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How have the sort of people who attend the festival changed & when?


gooner1990
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I was reading another thread (forget which) and someone said it was thought that in 1994 that was when a massive new breed of people started attending Glastonbury, newer and bigger bands, britpop, and the new dance tent were a few changes that I know of.

I guess another shift could be when the super fence went up in 2002, and a lot of the fence jumpers were eradicated and some of the edge was lost?

I only started going in 2004.....but even i've noticed since then that there has been a shift in the sort of people going, perhaps I noticed it first in 2009, I loved 2008 because it sold out so late on a lot of 'messy' people were there that year rather than just the selfie/instagram crowd that dominate the festival.

Suppose its also just how the world changes and evolves and Glastonbury represents some of that!

Are we due another 'wave' of new people attending the festival?

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I guess another shift could be when the super fence went up in 2002, and a lot of the fence jumpers were eradicated and some of the edge was lost?

There's no doubt in my mind that the super fence irrevocably altered the previous incarnation of the festival and yes a whole 'edginess' was lost forever. I also have no doubt that many of today's attendees would shit their load if they found they were sharing the festival with all the drongos, misfits and lunatics that attended in the years just prior to the super fence going up. However, I don't think they were always there either ie in the very early years of the festival. So, change has always gone on. I guess I'm doing these people an injustice by saying what I have as the only people they hurt were themselves as far as I could tell. They were far too busy getting slaughtered 24 hours a day to go robbing tents or people, on the whole.

Are we due another 'wave' of new people attending the festival?

It's hard to see what that new wave would be. I guess it would be nice to see a more multi-cultural Glastonbury in terms of paying punters. A potential celebration of harmony that eludes the outside world. Maybe, one day.

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I remember reading that it was the rave explosion of the late 80s that changed things, but that the ravers were welcomed with open arms and the crusties adopted some of their attitude and tastes.

The middle class influx since 2000 has been something else entirely though, I don't think that this has added to the place in the same way, as op says, 2009 was really noticeable that the audience had dramatically changed.

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I've only been attending since 2008 so it's difficult for me to judge really, but the most obvious change in that time is the influence of communication and social media. Everything from WI-FI cows to recharge tents have been the most obvious introductions in recent years, so maybe the demographic might not have changed that much (in the time I've been going), but maybe the way people behave due to these new social 'innovations' has?

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I think that many miss the fact that at least in the 80's it was a very middle class event although we at the time did not divide people up into classes.
take my bunch of friends
I was a University Lecturer - two of them were Teachers - one was a Senior Social worker and another was a Electronic Engineer.
As their main advertising was though CND mailings by default many were already what people would class as middle and upper class.
most people had good jobs - sure there was others but the core mix was happy to be ticket holders.
really the only people who can comment were the ones who were there.
as decades move on its a wider bunch of people.
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Theres more people ticking it off their bucket list, theres more fashion concious, less politically astute youngsters, theres less travellers, less random, more contrived entertainment. Is that a bad thing? The festival has to evolve to keep it alive.

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the simple answer is that Glastonbury's audience has become more and more mainstream over the years, and it's still going in that direction - with the latest wave being people taking their parents.

I can assure you that no one was taking their parents back in the 80s. Glastonbury was so left-field back then that it wasn't unusual for people to be sacked from their jobs just for attending (happened to me, and happened to others I know).

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Theres more people ticking it off their bucket list, theres more fashion concious, less politically astute youngsters, theres less travellers, less random, more contrived entertainment. Is that a bad thing? The festival has to evolve to keep it alive.

This sums it up nicely.

I also think that the more times you go the more your perspective of the festival changes. When I went back in 2009 it was all about watching bands on the main stages. Ive been every year since I now I like to bimble about, watch a couple of bands a day, and really explore the smaller areas and interact with other festival goers.

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Like Neil says, it's definitely becoming more mainstream and more establishment and 'middle class' too (I've put middle class in inverted commas because it seems nobody wants to define themselves as working class these days, but I think we all know what I'm talking about). Ticket prices haven't really helped matters either. So the festival is certainly less diverse than in the past.

I don't believe there has really been a watershed year for changes - they've been incremental. The superfence has probably been the biggest change in terms of demographics, but changes within the festival have always been on going. 1987 saw the introduction of the NME (now Other) Stage, and was quite a big deal at the time - it saw a major shift in the type of bands being booked and was a major expansion in the number of official stages. Since then the process has just continued, to the point where the disappearance of the unofficial sound systems can pretty much be balanced by the opening of the smaller niche venues.

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There's no doubt in my mind that the super fence irrevocably altered the previous incarnation of the festival and yes a whole 'edginess' was lost forever. I also have no doubt that many of today's attendees would shit their load if they found they were sharing the festival with all the drongos, misfits and lunatics that attended in the years just prior to the super fence going up.

I can't say that I miss the barracking and heckling that used to happen as you walked out above the Greenfields from people sitting on the roofs of their vehicles - it was merciless, unwavering, and targetted at anyone in their field of vision.

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It's become a victim of its own success.

The coverage the BBC give it, it's almost impossible for anybody to escape. They give a glimpse of what the festival is like to the masses, who they want to attend next year.

Isn't Glastonbury now regularly voted in the top 10 brands in the world? Alongside Apple and Starbucks etc. That tells you everything you need to know.

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I think since social media came into our lives the festival has become more of a "thing" for people to do.

When I started Wed and Thur were arrival days with little entertainment on offer. More recently arriving as early as possible on the Wed has become the norm for a large number of attendees. Maybe this is related to an increased ticket price and people wanting to get their monies worth?

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Like Neil says, it's definitely becoming more mainstream and more establishment and 'middle class' too (I've put middle class in inverted commas because it seems nobody wants to define themselves as working class these days, but I think we all know what I'm talking about). Ticket prices haven't really helped matters either. So the festival is certainly less diverse than in the past.

I don't believe there has really been a watershed year for changes - they've been incremental. The superfence has probably been the biggest change in terms of demographics, but changes within the festival have always been on going. 1987 saw the introduction of the NME (now Other) Stage, and was quite a big deal at the time - it saw a major shift in the type of bands being booked and was a major expansion in the number of official stages. Since then the process has just continued, to the point where the disappearance of the unofficial sound systems can pretty much be balanced by the opening of the smaller niche venues.

Yeh the ticket price and the fact it's virtually impossible to bunk in has definitely excluded a whole swathe of people.

Also the whole ticket buying process has seen another load of people no longer bother with it. Was it 2004 that was the first time you pretty much had to have an internet connection? Then there was another year where you had to have a bank account.

These sorts of things meant a lot of people turned their back on the festival.

The problem is the people who have replaced the old crowd are in general dull conformists who bring no originality and add nothing at all to the party. Which is why there is so much organised fun these days: because these people lack the creativity to generate their own fun.

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I think since social media came into our lives the festival has become more of a "thing" for people to do.

When I started Wed and Thur were arrival days with little entertainment on offer. More recently arriving as early as possible on the Wed has become the norm for a large number of attendees. Maybe this is related to an increased ticket price and people wanting to get their monies worth?

The place was like a ghost town on weds and most of thursday. Friday would get busy in the evening when you got a big after work rush.

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It's become a victim of its own success.

The coverage the BBC give it, it's almost impossible for anybody to escape. They give a glimpse of what the festival is like to the masses, who they want to attend next year.

Isn't Glastonbury now regularly voted in the top 10 brands in the world? Alongside Apple and Starbucks etc. That tells you everything you need to know.

As someone who went for the first time in 2013 after watching the 2011 coverage on the BBC and thinking "shit that actually looks unbelievable" whilst watching Elbow play with the sun setting behind them I'd agree with this.

Assumed really up until that point that Glastonbury was a mud-filled, left wing weird music festival. Turns out it's the most inclusive place on the planet with something for everyone but wouldn't have discovered that if the BBC coverage hadn't lured me in.

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Each decade from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s has seen significant social change and I think Glastonbury reflects this. I've only been attending since 2009 so cannot comment on what it what was like before but my take on the current attendees is that it is a group of people who are all really happy to be there. The difficulty in getting the tickets makes you feel like you have won the lottery when you do finally succeed, and in my experience this makes people not take the festival for granted.

Given the current state of the world I do not think that Glastonbury has ever provided a much more needed break from mainstream society the n it does now, even if those attending are considered mainstream themselves.

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The world, socially politically and economically has changed outside the fence so by definition the world inside the fence. Despite what people like to think inside the fence isn't some sort of utopia cut off from the outside world the two are deeply intertwined because the people that come inside the fence spend most of their lives outside the fence they don't stop being them (completely) when they come through the gates on Wednesday and flick back on the Monday.

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