Glastonbury - 22nd–26th June 2022

AC/DC?

God I hope not. 


Glastonbury 50
Paul McCartney | Spice Girls | contemporary headliner*

*I thought of a really good prediction the other day and now I can’t remember who it was

This would really put a damper on our plans. Half the reason we decided to go for tickets was for Macca on the Pyramid stage. 😩 

He's not playing. Don't go for tickets

Ahh dang.. 

Well hopefully something changes between now and then  

I was planning on trying to get a ticket this year, but the little lady is preggers. While I think she will still be on matetnity leave when the festival is happening, I'm not going to ask about it because I don't want to get punched in the face.

I doubt Foals will be back since they were just there and not enough will happen throughout the year for them to justify a bump.

I thought Neil was in play?

Their set was also a surprise too! It was also full to the point they weren't letting people into the area anymore. 

Who would be more in line for a headline bump - Foals or 1975?

I know that Foals record is a 2-parter. Were they on the Pyramid this time around? They were already there in 2016. Seems like the natural progression would be to sub (if they didn’t this year). I think they’ll more likely hit the US circuit and missed 2019, Euro-opportunities.

Also I could be wrong but 1975 seem like a bigger deal over there.

I was at those two sets just forgot about running order. Didn’t realize this year’s set was a surprise so that changes things. I am still on the fence with them though. They could just as easily make a lateral move like Tame Impala did (Pyramid sub to Other closer).

Not sure where he’d be listed at this point but I expect Skepta. He was like somewhere 2-5 on the Pyramid last time iirc.

Where's the Neil confirmation coming from? That'd be awesome

Spent some time away from the forums but decided to return to offer my thoughts on Glasto 2019 (no, I wasn't there, this is all made up)...

Comparing to my past festival experiences (Roo 7x, Wayhome, Lolla, Bellwether, Night Lights, Coachella, and Bisco) Glastonbury truly belongs in its own category. During the run-up to the festival, numerous people told me not to over plan my days due to the sheer size of the festival site. I can honestly say, they were 1000% correct, the site is truly massive.

We flew from Toronto to Berlin (4 nights there) then Berlon to London (2 nights), then head to the festival, and finally finish with another 2 nights in London before flying back to Toronto. If you're close to Ontario, I highly recommend flying out of Toronto, as it saved us about $375 roundtrip compared to NYC or Buffalo. Also, if you plan on doing any type of travel pre-fest I would probably do something that involved less partying than Berlin, by the time the fest rolled around we had already went pretty hard in Berlin.

We got tickets through the Coach sale, which was actually a smooth process. The bus picked us up from the O2 parking lot and took about 4hrs to arrive at Glasto (we stopped for a 20min break). Once we arrived (Wed at 4pm) I was shocked to see there was absolutely no line to get in. Granted, I'm not sure if this was because we were coming in through the Coach gate but there was no line and no security check. We took only a backpack each to Europe and picked up a tent, 2 sleeping bags, 2 sleeping pads, 2 inflatable pillows, and small toiletries from a Decathlon in London for about $150 USD. We didn't have a ton to carry to our site but as we approached the gate the only security check we went through was a volunteer asking us if we had brought any glass.

Once we were in the festival, we met up with a couple friends who had saved us a spot in Dairy Ground, not far from Gate D. While this isn't an ideal spot, we wanted to camp by friends and we saw that almost all of the good spots were already at capacity. The walk from the coach gate to the campsite was roughly 15-20mins, about the distance from Pod 10 to the entrance of Centeroo. It was very different to find that most people never hang at their campsites, you see very few people just hanging out, it's mostly a spot to crash. There's veryyyy few ez-up's, I saw maybe 3?

From the moment we got there on Wed I could tell this would be a completely new experience compared to American fests. The fact that you don't have to go through a entrance gate/security to enter the stage area makes it much quicker and easier to get places. Being able to throw 8 beers in a backpack and be off for the day was great! Also, the amount of waste left behind was quite manageable, most people left very little trace, it was refreshing to see people not bring so much campsite junk that just ends up being tossed.

Over the course of the weekend we were able to see shows on only about 12=13 stages, it really is daunting trying to run around and catch stuff everywhere. Here's a couple pros/cons from the fest:

Pro
- The individually themed areas is such a great idea, each area (The Park, Block 9, Shangri La, The Glade, Williams Green, Greenfields, etc) had their own distinctive feel to them, from the decorations down to the staging itself. Each area had 3-4 themed bars, which almost all had stages for live bands/DJs that were booked from Wed-Sun. The only area that was kind of meh was Silver Hayes, it just felt like a random mashup of stages and venues.

- The bars! We spent more time in the bars than at some of the stages (100+ bars), each bar had its own lineup of acts throughout the weekend. The Spike in the trees in the The Glade was an especially chill area to hang, same thing with Maceo's in Block9, we got passes for the crew bar there and it was going off every morning till 8am. Drinks were fairly priced, all free pours on the liquor and specialty cocktails were about 10 pounds, mixed drinks were 6-7 and beer/cider was 5.

- The production on the stages was second to none. The Park and Truth stages had some really cool art on them, and the Glade was pretty cool being in the trees. The only area where the staging felt kind of blah was The Other, felt very similar to a stage at Lolla or even the What stage at Roo. Even little touches like the "rave tree" at the Greenpeace stage or the hidden stage in the woods up at Strummerville were so well done.

- Late night is a whole different beast at Glasto. We ended Thurs-Sun night/morning in Block9, and while we had an unbelievable time at NYC Downlow, Genosys, and IICON...I wish we had further explored Unfairground and Shangri-La at late night too. NYC Downlow is easily the most fun I've ever had at a venue inside of a festival, if you're LGBT then this is your place, the "darkroom" area to the left after you walk in might be the wildest thing I've ever seen at a festival. Genosys had great music all weekend and IICON was beuatiful to look at, however they could've increased the volume a little bit over there. Also, Pangea...wowwwwwww...I can't wait to see what they do with this stage, there's so much they could to it to make it even better. It was def a bummer that the high winds damaged the moon they were trying to hang from it but that first night when the fire and snow effects kicked in it was amazing. Fatboy Slim b2b Eats Everything on Pangea was one of the best sets of the weekend!

- The food! I think they said that there were roughly 800 food vendors on site and the crazy part was, you very rarely saw two stands that were selling the same thing. However, I did see lots of Halloumi cheese vendors, and it was totally understandable after i tried it for the first time, it's fried magic. Most vendors had items for 5 pounds, think they called it Meal for a Fiver or something. Food was very reasonable priced and good portion sizes as well.

Cons
- Not so much a con, just a warning...the size. Be prepared to do about 50-90 miles walking over the course of the festival. We lucked out getting a year with no mud but I can't imagine how much more difficult it would be to move around with ankle deep mud. The walk from Block9 back to our campsite each morning at 7am was like 40mins, that walk would've been a killer in mud. Leave at least 10-15mins to get out of a crowd ata stage after a show, and be prepared to move slowly, its very hard to get anywhere in a hurry.

- The toilets...the longdrops were vile. The compost toilets were slightly better but ti felt weird carrying sawdust into the toilet with you ha. Also, the shower situation...there are none. Well, I guess there's some in the Greenpeace and Kids Field but lines can be upwards of 3hrs and they only have 5-10 showers total. We ended up finding a "sauna" in the Tipi Village. It cost 35 pounds for a weekend pass but it gave us access to a clothing optional part of the fest with a sauna, plunge pool, 4 shower stalls, huge chill out tipi's with pillows, trampoline (ha), and a stage with live acts. The line for those 4 showers was about 15 mins each morning, just be prepared that when they say clothing optional area, they aren't kidding, it's probably 75% nude ha, but the showers were a life saver.

Best sets:
1) Chemical Brothers
2) Fatboy Slim b2b Eats Everything
3) Lizzo
4) Kylie Minogue
5) Black Madonna (NYC Downlow set...does anyone know who her b2b was at her Sun am show?)


Overall, best festival experience I've ever had, I highly recommend it to anyone. It's a completely different experience than anything you'll find in the US. Just prepare yourself for the chance of extreme weather and the amount of walking and you'll be all good. Also, don't overpack, literally anything that you don't have you can buy onsite.

That's excellent !

Although, I feel like he makes comments like that every so often.. like the Macca one - and that's already been debunked

All aboard that Uncle Neil train though !

Pretty much any UK act that nobody thinks is a big deal in the u.s is stadium or arena size in the UK. Thats why there are so many that dont even come here to perform cause theres no need. And if they do, theyre in tiny ass clubs and it would shock anyone being able to see certain acts in such small spaces when they are huge over there. Theyre headlining Reading festival in August, so yeah, The 1975 is a big deal. We’ll see if Emily Eavis is just playing the naive booker when she was surprised that they want to play. Or if they won the Mercury and it gives them the credibility they want.