Mark E. Spliff

Pretty much the dimmest torch you can find will be more than bright enough. If you're in a dark space, illuminating things near by does not require much.

If you'd just bought a large wide-mothed bottle (Lenor or similar) you would be able to simply pour it down the toilet rather than needlessly throwing a load of plastic into landfill each time you take a piss. Plus, a rigid bottle is an easier target whilst off your face in the dark than a small flexible bag. And I know which one I'd trust not to leak if you're stashing it in/near your tent after a 4am piss.

Personally, for any road trip, I prefer to stop at a Supermarket - cheaper cafe, fuel plus you can pick up your booze while you're there. Take a look at this website to find ones close to the motorway junctions you're going past. Just make sure whichever supermarket you choose has the facilities you want listed. (This link is to the M5, but it covers all the UK motorways). https://www.justoffjunction.co.uk/M5.php

Forecasting for a chaotic system like the weather is always going to be probabilistic. Once you understand that, you can make appropriate use of the expertise provided in this thread, i.e. get an idea of the most likely scenarios, although if you want to play it safe as far as risking a miserable festival, you'll still pack for all eventualities. But expecting people in this thread to understand the probabilistic nature of weather forecasting might be asking a bit much judging by some of the repeated handbag-swinging that goes on. I'm wondering if the Father Ted 'reality/dreams' diagram could be employed to help people struggling with the concept that someone's personal weather preference has zero impact upon what the actual weather will be. I, for example, am looking forward to a nuclear winter followed by meteorite-strikes and locust swarms from mid-June, but these thoughts reside only in my head and don't have any influence over what the weather will do in reality.

These things have remained available in my local Lidl ever since they came out in early March, which I hadn't expected - I thought they'd have been snapped up at the price. Today, I finally caved in and bought one and the first test run has gone well. The hand-grinder is a bit slow, but this is probably because I had it on too fine a setting. And the press-fit lid to put on the cup isn't tight enough, so I wouldn't trust it not to come off if I were shaking it around. Other than that, it made pretty good filter coffee and was dead easy to clean. The aeropress makes better coffee and is easier to clean, but for £15 quid, including a decent grinder, this thing is excellent.

I was an early adopter of vaping cannabis. Went to a presentation in The Cannabis Museum in Amsterdam by the late 'Eagle Bill' who was a bit of a pioneer and a legend. The one he was demonstrating was called 'the volcano' which was far better than the 'blue meanie' in your picture above as it actually blows the heated air through the weed/resin, rather than just scorch it on a hot plate. Using his instructions, I built an amazing vapouriser using a heat gun and a demijohn(!). But gave up smoking dope many years ago, and would genuinely prefer people to die of cancer than go round dropping little plastic devices with Toxic lithium in them on a dairy farm - I picked up a hell of a lot of them last year.

I've never done accreditation, but the friend who got my artist liaison job does it for one of the main areas at Glastonbury. He's had exactly the same thing happen to him, ie the artists showed up demanding their wrist bands when their allocation had already been taken by their 'entourage.' So definitely some areas of Glastonbury have weak accreditation procedures, e.g. names aren't required, or no requirement for ID to prove people are that named person. But it will be different for each area - it's up to them how they manage the artists' wristbands they've been given.

It's common for artists to spend their off-stage time in their dressing room on their phone/laptop, so you leave them to it. But others are bored out of their skulls and are glad of a bit of company. If you're doing artist liaison, you could easily get a tonne of photos with the various artists, but you're usually busy sorting out transport problems or fending off people trying to get extra booze out of the rider store. Souvenirs aren't a problem anyway - you usually end up with their phone numbers (they have to give a contact number so the stage can get hold of them), their set lists and half of their possessions which they usually leave behind at the end.

The main headliners will have whatever arrangements they want, with their skivvies sorting out stuff like that. But in the main, artists will arrive at the area where they're playing where there'll be an 'accreditation' cabin where them and their entourage will get given their allocation of wristbands. It's all very low key, as the accreditation and artist liaison guys often haven't got a clue who the artists are - so friendly and efficient, but no rock star treatment. (For the one area I've worked at, the accreditation cabin was inside the fence, so presumably they either have wristbands posted to them in advance, or they have some sort of paperwork which will get them through the gate to the cabin.)

When's the next site visit? And a suggestion: you could do each report from a different spot and make it a 'guess the location' challenge for this forum and the YouTube comments section. Us nerds can't get enough of that sort of thing, especially if you make it tricky enough to get a few handbag battles going.

Around the South East Corner, towards the back of the Truth Stage area and where the 'Gas Tower' used to be, you'll still find quite a few micro-venues, including that bus with the anti-oil message etc. These will no doubt continue, and are well worth going and looking at. (One of my fond memories from last year was a little one selling really funny postcards, but, in the early hours when I visited, the guy running it was off his nut and paying no attention, so it ended up being a matter of conscience as to whether you left any money on the counter.) The specific thing that people are nostalgic for is the 'alleyways,' which was an extensive maze of little covered walkways with loads of little places, including tiny nightclubs, Victorian amusement arcades and all sorts of other odd stuff. That just wouldn't be possible these days as the South East Corner has become too busy to stage it safely - hence the one-way entry system at peak times. I'd say what's needed is for these microvenues to be scattered around the entire site in different locations each year, so that they're a genuine surprise when you stumble upon them rather than somewhere with huge queues of people ticking them off their list.

Yep, with 'Telephones For Eyes' having been massively promoted on BBC 6 Music, and his set being on a Thursday after Lottery Winners, I'm resigned to the fact that it's going to be a smaller scale version of Wet Leg at The Park last year, ie way too crowded for me. I only tend to go to Strummerville when the main stages are running when it becomes a bit of a haven. Pleased for him though - he deserves a load of attention and is one of the few performers out there who's a real natural at audience interaction. (Edit: ignore what I said above about him being on after The Lottery Winners! I don't have any insider knowledge - just reading the line-up poster a bit too literally.)

I'm obsessed with him - his performance on the Other stage last year was very different to that track, but equally brilliant. He's the perfect loveable cockney villain for keeping Strummerville entertained.

If anyone's earned a big crowd after last year's performance, it's this geezer: https://youtu.be/w7fZbWmjJjY

Good point, but there's an easy solution, ie put whatever you're using inside a cotton sleeping bag liner (or sew up your own ). These are very cheap in camping shops, pack down to Apple-size and are easy to bung in the wash after the festival.

Sleeping comfort is completely down to personal preference, but when it comes to pack-size, there's no question: those lilo-type things are way more compact than 'self-inflating' sleeping mats. You can get very expensive ones (e.g. look up Thermarest Neo Air mats) and ridiculously cheap ones, like this one which you often see when Lidl have their camping sales on: I've got all of the above, and I absolutely rate all of them. So long as their design has lots of tightly-packed, narrow air ribs, then they're going to keep you from touching the floor, which will both keep you warm as well as comfortable. (I always got dead arms trying to sleep on self-inflating mats as they're just not as soft as these inflating ones.) If there are two of you, you can get ones which will clip together side by side to make a double. Also, at Glastonbury, I use two of them (one on top of the other, held together in a cotton sleeping bag liner) to make them deeper - in terms of comfort, it's amazing. There is no contest in terms of pack size - the one in the video above packs down to the size of a can of coke. Self-inflating ones are way bigger than this because they contain a layer of foam inside. Sleeping bags etc... This is definitely a personal preference thing, but one thing that's certain is that the most compact way of having warmth is going for a down-filled product, which are usually quite expensive. If you go for a synthetic bag, it's usually at least twice the size of a down bag for the same warmth-rating. But down requires special treatment, e.g. when storing it, you need to leave it uncompressed, and only squeeze it into its little travel bag for the least amount of time possible. And you have to avoid washing it as far as possible, but when you do, use special cleaning products, and dry it in a particular way - i.e. rapidly in a tumble dryer. But personally, I hate sleeping bags so I go for a down camping duvet as it packs down incredibly small, but is still warm and allows you to move around. My one is hellishly expensive, but there are cheaper ones available - you'll have to do a bit of Googling to try and work out if they're any good.

Here you go.

Wally's. I believe the last year was 2017:

Islamic socks update... I'd never heard of these things until reading the post above, so decided at £11.50 per pair, it was worth a punt. Have since put them to a comprehensive test (a few nights camping with wet ground, very hot temperatures and walking around on sharp/rough terrain without shoes) and they're still comfortable, dry and no sign of wear and tear. Despite the eBay listing describing them as being for this Islamic foot-washing ritual, the actual packaging simply describes them as waterproof breathable outdoor activities socks. Thanks for the heads-up: very happy with these.

Love this. When I can be bothered responding to the regular categorical pronouncements that wellies will destroy your feet and fall off etc, I go with the grown-up, nuanced angle that this is a personal thing - some of us can wear wellies all day without any problems at all. However, if ever there was a thread where it's okay to return fire with a non-nuanced 'wellies are just better than walking boots' claim, it's this one.

Re. WBC: the staffing model is that they've got a list of groups that provide volunteers. As WBC is a union-owned organisation, they lean towards union groups, political/social campaigning groups and 'grass roots' organisations, e.g. local charities providing services to working class communities. The groups request Glastonbury places around the beginning of the year, and WBC decide how many to give each group, according to their hierarchy - e.g. any group raising funds for a union which is currently on strike will go to the top of the list. It's then up to each group to provide the volunteers it's promised, and WBC will pay approximately £8 to that group for every hour that each volunteer works. WBC centrally will also be making some profit, and they've used that for various campaigns and projects, e.g. they were prominent in the campaign to legalise same-sex marriage in Ireland a few years ago.

( @philipsteak re. the Lidl coffee maker.) It says it's adjustable which, given the form-factor, means it's going to be a burr grinder. So for making filter coffee, the output is going to be more than good enough, although it might be slow and fiddly to use. Your hand grinder (Hario?) will no doubt be better, but if you're not making Espresso that's not a big deal. I agree that there's probably something wrong with it at that price, but you can never tell with Lidl - occasionally they have some really good stuff at silly prices. (My opinion may be different in a couple of hours after my trial run of the poncho I bought today...)

The brand you're thinking of is Berocca, but apart from providing you with the tiny amount of salt you're likely to need from sweating at a festival (and would get from your food anyway) all these things are just placebos - a big sugar tablet in a pint of water which you'll be convinced has cut through your hangover. Scientists have been working on hangover cures for years and these things aren't it. They're a fairly refreshing thing to be drinking in the morning though, so there's no harm in them.

(After a frustrating battle with the forum's daft IP banning 'feature' - hope the following is worth it...) Yes they can be, as the waterproofing is done by the Goretex membrane (or eVent or whatever version they're using) whilst the fabric is just to sandwich the thin membrane to protect it. Two things can go wrong with this though: If the boot design doesn't result in your foot being completely enclosed in a Goretex bag, then the water will get in through the gaps. Two common areas where this happens are (1) the bit where it laces up (the tongue needs to be joined to the rest of the boot all the way up, like a wellie with a pleat folded into the front of it) and (2) poor stitching, or whatever they've stuck it together with. So you need to do a search for reviews to check whether your boots have got any design flaws like this, and also test them out in some deep puddles to make sure. After you've used them for a long time, the waterproof coating will wear off the fabric. Although this isn't the Goretex, it still has an important role to play - it ensures any water on the fabric 'beads' and rolls off. If it doesn't, then the fabric will get sodden where, next to the Goretex, it will block the pores (so the Goretex is no longer breathable) and if the material is really sodden you will actually force moisture back through the pores into your boot when your foot presses against it. This is the reason for using those waterproofing sprays or wash-in products like NikWax etc. - not for the Goretex, but to try and keep the fabric from getting sodden. (Spoiler: they don't work that well in my experience - once your Goretex gear has worn out, you can never get it working as well as when it was new.) For those of us who can hike all day in wellies without any problems, it's comforting to know you've got an emergency pair in your tent.

Facking right mate! Fakking peedos every fackingwhere! That facking Q Anon had the right facking idea - Hilary Clinton should have been hanged for all the facking kiddies she killed and ate in that pizza restaurant. I've no more knowledge about the Dalai Llama's proclivities than you, but the likelihood that a media-savvy bloke like him would decide a very public meeting would be the perfect opportunity to get his rocks off with a child have to be very, very low. But debating this sort of thing with a populist like yourself is pointless - simple lies always beat complicated truths.