joe_bee

This 2014 thread has a few. My favourite was the Bad Idea Bar by the Secret Garden Party crew in 2010. Hidden woodland lounge bar accessed via a red telephone box behind Arcadia when it was on its original site near Avalon. They had many things there that were bad ideas. The shot ski was fun (three shot glasses glued to a ski). Also brine shots. Not so fun. Had to have a flyer to get access and people were randomly handing them out round the site. <Edit> Forgot the link to the old thread...

Thanks @Neil I hope you have made at least a quid for every hour I've spent on here - should be a tidy sum! I've always appreciated how you've stayed hands on and involved in the chat. You've always made it feel like you really care. Hope your recovery goes well!

1997. Me and my then girlfriend arrived by bus from the station late on Thursday night in the pouring rain. My mate had arrived on Wednesday to pitch our tent and, as neither of us had a mobile phone at that point (those were the days!!!!), we had arranged to meet him in front of the main stage between 9 and 10pm. In our haste to find our way we ended up walking through all the tents from the farm house down to the top of the Pyramid field so by the time we got to the front of the main stage, my mate had moved on leaving us in the rain and mud with all our stuff, nowhere to go and no way of contacting him. After 45 mins of a 1.5hr queue for the phone box in a knee deep muddy lake (those weren't the days!!!) I saw a bloke on a mobile phone passing by so offered him a couple of quid to use it. We met my mate, who had been busy imbibing every possible substance all day, and he was just about able to march us across to Joe Bananas blankets and on to our tent in Pennards to sit around a warm fire and get settled in for the night. We were woken by the Other stage sound testing and my girlfriend getting her period which was the only thing she had said would make her go home. Like veterans of the trenches we were able to get through the blood, mud and tears, and recover our determination to have a good time. What helped greatly was the music. We started with the Levellers followed by Beck and after a full day of fun our Friday night ended with the Prodigy playing one of the best gigs I have ever seen. The following night was the legendary 1997 gig by Radiohead and despite the mud being worse than any other year (and I've been to all of them since), I can honestly say it was the most incredible experience I ever had. There is nothing quite like your first time. Thanks for the thread! Incidentally, if like me you wanted to see what it was like or relive any of it (including the BBC's first coverage) you can check it out here...

While numbers did seem a little higher, overall I don't think they were much higher (and still nowhere near 2000 levels). Everyone wanted to do similar things at similar times (above the Park on Wednesday and Thursday was crazy busy). The legend slot seems as popular as ever but pyramid headliners seemed quieter. I thought there were around 2/3 the number of food stalls and I commented we would be queuing more. There were lots of gaps and far less densely packed shops and food places which I can only put down to many of them going under or finding new jobs during the pandemic. We did comment on the large number of under 3s. There were likely a large number of folks who had bought tickets and then had babies in the intervening years and had decided they didn't want to miss out so went anyway. Not sure that would have impacted on the numbers too much though.

I think they're water soluble as I've always just used a wet sponge to get the car park stickers off. Peel off what you can, stick a towel over your dash to soak up any drips and wipe off the rest with the wet sponge. Takes me a few minutes but I've never had to put much effort into it.

Just before the Olivia Rodrigo gig, I watched security moving through the Other Stage crowd with a big pile of pre-manufactured, purple flags with various versions of "O.R." on them. I commented before Pet Shop Boys that I was extremely surprised by (and not a little sceptical) of the "Lest we Forget" poppy flag being flown near the huge Ukrainian flag. Seriously, I don't object to the sentiment but who would want to fly that at the World's greatest party? It seems the marketers, brands and political parties have got hold of the idea they can put whatever flags they want in front of a huge TV audience. That for me is what puts me off the flags the most. I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Daily Mail logo flag flying at some point soon.

No movement in gate C queue. Has it opened yet? They usually move us up but no movement at all so far.

I have often found when approaching from the South of the A37 on Tuesday night/early Wednesday that the blue route is closed for entry and all traffic gets routed to purple anyway. They sometimes seem to fill those up first. I assume its to keep the campervan fields a bit quieter but maybe it's just random. S'pose it could be mud or weather related too. I don't mind really. Gate B has always been fine for me. Slightly longer queue, slightly shorter walk. Just happy to get through those gates!!! Good luck with your journeys.