DTichborne

Yep. I don't have a ticket this year and that line up looks great. There are a good few acts on there that aren't for me, but the idea that I wouldn't be able to find anything I wanted to watch on at least one stage at any given time. Does nobody ever do the maths that if they liked the entire lineup, they'd have a tenfold (or more) clash at all times?

It's the stage where only about 5% of people can see past the flags. I much prefer it when my headliners of choice are elsewhere!

To everyone who went to Glastonbury this year, congratulations on going to the only dry UK festival of 2023. 🙂

I had a great time as a first timer and again, was very happy at how the site is virtually mud-proof. Looking at pictures of Bluedot, Tramlines and others, I know how lucky we were. That said, after a tough couple of years and not being a youngster anymore, we splashed out on the luxury camping which was fantastic, but I realise that the ability to do this at all (funded by money saved when Covid stopped us doing anything for 18 months) was a privilege. And everyone should expect the basics to be gotten right. In the arena, that seems to have been the case - the toilets were by far the best I've ever known at a festival - but they need to get it right in the campsites too. I've seen that next year tickets are £290 (and that's earlybird). That's not far off Glastonbury prices (which gets you five days of entertainment as opposed to three and a half), so people have the right to demand that things are done well. Not sure how I felt about the massive number of trailers, and the amount of space taken up by people who basically camped out in one spot for the day - but as a non-parent I should probably not be too judgmental.

Well, as posted above by someone, I'm very impressed as to how the site holds up when it rains all day.

You are lucky. The site is currently 50% wasp. (am having a good time)

First time. Why did nobody warn me about the wasps? 🙂

Maybe forget I said this.

The emoji clue for one of Sunday's sets makes it sound like it could be an episode of the Off Menu podcast rather than just James Acaster, but I guess that's down to whether Ed Gamble is hanging about for the entire weekend...

Crossing fingers tentatively, the weather forecast is starting to look considerably more pleasant. All that said, where I've always thought that anyone who prefers a muddy Glastonbury year to a dry one is mad, there's no way I would want what a lot of mainland Europe is currently contending with.

I am starting to think that we might be going to find out exactly how robust the site is in the face of lots of rain. It's currently due to rain every day, right the way from now up to the festival and beyond, having already been raining on and off for several days straight...

I've been to over 20 and this was the first year I haven't applied for tickets. Latitude this year, Bluedot next. Then I'll start applying for tickets again. Done with the big hike though, we're going to go in Sticklinch if we are successful.

I once took a boot to the face and left the venue with blood streaming down it. In summary: almost as bad as flags. 🙂

If you're any distance back from the Pyramid Stage (as in, more than 10000 or so people back which is most people), you don't see the teeny tiny people. You see flags. And obviously the tall people/hats thing is not an equivalent answer for many reasons but to start with... 1) if a tall person is directly in front of you, a little shift to the left or right means you can see, which doesn't work with flags and 2) same applies for hats, plus very few people buy those anymore.

I think this is it. I enter the site via Gate D and camp very near to it in the aforementioned "never busy" spot. It's a field where you go to the back, camp by the fence, everyone camps in front of you and nobody spots there's still room at the back. And it's near the Sticklinch entrance to the site. That's enough clues. 🙂

I'm surprised by people's view that Sticklinch is a big walk. It's next to our secret camping spot we've used for 10+ years now, and that's only a short walk from the Other Stage. By "secret", I mean a place we go every year where there's loads of room for the entire weekend and almost no through traffic. I'm kind of afraid to say where it is, but let's just say you could get to the Sticklinch entrance/exit on foot in a couple of minutes.

The one and only chance I ever had to see The Rolling Stones and I did not *see* The Rolling Stones. How do I feel about this? Imagine you're in a room with a dimmer switch and you want the lights off, and the other person wants the lights on. So their compromise is to put the dimmer switch halfway. Which means the lights are on. Anyway, I've wanged on about this enough in another thread.

Having done both many times, give me a warm year with hat/sun lotion/hydration/minimal daytime alcohol over any of the mud years.

You're absolutely right, but that's kind of the nature of all Internet forums. It's OK to blow off steam from time to time. I'm normally pretty chilled but these posts in isolation, if you don't know me, will make that look untrue. Ah well. (I did write to them about this once)

Objectively untrue, especially on a sloped field. A couple of people pointing out that this comes up every year. Maybe there's a reason for that. Maybe there's a reason every other festival stops it, so that everyone who's paid can see the stage. And as for the suggestion that this is like complaining that Download is too loud, that's false equivalence at its worst. There is no other respect in which I'm saying "you know what's needed? More rules"... just this particular one where I'm suggesting that a few hundred people stopping most people from being able to see anything is selfish.

This is the thing I hear more than anything else. Where do you start? Maybe you're there with friends. You have "a spot". Move somewhere and block the view of others who have their spot. And wherever you move, unless you shove right down the front, this is your view for big acts now. The maths of everyone moving so they can see round the flags does not compute.

Tonight, 5000 people will see Elton John and 95000 people will not. That's not fair for the people that would like to see him, which I'll wager is more people than would like to see the flags.

Watch the Sparks set, and realise it's all going to be fine.

They were magnificent when I saw them on the Other Stage a few years ago. Utterly uncompromising, no "hello Glastonbury" during the set, not even a thank you at the end. Which sounds like it's rude when I write it down like that, but on the day it came across as something of a statement. Looking forward to watching this on catchup later, and seeing them at Latitude next month.

I loved the Gorillaz set a few years back, only to see bad reviews for it afterwards because it wasn't wall to wall bangers. Seems like the same has happened here.