Mark E. Spliff

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.

Whether or not you believe the 'cultural difference' explanations for why he did this, you've got to be a hardcore The Nal/GB News/"It should be spelled Pedos" merchant to actually believe he was doing this for sexual gratification in front of an audience and cameras. Even the most prolific hiding-in-plain-sight sex offenders made sure they were never filmed doing something anywhere near as jarring as this, as they knew that would bring the flood-gates bursting on them. When you're talking about someone who's spent their entire life being fed a bullshit story about them being a divine entity, then you have to entertain the concept that they might genuinely think some weird shit is normal. I'd be happy for him to be cancelled over this though because any person or book believed to have special divine knowledge is potentially dangerous.

For festivals, your torch is just for slow, close-range stuff like picking your way through guy-ropes and rummaging through your rucksack, so don't need to be bright. Personally, I see brightness as undesirable as you just end up doing the worst 'searching for pants' shadow-puppet show on the wall of your tent, and you might as well pay someone with a trombone to follow you playing your 'going for a 2am shit' theme. The cylindrical ones with loads of little LED bulbs you see for a pound in service stations are ideal as they're unobtrusive in your pocket and the batteries last forever. They also do this budget type as headtorches, which have the advantage of not blinding people when you look at them.

I posted about these things last year, including how to calculate how the power in your higher-voltage power-tool battery converts into charges for your lower-voltage phone. Since then, I've done a few trial runs to decide how many power-tool batteries to bring with me. The batteries I'm using are the 20v ones for Lidl's cheapo 'Parkside' tool range. (Obviously, you need to get a USB adapter which is designed for the particular battery you're using.) My phone has a 4500mAh battery, and I was charging it when it was below 50% - usually between 20 and 30%. A brand new battery is giving 4 and a half charges. A used one is giving 3 and a half. And an old knackered one (judging by the fact that the case is bulging slightly) was giving less - I think 2 and a half. I've got lots of these batteries, so the only limitation on how much power I bring with me is how many I can be arsed to carry. My next test is going to be on my trusty 20,000mAh power bank, which I've used for quite a few Glastonburys and seems to still be going strong. Top tip: whatever you're using, when you get home from Glasto, charge it up fully, then use it enough to bring it down to 50% and 75% charge before stowing it away for next year. In most cases, the reason people are complaining that their power bank wasn't reliable is that they either let them fully discharge or stored them fully charged, both of which can damage lithium batteries.

I'm bringing an old mate for his first Glastonbury this year, and as always with newcomers, I'm deliberately being low-key about it all - it's just a festival with a few big bands, and the chance of bad weather and queues etc. I'll answer any specific questions he's got, but I'm not going on about it being in any way special. My first Glastonbury was when a mate gave me an an out-of-the-blue opportunity to work it, a couple of days before it started. This meant that when I arrived on site, I had almost no idea what it was all about, which made it all that much more of a blast. It's unlikely that anyone will have that level of naivety these days, with wall-to-wall YouTube and social media footage, but I reckon the less he's hyped about it in advance, the better it will be when he gets there.

Thanks for writing all the above, as even I've become bored of hearing me making similar points whenever hydrostatic head has been discussed on here. Those of us old enough to remember canvas scout tents (or wealthy hipster enough to have a current mega-expensive yurt or bell-tent) will know that a material with effectively zero hydrostatic head can keep the rain out just fine so long as it's designed, pitched and used correctly. ('Used correctly' means not having things touching the inside of the tent, which then become the easiest path for rain on the outside to travel down to the ground.) Conversely, a tent made from thick plastic would have an astronomically high hydrostatic head, but you really wouldn't want to try to sleep in one.

Agree that there's no harm in genuinely resurrecting an old discussion - in fact, it's a good thing as it shows someone has taken the time to search for an answer rather than just start yet another 'are we allowed to visit the farm when the festival isn't on?' thread... It's when a 10 year-old thread is resurrected by someone who's apparently desperate to say something along the lines of "hey mates, this topic is very excellent, thank you please" that the alarm bells start ringing. Here's an example of what I was talking about in my previous response: a thread which appears to be entirely populated with (and created by?) spam-bots. You'll notice that the last inane post has been edited, and I'm pretty sure that will have been to include the link - which, in my opinion, you'd have to be extremely daft to click on:

We'll never find out with that one as he/she/it has been booted before they got the chance, but their usual modus operandi is to post a bit of inane drivel on a few threads before starting to drop in links to whatever they're spamming. One recent example kept posting links to something that purported to be an essay-writing website, but which is more likely to have been a malicious link in disguise - I'll never find out as I'll never click on one. They often resurrect dormant threads to add a completely inane mix of Google Translate and AI, and this is so conspicuous/incompetent that it makes me assume it's just the work of bots programmed to churn out a set number of fake discussion posts before inserting the links. They must have a reasonable success rate because people seem to just carry on with the discussion, even when it's a thread from several years ago that's been resurrected for no reason.

Do you get notified if I click on 'report?' I used to do it for obvious spammers and bots, but it was never clear that these were going through to anyone so I gave up a few years back.

For those that haven't spotted - this thread is from someone asking about Glastonbury 2022. It's only popped back up because a spammer (RichardHoxie) has resurrected it with an inane GoogleTranslate comment.

Artist liaison on a smaller stage with an interesting combination of music, spoken word and comedy. The advantage of this sort of stage is that there are plenty of interesting acts hanging around and on stage, without any primadonnas or industry hangers-on. Plus you have the key to the rider store and artists often don't drink all their booze, so you're never short and can host a pretty big party at the end.

There is a possible explanation for myocarditis with Covid vaccines, and it's not the vaccine itself, but the way it's administered. Covid vaccines are supposed to be injected into muscle/fat from where they'll gradually diffuse into the rest of the body. However, if it's accidentally injected into arterial blood vessels, then your heart can be damaged. The correct way to prevent this is via 'aspiration' which basically means giving a small tug on the syringe plunger to check it doesn't pull blood into the syringe, so you know you're not injecting into a blood vessel. This will apply to all sort of injections - not just the Covid vaccine. I assume @StLewi has already heard of this, but if not here's a video of someone who was similarly affected. The guy is a mountain biking legend, but the GP who's interviewing him is a click-bait tosser: he knows the science behind this stuff, but always uses video titles which will attract the anti-vax nutters, who worship him as a hero. A cynical approach which has gained him millions of lunatic subscribers on YouTube. (The relevant bit starts at 20.30.) The positive from all of this is that this mountain biker guy has now recovered and is back in the saddle, and would no doubt whip my arse on a climb. In terms of stats, all the Covid vaccines continue to be under close and open scrutiny, and the evidence for their safety continues to be stronger than for any other medicine you'll ever take.

This is true, but the big outfits (security, bars etc.) will be using some form of digital 2-way radio, which won't interfere with the walkie-talkies you'd buy from Argos. I've used one of said Argos walkie-talkies many years ago at Glastonbury, and there was often someone else using whichever channel you'd selected - either individuals or smaller traders. We did find them fun to use, but not really practical as it's usually too noisy to hear someone calling you or hold a conversation. On the drive home, there were a few of us in separate cars talking to each other and being very impressed by the distance over which they still worked.

I don't think he's been himself with all the stuff that's been going on lately - probably still angry about those Just Stop Oil protesters breaking the law.

It is on US forums, but when used by a new poster on a UK forum, it's almost always a spammer. However, after reading Benali's post above, I googled the Gilla Band and am not as sure about the OP as I was - i.e. they sound like the sort of band that might knowingly do a clunky forum post.

And they started their post with 'Hi guys'... Other than actually having 'TROLL OR SPAMMER' tattooed on their forehead, I'm not sure what else they can do to make it more obvious.

I didn't get fined, but I did get a fairly long prison sentence and put on a register. I'm assuming they'd have been less strict if I'd known the kids? (Your fault: if you didn't let obvious spammers/scammers resurrect threads like this unchallenged, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do a shit joke.)

I'm sure you've got some good points to make here, so sleep it off and try again tomorrow.

Not into that sort of metal and I genuinely don't know which of the bands I'm into have sex offenders in them - but I'm sure some of them will have: law of averages and all that. But if I start falsely telling the world that I never liked a band's music because of what their band member did, then I'm either a coward or someone with something to hide. It's the time-honoured "if I shout louder that she's a witch than the rest of the mob, then they won't think I'm a witch" tactic.

Fuck me - it must be a nightmare making your decisions on whether you find something enjoyable based on other aspects of the creator's life. You'd have no time to post pointless photos of your meal on Instagram as you'd be too busy Googling the chef's back-story to find out if you're enjoying it. If you're in this category, then I've got one word for you: Quakers. Porridge isn't the most exciting meal you'll ever eat, and Quaker hip hop hasn't quite caught on yet, but you can be reasonably confident that you won't be reading about their depraved shiny buckled shoe antics in The Sun and realising you didn't like these things after all.