autoinflate

yes! booking page crapped out twice, third time lucky. my unbroken glastonbury streak, now 1992-2024, remains intact!

yes, but not having it on sky and bbc news, hammered on radio 1 etc until after ticket day would be nice.

fed up with all the publicity around ticket sales (and the festival in general) giving everyone a 'fair chance' to jam up the website on ticket day. make it a zero-publicity sale with press embargo, post the sale date/time on the website and leave it at that - give people who really, really want to go and make the effort to get organised a better chance.

3rd Glastonbury in a row with the kids (13 & 16) and how things have changed. We used to party hard and frankly missed a lot of the festival (unless you count being muntered all night in SE corner as seeing the festival). Now we see way more bands, often in the pit with daughter on shoulders, do lots of exploring and even some previously unheard of activities like shopping for souvenirs, getting 8 hours sleep and eating meals. It's different, but now we're used to it we actually prefer it this way and the kids love it.

just secured a CV ticket - all areas on sale currently!

It's still kind of happening. I got through to the coach departure selection page on Thursday serveral times before it crapped out. This morning, I got all the way to final page with our reg details in, choose if you want a water bottle etc, then it crapped out clicking 'proceed'. It's so cruel.

First time at Reading this year, took the kids (15 & 12) along with a couple of other familes. We were certainly in the minority, but had a great time and really enjoyed the music and the arena in general - well organised, decent toilets, easy to get food and drink without queueing for ages. We camped in the peaceful campervan field, but walked through many camping fields each day to reach the arena. Carnage! Sunday afternoon there was a full on battle happening in purple with anything being used as a missile - 3 litre drinks bottles full of piss, tent poles, chairs, beer cans ripped open with sharp edges. My 12yo got hit on the leg by a bottle, not too bad but really frightening for her. I realise R&L isn't a family festival, but the kids loved the music/arena and if you ask me it should be safe to walk through any festival campsite without having dangerous missiles thrown at you.

Haha, i was doing the same (watching 2010 for comparison) and I noticed that he often does these little facial expressions / mouth moves, just before delivering a line, which makes it look like he's a bit off. Can see it particularly in the chorus of Suburbia towards the end of the song. As for his voice, I think it's one of the most interesting and unique voices to emerge from the 80s or even since. There are many technically better singers, but who else sounds like him?

Nah, I disagree, for the first one he just opens his mouth wide, drawing breath, before signing the 'and you'. For the 28.25 he does an exaggerated gesture before the line, which makes it look a bit off. More to the point, all the way though the show the vocals just sound live, with volume variations due to mic technique, weak/flat notes here and there, particularly in the lower register as is typical of live vocals. He sings very well though, especially for his age, which I guess is why people think he's miming.

Lots of shows run prerecorded in some way, either per-song or the entire show. For example, Chemical Brothers recent shows are a set sequence from start to finish - they press play and the entire show runs like clockwork with all the visuals working in sync. The live part is how they tweak and mix the elements, trigger samples, overlay synth parts etc. For PSB, they're doing something similar, it's one or more pre-recorded sequences with all the visuals in sync, while they're adding live elements including percussion, various keyboard parts from Chris, and Neil's lead vocals. I really don't think he's miming, at least not much of it. It mostly sounds very live and there are subtle differences between shows if you listen carefully - remember these are classic songs he's sung hundreds of times, so the phrasing and timing will be pretty much set. I think it's perfectly OK to perform in this way, it makes for a more spectacular show to have everything pre-planned, sounding good, with great visuals synchronised. The credibility hinges on how much of a live element is included, how sophisticated the visuals are and the overall aesthetic. PSB pass this test with a great show, including plenty of live elements.

I'm feeling pretty rough tbh, it's definitely not a typical festival comedown! Have slept 15+ hours a day, lots of couging and feeling very dazed. Not much good for anything but lying in bed, watching TV and a bit of web browsing. Really sucks - was looking forward to going on a health kick this week, instead I'm festering in bed!

Thanks for posting - that's my daughter at the front of the Olivia Rodrigo crowd!

Just tested positive 😞 Felt rough on the way home from the festival (what's new?), tested negative yesterday morning, but started feeling proper ill last night. Sure enough - positive test today.

Yes, it's not the same mix at all, so will sound different. The mix engineers have the same overall goal, i.e. a well balanced mix, but they're using totally separate equipment, mixing for completely different environments, with or without a lot of preparation.

The broadcast mix is different to the live mix you hear in the field. They split the signals from mics and instruments on stage, and the broadcast mix is done in a truck backstage, while the front-of-house mix is done in the mixing tower out front. The FOH mix is usually set up in advance and recalled on the console, so only requires minimal tweaking to sound good. The big festival PA rigs also have huge dynamic range, so it all sounds great when you're actulally there. Meanwile the broadcast engineer has to get a good mix going with minimal preparation, even on the fly, which is then scrutinised on repeat in a low volume / low dynamic range environment. Not an easy job.

That's what it used to be like...various sound systems and parties around the main market area, and going further back even in the camping areas and car parks, but they had to stuff it all up SE corner early noughties to satisfy licensing/noise restrictions.

This. We spent the last few years doing exactly that, with diminishing returns since probably 2013. Now it's all changed and we take the kids, go back to camp after the headliners and generally have a much more chilled out time. After a couple of years getting used to this we're back on track and enjoying the festival in a whole new way. So if anyone feels like throwing in the towel, maybe try one more year but do it completely differently.

In my group of veterans we all agreed this was the busiest ever, apart from 2000, which was crazy all over the site. This year was similarly busy at the main stages and late night areas. We didn't get into any bad situations but it was annoying getting around at times, and lots more queueing for food and toliets - but, we found all the food queues moved pretty quickly, and for toilets you just needed to move past the front queues and it was generally OK. The demographic has certainly changed - we were in the green fields on Sunday and it was so quiet, most people stay by the main stages these days. Maybe they need another big stage on the east side of the site to split the crowds, i dunno. Overall another great year, and I'll be back for sure. The only thing that really annoyed me was not being able to easily get to the toilet during bands, which meant very little beer and cider consumed from Fri-Sun - had to stick to spirits and wine or I'd have definitely had a Wet Leg.

Winner - congrats! Always enjoyed the Beat Hotel, nice cocktails and great music - one year we got to lounge about in dressing gowns in the on-stage hotel room while a mate was DJ'ing. Wonder what will be in it's place this year?

Nope.

clue/correction: I've just realised, based on publicly available information, that my answers to these questions should be in the past tense.

Yes.

There is.

More food and drink than festival tat nearby I'd say, but yes - most likely.

You do not.