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I'm looking forward to a return after a 5 year absence. See what's new, what's nice and familiar, see if Glasto can still be for me having done smaller fests since 2011.

But I'm sure a 5 year gap is nothing compared to some. Who can claim the longest period between Glastos? Either for this year or the past?

Nice to see some old name-tags still in these forums BTW. 

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11 minutes ago, Mardy said:

1995-2007 for me, i think

Yours is the gap - ahem - that intrigues me most, Mardy.

Having been to most years in between that you kinda mentally lessen the difference in festival year on year.

To my memory 95 still had that anarchic / the whole place coulda gone fucking nuts / the fest still retaining what it was vibe compared to 2007 which, weather aside, was not too different from today.

But that musta been like a smack in the chops to return. How was it? Main differences? Pros / cons?

1 hour ago, timespeedsup said:

I'm looking forward to a return after a 5 year absence. See what's new, what's nice and familiar, see if Glasto can still be for me having done smaller fests since 2011.

But I'm sure a 5 year gap is nothing compared to some. Who can claim the longest period between Glastos? Either for this year or the past?

Nice to see some old name-tags still in these forums BTW. 

Great thread topic timespeedsup, btw. Hats off.

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Just now, Woffy said:

Yours is the gap - ahem - that intrigues me most, Mardy.

Having been to most years in between that you kinda mentally lessen the difference in festival year on year.

To my memory 95 still had that anarchic / the whole place coulda gone fucking nuts / the fest still retaining what it was vibe compared to 2007 which, weather aside, was not too different from today.

But that musta been like a smack in the chops to return. How was it? Main differences? Pros / cons?

 

It's hard to answer that, cos obviously I'd changed in the intervening years, I'd done 6 years in Slovakia, a couple in Bangkok & Hong Kong and was working in Russia. I'd kind of put it away as part of my mis-spent youth (I'd worked there for a few weeks post festival in 93 and 94 and jumped the fence in 95)

 

Anyway, I was in Russia in 2007 and going out with a bird who mentioned she'd always wanted to go. I gave it large about having gone back in the day and one drunken conversation later we'd decided to go. I'll be honest, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was fairly trepedacious. My previous visits had been drug and booze fuelled shambolic, chaotic, magical things, but this time I had to look after someone else, someone who'd never been to a festival before, someone who,although being proper hardcore, was in an unfamiliar environment. We went with a few friends who'd been in 2005, but they were very sensible/middle aged.

 

Got there, pitched up while it was still dry, pretty much the only dry day of the weekend. Went for a wander. I haven't got the vocabulary or erudition to really describe what happens , but it was an epiphany, a real sense of homecoming, and w*nky as it sounds, a sense that I had, without knowing it, really fucking missed this place deep inside me. I sat in Jazzword field and cried, proper fucking cried like a right soppy c**t.

 

Of course, it being 2007, you know the rest, it hoyed it down for the next 5 days. Hellish. leaving on the Monday morning was as low as I've ever felt, we had to walk and meet friends back stage and trog though loads of flooded paths and knee deep grey water. Horrific. We then had to bomb it back to Heathrow as we had evening flights back to Moscow. Was that thing when you realise as you get further and further away from Glastonbury, there are less and less people looking/dressed like you, and the balance shifts from being surrounded by sallow, ghostly, hollow-eyed apparitions covered in mud to you being the ones that the suited/booted/smart-casual types are eying with suspicion. Checking in at Heathrow, we got some very very strange looks. But as soon we'd got through and were sat on the airplane, we looked at each other and knew, just fucking knew, we'd be back the following year

 

Overall, i think the main difference is not really with the site, but with me. It was wild in the early 90s, so was I. It was more sedate, more comfortable, more rounded in 2007. So was I. That makes it hard to assess the changes and figure out what's down to the site, what's down to me. Essentially, the festival grew up and middle aged alongside me.

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Brilliant work Mardy. One of your posts I read a couple times to absorb all the bonhomie. 

Nice to hear from you again timespeedsup! Our gap 97-04 was purely down to how poorly prepared I was for the weather and the journey in 97. Did 04 in a camper. 

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2 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

Brilliant work Mardy. One of your posts I read a couple times to absorb all the bonhomie. 

Nice to hear from you again timespeedsup! Our gap 97-04 was purely down to how poorly prepared I was for the weather and the journey in 97. Did 04 in a camper. 

Thanks mate, was really interesting wandering around site with you and yours last year and between us trying to introduce Dasha to it. Sharing stories about what it meant to all of us. Loved that afternoon.

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1986 - 1995 - 9yr gap. Had seen C4 coverage on telly in 94 which reminded me about Glastonbury Fest. Prior to TV coverage it was less well known and I had gone to 84 and 86 as I lived in Wiltshire so it was relatively a local festival. 

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52 minutes ago, Mardy said:

It's hard to answer that, cos obviously I'd changed in the intervening years, I'd done 6 years in Slovakia, a couple in Bangkok & Hong Kong and was working in Russia. I'd kind of put it away as part of my mis-spent youth (I'd worked there for a few weeks post festival in 93 and 94 and jumped the fence in 95)

 

Anyway, I was in Russia in 2007 and going out with a bird who mentioned she'd always wanted to go. I gave it large about having gone back in the day and one drunken conversation later we'd decided to go. I'll be honest, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was fairly trepedacious. My previous visits had been drug and booze fuelled shambolic, chaotic, magical things, but this time I had to look after someone else, someone who'd never been to a festival before, someone who,although being proper hardcore, was in an unfamiliar environment. We went with a few friends who'd been in 2005, but they were very sensible/middle aged.

 

Got there, pitched up while it was still dry, pretty much the only dry day of the weekend. Went for a wander. I haven't got the vocabulary or erudition to really describe what happens , but it was an epiphany, a real sense of homecoming, and w*nky as it sounds, a sense that I had, without knowing it, really fucking missed this place deep inside me. I sat in Jazzword field and cried, proper fucking cried like a right soppy c**t.

 

Of course, it being 2007, you know the rest, it hoyed it down for the next 5 days. Hellish. leaving on the Monday morning was as low as I've ever felt, we had to walk and meet friends back stage and trog though loads of flooded paths and knee deep grey water. Horrific. We then had to bomb it back to Heathrow as we had evening flights back to Moscow. Was that thing when you realise as you get further and further away from Glastonbury, there are less and less people looking/dressed like you, and the balance shifts from being surrounded by sallow, ghostly, hollow-eyed apparitions covered in mud to you being the ones that the suited/booted/smart-casual types are eying with suspicion. Checking in at Heathrow, we got some very very strange looks. But as soon we'd got through and were sat on the airplane, we looked at each other and knew, just fucking knew, we'd be back the following year

 

Overall, i think the main difference is not really with the site, but with me. It was wild in the early 90s, so was I. It was more sedate, more comfortable, more rounded in 2007. So was I. That makes it hard to assess the changes and figure out what's down to the site, what's down to me. Essentially, the festival grew up and middle aged alongside me.

Wow.

Beautiful post dude. Didn't expect an answer that long; but appreciated.

I guess I asked because, aside from a couple of years when I didn't get a ticket due to not getting through on the phone (anyone else experience that?) and 2011 when (due to a fucking horrid, got shat on break up that robbed me of seeing my kids on a daily basis) I went to work on Monday morning after T-Day and a colleague - knowing I was a Glastonbury obsessive - asked if I got tickets and I went into meltdown because getting tickets HADN'T EVEN CROSSED MY MIND, I've been every year since I first went.

[Apologies for the Kerouac-ian sentence length]

I did wonder - if you'll forgive the clunky analogy - if you'd appreciate that the festival had changed / grown...but was still essentially the same; like when yer auntie you only see at infrequent family occasions says "ohhhhhh, haven't you growwwwwn since I last saw you!!!!" but snogs yer cheek repeatedly like she saw you yesterday because there's an innate familiarity that can't be transgressed...and is inherently, completely, beautifullyproperly (no space intentional) appropriate.

Other stuff:

Crying at Glastonbury is allowed. At the beauty of it. In a way that means *something* to *everyone* is allowed. As allowed as breathing. We didn't get our 60s. But for those of you that did...was it THIS good...OUR 5 DAYS...for the best part of a decade?!!! Was it FUCK! ;-)

Getting Romantic about Glastonbury on a Wednesday night is also allowed.

And yeah, there's weird concentric circles of sadness / longing for Glastonbury the further away you get. Including arrival at the closest Burger King. Cried there.

So in short.

The wild days were great. Scary but great.

These days are great. I'm cynical, but they're great.

Don't argue politics with Neil.

Floss.

Wipe sitting down.

Moshing is for c**ts.

LCD Radiohead PJ Harvey for G16.

Glastonbury didn't get middle aged with me...Glastonbury leans out from a darkened alley in a long trenchcoat with an uptirned collar just at that moment when I finally believe I've come to terms with middle age and whispers conspiritorially to me that I'm still 19.

And I go nuts.

And simultaneously love and regret it for a week afterwards.

 

 

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Brilliant post Mardy. Kind of had a similar experience when I first went back in 2008, not on the same level but I was going through a rough patch in school and Glastonbury really gave me the escape I needed from my small town where everyone knows everybody and every year I look forward to it for that reason.

Also good to see TSU back on these forums!

 

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1990 to 2007, not missed one since, been close, had to resort to resale coaches.

felt very familiar on return I have to say, obviously huge scale nowadays, but not as different as some might feel it is overall. A great place to be for a week a year.

gap was due to a mixture of reasons, actually from about 2003 onwards had tried hard to go, but never managed.

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3 hours ago, robu said:

Went in 1986. Didn't set foot on site again until 2009. What a mistake...

23 years has it so far. What's the story robu?

49 minutes ago, BlackHole2006 said:

Brilliant post Mardy. Kind of had a similar experience when I first went back in 2008, not on the same level but I was going through a rough patch in school and Glastonbury really gave me the escape I needed from my small town where everyone knows everybody and every year I look forward to it for that reason.

Also good to see TSU back on these forums!

 

BH06, yours is a name I recall, but like most I can't picture a face. Should I be able to? efest meets between 07 and 11? Does the Wednesday Cider Bus efest meet still exist? 

Good to see you're going to Bearded Theory this year though (says the Bearded thread), you won't regret it. 

 

 

Do I no longer have an avatar pic? It's been a while....

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1 minute ago, timespeedsup said:

 

BH06, yours is a name I recall, but like most I can't picture a face. Should I be able to? efest meets between 07 and 11? Does the Wednesday Cider Bus efest meet still exist? 

Good to see you're going to Bearded Theory this year though (says the Bearded thread), you won't regret it. 

Nah I first started going to the meets in 2013, I remember every year I kept on saying I would but every year I would go to the cider bus, look at the efests flag and chicken out but I'm glad I've started going to them now cause I look forward to them every year.

Yeah got tickets for Bearded Theory for christmas and I'm dead chuffed, the line up looks great and I've heard so many things about it so should be a good one! Do you know if any efests meets take place at BT? I know that quite a few people from these boards go there...

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my missus had about a 15 year gap between Glastos, returning to going in 2007.

She finds it a bit of a festival theme park nowadays compared to the more-organic thing it used to be, while still seeing it as something special.

But like me, she also thinks that the wild festival vibe is now found at Boomtown and not rather-tame-today Glasto.

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29 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Are a pair of balls allowed Glastonbury? FFS.

Only if they're drowning in a pool of your own tears!

On a serious note I've never cried at the festival but came bloody close to last year during "sunshine on Leith" in the Proclaimers set.

It just hit me like a f**king a train.

At a place like the festival where all of your senses are being ambushed on a minute by minute basis it's hard to keep it in check.

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9 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

Only if they're drowning in a pool of your own tears!

On a serious note I've never cried at the festival but came bloody close to last year during "sunshine on Leith" in the Proclaimers set.

It just hit me like a f**king a train.

At a place like the festival where all of your senses are being ambushed on a minute by minute basis it's hard to keep it in check.

Let's hope the chief puts sunshine on pilot this year 

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