DeanoL

Yeah but like me you're already seriously considering not going so it doesn't really take much to push you over the line!

It'd make it overall worse though. There are a lot of veggie options already, you need the same number of food stalls in total, so assuming you're currently taking the best 20% of those who want to trade, with a balance of meat, veggie and vegan - you then have to go further down the list as you lose the top 20% meat offerings and instead have the top 40% veggie/vegan places. I was being tongue in cheek but it's the same as if you dropped an entire genre of music. Yeah, you could backfill the dance with "good" indie/rock/guitar bands, but overall quality would drop as you'd be going further down the list.

Bristol 😄

If we are doing that, let's get rid of all the dance music. Wouldn't miss that either.

Different people innit.

Oh it can be done. It's just if there's any environmental benefit left after it's been done. For all their faults, Glasto aim their green policies at where they can actually make meaningful reductions and not just greenwashing. You'd probably be limited to restocking bars overnight, realistically, because of traffic. So you'd need maybe a million hard plastic glasses? Average of five drinks per person on site per day. Plus some of those will get "lost" by people who just dump them because they're too lazy/out-of-it/stupid to do otherwise. Plus it seems a lot of festivals doing this these days are doing a "branded festival cups on the last day and take them home with you" rather refunding the deposit, which is nice, but pushes the problem further down the road. We have 6 plastic pint cups from festivals this year alone in the cupboard. I'll be honest, come next year some will be going in the bin....

Sziget is also in a city which probably has nearby industrial cleaning facilities.

(I'd also suspect shards of broken ceramics may be as much of an issue as broken glass for the farm)

I think if all the paper coffee cups vanished off-site you'd barely notice the difference at Glastonbury. They're so heavily outnumbered by the pints.

Generally the way these schemes work is they swap your reusable glass each time, they get cleaned overnight. The volumes involved at Glasto (plus the distance to somewhere they can be cleaned) is too large. There's likely sufficient health issues with just re-using the same glass over and over - I think when it's optional, organisers can sort say "well it's not advised but people can take the risk if they want" but I think you'd struggle to get it signed off as the only option. Plus the taps are busy enough without adding in 200,000 people cleaning their reusable cups every day... (I think at Glastonbury currently they won't even fill your own container for H&S reasons)

Entrance ones are big enough for sure, but a small backpack is way more comfortable. (The Guardian backpack ones are pretty good though)

Answer is "I don't know because I no idea about their life, health and situation"

To be fair I have looked at people with massive stuffed shorts and thought "wouldn't a backpack be more comfortable"?

No but there's a point at which I can't fit stuff in my pocket so I might as well take a day bag. For me that part is when I get as far on your list as "water bottle". Doesn't fit in my pocket. Sure as sh*t not also fitting wine in there! I don't wear baggy shorts is why. Don't like them even unloaded, definitely don't like them with weight in the pockets banging against my leg. A small backpack is *way* more comfortable. And once you're taking that, no harm in throwing a jumper for the evening in there too. And yeah, I don't know how some people manage to take such large bags but then in the same way you can't see unlike you I need suncreen (as I burn easy) and bog roll (IBS) I'm sure there are probably legit reasons why they need other stuff.

So what you're both telling me is you basically take a day bag but strap it around your legs?

The day bags are to hold my water bottle (need to keep hydrated), sun tan lotion (I burn), toilet roll (IBS), painkillers. Honestly I don't know how people manage without a day bag. Some people over-do it with the beer but then I think, well yeah if you're going to drink 48 cans that'd be £250 at the bar so I can understand.

Yup, the only thing making us consider it in the future is Lovefields self pitch option. Means we can use our blackout tent and are closer to the bit of the fest we spend most time in. But that or Worthy View basically double the cost of a ticket. And with what I mentioned upthread the value just isn't there for us anymore. The price increase on this years' base ticket alone was putting it on the edge, glamping pushes it over.

It's one of those things where the solutions compound the problems though. The older I get, the less able I am to carry heavy stuff, but the more stuff I "need" to be comfortable. Need a bigger tent as can't get dressed lying down anymore. Need a camping chair as my back can't take five days without being able to sit on something with a backrest. Need a bigger mattress because the pain in my side means I can't sleep on the floor anymore. Need more drugs for various ailments. Need more changes of clothes because I sweat loads more, need a bigger sleeping bag because my body gets colder at night... it's all small things but it all adds up. I've actually been using the same backpack for 20 years, I bought it for my first Glastonbury. It used to mostly have cans in it. These days it gets filled up with the basics (which is fine, because if it has cans in it, I wouldn't be able to carry it anyway). Honestly I don't know how old you are, but I certainly know I was one of those 20-somethings that would look at people with trolleys or doing multiple car runs and going "that's totally unnecessary" whereas now I see it very differently.

Yeah maybe I'm wrong and the Pier is as good as Arcadia and Shangri-La after all.

I mean, I guess that's what I am getting at. In this thread we've had three people defend the pier - one who actually loves it, one who loves it but not enough to actually visit it this year, and one who thinks it's great but has never actually been. I think with pretty much the entire rest of the festival, you'll find someone who'll say "that's my favourite bit". There are people for whom Croissant Neuf is their favourite stage. I've never seen anyone *excited* about the pier. I'm not arguing that it's sh*t, just that's it's not amazing and honestly doesn't feel like it's going to develop into anything amazing either. (Which, y'know, given it's meant to be a UK seaside town pier, is pretty much spot on)

I guess what I mean is, are you excited to check out The Pier again next year? Do you think anyone really is?

I'm not sure Cinarmaggedon or the pier have really been "winners". I know ICONN has had a mixed reception too although I really don't know enough about that sort of music to judge.

Yeah and that'd be massively risky, which is why I think it's not really happened over the past ten years. When the site still had space, you could give the newbies a small space to try and make something happened, and if it worked, it could grow into something bigger, or even replace something already existing once that group and thing had proved it could work and had some appeal. So you either gamble, or you find more space. (cf. rumours about moving more camping out of the festival to fit in more venues)

I think it goes back much further than that. 2007/2008 when you had The Park and Shangri-La were the last real innovations. The Pier, IICON, nu-Arcadia, Rimski's Yard, Cinarmaggedon, Carhenge... they've all been developed by existing teams and many of them haven't really worked out well. The one thing I think that really has is the The Wood, which was fantastic this year and really developed slowly since 2016. I can also certainly see that things like the Spider are so synonymous with Glastonbury it'd almost be like ditching the Pyramid stage at this point, but do we really still need the (not so) secret piano bar? You have a point that things will change slowly and that's also why I'm not saying "never again" - I think going back in five years might be interesting as a lot more will have changed by then. It's just not something I need to try and do every year anymore. I've been to every one since 2003 and I think somewhere around 2013 it stopped being a defining part of my personality and life and became something I just did. I've noticed more and more when talking to new work colleagues and they're like "you're going to Glastonbury, wow" and I'm sort of just shrugging - "yeah it'll be a fun weekend". The excitement isn't there anymore.