it different to any other festival‘.
A hidden gem of the festival, The Gaurdian Tent, boasted a lineup that could rival any lesser festival. A tiny tent between the Pyramid and John Peel stages they showcased a number of acoustic performances and full band shows. In an extremely intimate setting you could catch the Maccabees, White Lies, Little Boots, Peter Bjorn and John, The Invisible, The Big Pink, Golden Silvers, Emmy the Great, the truly wonderful Blue Roses, Slow Club and pop favourites Will Young and Tony Christie. This all while reading your copy of the Guardian, drinking tea and scoffing down lovely homemade baking, you could do a lot worse than sit in here all weekend!
The scale of Glastonbury is enormous, Blur man Damon Albarn who we seen bopping around on the Saturday commented on the positive atmosphere at the festival. What surprised me was that over 3 days we seen no fights and the best part…even the nuisance of the flying pint was absent. While some festivals claim to be green Glastonbury does more than most with coloured recycling bins everywhere and sponsorship by Greenpeace and Wateraid helping raise awareness the outstanding work they do. With a Kids Field for families full of helter skelters and climbing walls this is a festival that cares about the punters and the environment.
That’s where Glastonbury is different to other festivals, one gets the impression they try and make sure people from all walks of life feel welcome. It can’t be easy catering for a variety of tastes all in a pleasant chilled atmosphere, but the organisers pull it off…and then some!
Neil Young was fantastic his energy and sprightliness would be impressive in a man half his age, he played a monster set with classics ‘Heart of Gold’, ‘Cinnamon Girl’ a rousing version of ‘Down By The River’ and an extended ‘Rocking in The Free World’ before finishing with The Beatles cover ‘A Day In The Life’, rocking out the Friday night crowd nicely.
Highlights on Saturday night at The Pyramid Stage were Kasabian and of course Bruce Springsteen who also made an appearance earlier in the day with his New Jersey neighbours the Gaslight Anthem over on the John Peel Stage.
Bruce’s set, to a ridiculously packed crowd lasted a glorious two and a half hours. Playing new tracks mixed with timeless gems ‘Badlands’, ‘Lonesome Day‘, ‘The Rising’, ‘The River‘, ‘Thunder Road’ and closer ‘Dancing in The Dark’, the full set list is here. His joyous euphoric set seen The Boss sing across the barrier amongst the crowd and he was clearly having as much fun as the audience. You have to wonder though if anyone at Glastonbury will ever top this two and a half hour curfew breaking epic performance.
A Boss and Glastonbury virgin, I got so carried away with it all I suffered a bad panic attack and I had to sit in a tent for the last 20 minutes of the set! With almost as many Medical Staff on site as BBC employees treating over 4000 people including a lady who gave birth there are worse places to feel unwell. In a medical van to the side of the Pyramid Stage I was nursed better with blankets, a cup of tea and a digestive biscuit (thanks Andy)! Alas though, Bruce was over.
Sundays musical delights were Bon Iver at The Other Stage and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs who played a rousing set with ‘Maps‘, ‘Heads Will Roll’, ‘Zero’, ‘Gold Lion’ and closing with the outrageously sexy ‘Date With The Night’. After playing The Park Stage on the Saturday Bon Iver might have been phased by the huge crowd at The Other Stage but to the contrary more than justified their slot and on the strength of the performance don’t bet against them appearing even higher on the bill in future years, not bad for a man who formed a band after sitting alone in the woods for months!
Glastonbury is not like any normal festival where they kick the crowd back to the campsite after the last band. Oh no at Glastonbury the party is just getting started. Guided by the lovely ladies from the Smoke Fairies we wandered up the hill into the darkness that is The Greenpiece field. All seemed quiet but then into a tunnel and we emerge Lion With and Wardrobe style from the forest into a mecca of witches and wizards and kindred spirits. We had reached the start of the walk up to The Stone Circle. Build in 1989 you’d think it was as old as Stone Henge. Adding to the vibe were floating lanterns looking like UFO’s desperate to get in on the action. There was magic in the air or at least some very pleasing fragrances of incense and a herbal nature drifting towards us and fires….fires, wait aren’t they banned at festivals!? Usually yes but not at Glastonbury, they even sell firewood near the Pyramid Stage!
Can you imagine the carnage at T in The Park if they actively encouraged fire-raising! There are also numerous purpose build nightclubs in Shangri La scene of Keith Allens band partying on down till 7am, I’m sure well after his daughter Lilly had no doubt passed out. That’s if she kept drinking like she was when we seen her after her Pyramid set! There was also an area called Trash City which was exactly that, a city made out of trash including an aircraft fuselage and an actual New York Taxi poking out a building with smoke still coming form it! It feels like a scene from Terminator with the rest of the world burned to the ground and nothing left to do but party till dawn in nightclub emerging from the planes fuselage, as far as festivals go, it really doesn’t get any better than this.
Michael Eavis got rumours about next year started already when he announced,
“We’ve got some headliners who haven’t played for a few years and some who have never played here, I’m not saying names, it will be the same old guessing game.” Could he be talking about Bowie!?
Better go here and get registering for Glasto 2010!
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A great account of the action! A PANIC ATTACK?? You crazy man Mr R! Hope you’re feeling much better!