Keithy

Have got Sky Ferreira on Thurs which I’m now cautiously optimistic will go ahead despite a reschedule and her reputation . Had good reviews so far…. late on stage as per Sky’s normal routine. A decade on from last seeing her and I thought we’d lost her with all her life and record company troubles.

Life does have its ups and downs.

No crumble! The fish finger place better be there or I’m walking out.

I was thinking 22nd potentially. Summer solstice is Thurs 20th in 2024 and GF is traditionally around the solstice though also traditionally the last weekend of June

Subtle tease for the Foos innit. Dave Grohl was in a wheelchair

Playing 4 times over the weekend

You should all be at VLURE at Bread and Roses, 11:30pm for one of the guaranteed sets of the festival.

Surely you beat to a pulp not churn?

Made a conscious decision last year to not go for tickets. I nearly walked away from Glastonbury in 2019 but gave it one more go in 2022. That festival cemented that it’s no longer the festival for me in terms of line up etc. Was kinda hoping I’d have real pangs of regret today but no such thing. I’d be hugely disappointed with that line up, particularly the loss of Williams Green and no replacement. Having bands like PVA asking on insta how they can get to play Glastonbury rang alarm bells for me. Those are the sort of up and coming bands Glastonbury should be booking but I fear there’s no longer a home for that size of act. And with the expansion of Stonebridge and the Arcadia field, Park is now another area being squeezed by dance music.

Glastonbury has been moving in that direction for the last few festivals which drove my decision to not go for tickets this year. The size/type of acts I like and what Glastonbury has been increasingly booking has moved further apart.

I don’t post much on here any more and not doing GF23. Sad to see @Neil stepping back, he was incredibly helpful to me when setting up a solo camping group and creating an off forum area to sort out the details and exchange information. Without his help back in 2013, I wouldn’t have the friends etc I have now. Part of my lack of posting in the last few years has been the trolling and spam which for a while made this place unreadable and I can imagine that is a right pain for an owner to deal with and tbh I probably too would have got ban heavy after a while. As Iggy said, keeping a website like this going for 20+ years is no mean feat and he must have been doing something right. Preventing forums descending into cliques, tiresome in jokes, admins more interested in their status than their role takes a lot of work. Certainly in the last few years there’s been an influx of attention seeking twattery from posters. Whatever has gone on in the last couple of years, it’s not nice to see people bringing up the private matter of his health. Wish Iggy well with taking it all forward. Hopefully this isn’t a case of the supporter base wanting the old board out and embracing the new board as the messiah and it all turning out much worse. For every successful takeover, there’s always an Everton and Moshiri car crash. ✌️

Strong Maude Flanders energy from some posters on here.

I’ve made my peace with chatters at festivals. A lot of the crowds are there to catch a bit of the set or a passing interest and chat through the songs they don’t know. It’s just a trait of festivals and casual music fans. Previously in the past I’ve just moved away from them but this year it was much more difficult due to the crowds. Wet Leg in particular had a lot of people there just to hear Chaise Longue and just chatted through the set until that song. And then proceeded to go mad and will probably tell all and sundry that Wet Leg was amazing, I was there etc. You get chatters at gigs but it’s generally a mate and their friend. Festivals tends to be groups of mates so it’s much worse. Normally I can tune out one or two but groups is impossible. Special place in hell though for the people who say they hate chatters and then proceed to chat themselves.

Ahh I must have just missed them. Spent a fair bit of time around there and circus and never saw them. Spike bar has gone, absorbed into the new Glade.

Crowd control issues not helped by there being less places to go and some of the newer stuff that has come in (Glastonbury on Sea, Cinermamamamageadon) just don’t attract the numbers. Silver Hayes was a massive improvement, I never really had any crowd issues there on my way to John Peel and was a much nice area with the redesign. Again a few venues lost which means what’s left gets busier but a much nicer place. Definitely felt busier overall to previous years by a substantial degree. More numbers and less venues in the main areas probably exacerbates that feeling. The normal quieter areas like Toad Hall, etc didn’t feel that much busier.

1. Lager options. Pisswater Carlsberg everywhere. A few San Miguel options here and there and cans of Brooklyn. Really disappointing. 2. Reasonably priced food options. Was absurd this year. Food for a fiver was around if you looked hard but was token efforts; one noodle place had rice has its £5 option 😂 3. Walkabouts in theatre and circus. Tea ladies were absent, gang who walk around in cloud suits. Seemed noticeably less walkabouts. 4. Being able to mooch around. The days of wandering into places like the rabbit hole have long gone. Huge queues. The general crowds everywhere meant it was hard to discover stuff as you just missed it in the crowds. 5. Professionalism from Glastonbury Festivals. Felt like amateur hour too many times. Whether basic crowd control, stage booking, connectivity for card payments (John Peel bar went cash only at one point). 6. Venue options in SE corner. Cave, London Underground gone. Just meant everywhere else being even more rammed. Overall it felt like the festival had lost a bit of its character this year for me. Almost as if the post covid festival is now moving into a new era where some of the smaller elements that bring character are being cast aside. Wormhole gone, Spike bar gone, Woods stripped back, less T&C walkabouts. Park was horrendous this year in particular whereas it used to be a comparatively relaxed areas. Stonebridge needs to go or be moved or booked with less names. Creates massive crowd issues at the pinch point with The Park Stage and the 2nd park entrance. If they’re going to carry on with the bookings as they are in Park, they need to redesign the entrance. Has always been a pinch point at times with Arcadia, Toilets, Food stalls and The Park entrance all within metres of each other but felt relentless this year. i guess some of the above is due to budget cuts. Certainly felt the SE corner and T&C lost a chunk of their budget and had to make cutbacks.

As far as the band were concerned, they were never playing. Told me no back in early May. Plus at Germany and Italian festivals over Glastonbury weekend as doing the European festival circuit.

The Regrettes have pulled their tour as the lead has had emergency surgery to remove her appendix. Guess we can strike them off the poster. Wonder who Leftfield get in to replace?

Ahh yes you're right. Missed that on the planning application

They'd have to do safety certificates every year even if it'd stayed. It's only the fixed base that was left there. The crane infrastructure, etc would have to be reattached every year and redo safety certs

I suppose the option for a permanent, evolving structure is somewhere on the farm that has trees to obscure the base. Somewhere like the JP stage area probably would have enough coverage but it's too disassociated from the SE corner and bulk of the festival. Hopefully they brace the artistic challenge of creating something new that is sympathetic to the landscape. Shame Michael couldn't just built a new hay barn over it so it's hidden all year round. Not sure the council can object to a hay barn on a farm.

Sad end for Pangea and we’ll never get to see how it would have developed. I worry that the Arcadia crew may be disillusioned by the limitations of what they can do at Glastonbury in the context of planning limitations. Clearly any future project has to be dismantled now and rebuilt every year which does potentially limit things beyond something like the spider, which is not as vast as Pangea. As they said, dismantling something on the scale of Pangea is not financially viable.

Curious update ....

Might be a stand down on the Wargasm playing... Have asked them why but suspect it's because they are playing Hellfest in France and potentially just got a stage bump off the back of their tour in the USA with Limp Bizkit and now can't make Glasto.

Of all the odd decisions the Eavii occasionally make, binning that off is right up there. The tent never had an identity and became increasingly poorly booked.