goonerben

How are you getting from the airport to the festival? As others have said, the amount of "big" stuff (tents, sleeping bags, etc) available to buy on site, seems to be reducing - presumably to reduce waste. I also wouldn't want to rely on something definitely being available, or having any decent choice. if you are getting a train from a London-area airport to the festival, you will most likely go through Reading. You could do an online order for all you need, from Blacks or Decathlon (both of which have stores in Reading, within 10mins walk of the station) - and get them delivered for in store pickup.

Most food stalls took contactless last year, but I didn't manage to get a single drink from an "official" festival bar (i.e. any of those by any of the main stages) using contactless - it seemed to go down on Friday around lunchtime, and never came back. Which in this day and age, isn't great - hopefully they might sort it out, but I'll definitely be bringing cash

Repeat of this set, perhaps? https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/courteeners/2008/worthy-farm-pilton-england-3bc0985c.html

Shame have said that they are 4:30 (to 5:30) Saturday.

Ah ok - blimey, that Pyramid field is going to be busy. Rudimental on West Holts, and Phoenix at Woodsies - almost like they are trying to ensure a full house for Elton!

So this new "Nowhere" stage in Shangri-La is supposed to have a 5,000 capacity. Anybody care to hazard a guess on how that compares to the Truth stage? I am terrible at gauging these things - but feels like Nowhere is likely to be (a fair bit) bigger than Truth?

Given it's Friday morning and we seem to have info that (a) Woodsies is being announced today, and (b) there will be a Pulp announcement today - I'd say that puts "Woodsies announced" at a bit higher than 0%. The only plausible scenario is Sunday headline opposite Elton John - but that slot is empty as far as we know so far.

Wow, I just (re)looked at the Latitude lineup, and am not surprised they aren't sold out. Very slim pickings there - maybe four acts across the whole weekend that could (for example) sell 10k+ tickets in London - i.e. a date at Ally Pally or more - Pulp, Paolo Nutini, George Ezra and The Kooks?

I love knowing as much as possible, as far ahead as possible - I am a "planner" so to speak. That said, I do think there would be enormous value in announcing the "big 5" stages as late as possible in the runup. If we knew all of the smaller stages now, people would be listening to acts they'd never heard of, even planning to go to see some of them - some of those people would stick with that plan, even once the bigger names were revealed.

At the time they announced their summer dates, the talk was that there were 2 being held back - Eden Project and Glastonbury. It does feel inevitable that they'll be there at some point - but as has been said above, I don't think we will get anything until the other festivals that are still trying to sell tickets, have either happened or sold out. What also helps is that there are a lot of possibilities - Pyramid sub for AM, Pyramid or Other opener, Park or JP secret slot - or some random "special guest" appearance on Pyramid or Other, at pretty much any point during the day.

Actually there are - it is illegal to (re)sell a football ticket in the UK, without the written consent of the issuer (usually the home club). Now in practice, there is a fair bit of grey between what is and isn't acceptable. For example if we are going to a game together, I buy seats for both of us in one transaction, then you transfer me money for yours - have I "sold" a ticket in that case? If our 2 tickets are linked to our 2 memberships, then that is OK - but if you can no longer go and I rope in Johnny Random to come with me - that is definitely against the rules at most clubs. So the rules exist and are pretty clear - it's just that most clubs don't enforce them, most of the time. Surprise surprise, demand for Arsenal tickets has increased this past year - so they are starting to randomly enforce lots of this stuff. If the rest of this month pans out as you likely hope it will, expect lots of this nonsense next season....

Last year, we went for this approach - wanted to be really upfront and honest, with plenty of notice (I think I sent the email right after May half term). For my secondary-age daughter, we were also really clear that we'd be on her case with homework etc in the runup, so she'd be going off with no work outstanding - and would then have her on catchup afterwards. But in reality she had a decent attendance record all year, missed 2 days (we headed to Glasto after school on Wednesday), close to the end of term, where there wasn't a whole lot of core work going on anyway. Both schools replied and said that the absence would be "unauthorised" - but neither did anything beyond that.

Leftfield lineup incoming... https://twitter.com/glastonbury/status/1653338550455132164?s=20

As others have said, it is busy in the morning (you will likely queue for 15mins or so to get in). Stock-wise, they have sandwiches, fruit, biscuits, crisps, soft drinks etc - so you could easily pick up lunch there - and seems to always have most stuff in stock. I found it works very well when watching acts on the Other Stage - it's less than 5mins walk from the back of that field.

Quite a few former-cinema-turned-gig-venue places have been taken over by big, evangelical churches. Kilburn National, Finsbury Park Rainbow, have both gone that route. Feels inevitable that the police are going to push for closure, or impose some very stringent licensing conditions, which may make it unviable. A shame.

This isn't an overnight thing. He co-wrote and produced "Shotgun" for George Ezra - that was 5 years ago now! Then he co-wrote and produced half of Ed Sheeran's 2019 album, which had something like 5 No1 singles. Him doing his own stuff is a newer thing, but he's been making No1 records for half a decade now.

Neil's earlier point about headliners, I think is a good one. Top end festival headliners are retiring and/or dying, much more quickly than they are being replaced. For a festival like Glastonbury (who need "top end" headliners, as opposed to say Truck or Kendal Calling who can have headliners that wouldn't get near the business end of the Pyramid Stage), this is going to be an increasing problem. We all know there is a lot more to Glastonbury than the (Pyramid) headliners - but it IS the Pyramid headliners that lead the news headlines and shape a lot of perception of what the festival is. I think with a combination of less choice at the top end of the market, plus people like Beyonce and Taylor Swift finding that they can make MUCH more money doing their own stadium shows, there is a problem in store.

It's no different at all - complete subterfuge to avoid criticism for 3 male headliners. Only revealed when the set times dropped, last Thursday.

I'm not sure Coachella deserves praise (if Glastonbury is getting criticism) for diversity! Coachella had one female headliner on the poster (Blackpink) - but in reality, they played at 9pm and Calvin Harris actually closed the main stage. The overall Coachella poster is 62% male - I suspect Glastonbury will be better than this. Genre-wise, Coachella is about 40% dance/EDM - I don't think Glastonbury will have that big a % in any category. Coachella did have a Latin headliner plus a load of other Latin artists - but then Glastonbury is doing things like Afrobeats, and MUCH more genre diversity. A really good Twitter thread here, looking at the Coachella lineup in more detail.

Not so sure on that any more. WoD are definitely on Sunday, as they have gigs elsewhere on Fri and Sat. Initial thought was Woodsies headline. But a month ago (after initial lineup poster), Christine & The Queens was thought to be Sunday Woodsies headliner - which would have logically left WoD as Other sub, Pyramid afternoon, or maybe Park headline. But now C&TQ self-confirmed for Saturday - so maybe WoD are back on for Woodsies?

Yep, that was me - now 'corrected' (based on the consensus here about who is in which slot).

Coachella (food and drink) prices are insane - but this is creeping over here too. A pint of Guinness at the Cheltenham Festival last month was £20 (Twenty Pounds). Pure greed - just because they can.

Agree - given the usual Avalon lineups, plus the need to avoid a Sugababes-type crowd this time (although I think people like Mel C might have the potential to draw a big crowd) - it's pretty much as expected. For comparison, last year's lineup on that stage:

Mostly yes - a bit of solo stuff, but mostly Scissor Sisters stuff. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/jake-shears/2022/preston-park-brighton-england-23b39c63.html

At first glance this prompts a question of "where is Fatboy Slim playing"? (Other than "all over the place" of course!) Not listed anywhere in SH, and most of the bigger slots on the main stages are filled already. He's doing lots of 25 year anniversary shows for "You've Come A Long Way Baby" - so would expect a big "main" slot somewhere...