First time at Glastonbury in 09

[tazzyb]

Glastonbury cannot be compared to any other festival in my opinion.

To all the people who have been to other festivals and loved it. You have not seen anything yet!

It was my other halfs first Glastonbury this year. He has been to Leeds and V Stafford loads. I spent weeks trying to explain to him what Glastonbury was like from the size of it, to what goes on. Took me ages to get him to understand when your in your in. No seperation between camping and whats going on. You should have seen his face when he saw that you could camp so close to the stages lol. He also could not understand why we were taking so much alcohol. I never buy any drink when I am in there. Did take him for some brothers cider though and now he is a massive fan.

What summed his Glastonbury experience up for me it when we were in the car leaving on Monday morning. He turned to me and said why when you have been to Glastonbury do you even bother going to any other festivals. He had a point and they only thing I could think of is Leeds is close and V always has bands on that I like. But then again to me V is just a gig with camping.

[pie_and_a_pint]

For me, other festivals are gigs with campsites. Glastonbury is home.

[steve269]

Im in the same boat as you, only been to one festival and that was Reading this year

Glasto needs to be amazing to even get close to reading

[mikeb]

I hear everybody talking about the great cider here. problem is, I don't like cider. Is there an alternative drink there? I.e. Beer?

Edited October 10, 2008 by mikeb

[WildChildRockChick]

Im used to it being wet as its always p'd it down when ive gone but the arena was like a swimming pool this year it was ridiculous!! was so annoyed they canceled the first bands on the sunday grrr. I got my tickets for 09 but dont know if i wil be going in 10 as the tickets this year are £210 so god no's how much they will be the year after, dont think its worth paying that much

[xxtinkerbellxx]

£210? Isn't V over 2 days?! Wow, makes all the others look cheap!

[WildChildRockChick]

Fri,sat, sun but that only includes bands on the sat n sun and the first two acts on every stage were cancelled this year on the sunday grrr. You have to pay £10 for the stage times aswell

[xxtinkerbellxx]

Hence why im trying glastonbury this year

[kohoutec]

How's it different to Reading? Better? Worse?

[scappaflow]

Folks, you can't underestimate how attached people get to their own festival.

I love T in the Park - hunners of people from my home-town go and I would never miss it. It's a great venue to see 20+ bands over a weekend.

People in Scotland are fairly patriotic at the best of times but I remember in 07 watching Scissor Sisters (we were in the circle for KoL and just decided to stay in for Snow Patrol... but feck just 2 festivals ago Snow Patrol AND Scissor Sisters were ahead of KoL on a bill... how fckd up does that sound!)

Anyways... I'm drifting on here. Anna Metronic or whatever she's called starting telling a story and started it off with; I went to Glastonbury last month... she got immediately booed and jeered. She was a bit shocked, but I'd imagine that a lot of the festivals like V and Leeds etc, crowds would have a similar reaction to the mention of that big festival in Somerset where it floods at the slightest shower, is full of rich kids from the South East, doesn't have as good a line-up as the big music-only festivals etc and still get's media overload each year!

They love their festival and some of the weekends at T have been so amazing that I do genuinely wonder what Glasto will be like to better it considerably, as it seems no one even considers for a minute that it won't be better than every other festival.

[xxtinkerbellxx]

I'd say the type of people who go to V are the same sort i would expect at Glasto, everyone is so laidback and friendly apart from the occasional tos**r u get who is mainly there to get as drunk as he can. I would say the line up at glasto is better than v aswell. Nearly the whole of the v line up plays apart from maybe the headliners but at glastonbury you also have another 348394839393 stage on top of that!!

[ivan]

For the last 8 years I have done all the Leeds , back to the V days , Glastonbury and 5 V Staffords

and I have to say I have never seen any animosity towards Glasto from anyone at Leeds or V.

Most festival goers I have spoke to who have not been to Glasto , would like to go. And TBH when you

look at the line ups they all share the same bands to a certain extent.

Like Tinkerbell said you would expect the same people at V as you would Glasto , and I am no dout one of

thousands that would be seen at both.

Believe it or not , the biggest a'hole I have ever come across in over 20 years of festivals was as Glasto this

year. A random stranger was talking to me and my friend in our open scout tent , I nipped back to my tent

and when I came back he was on his knees in front of her , trying to lift her top up ! I threatened to fetch

my tent hammer (he was Canadian by the way !!!! - no offence to Canadians !!).

Personally I do think there are some Glasto regulars that think any festival such as V or Leeds is below them.

[Boris]

That's a pretty weird story mate!... He was assaulting her?

[Joshuwarr]

Folks, you can't underestimate how attached people get to their own festival.

I love T in the Park - hunners of people from my home-town go and I would never miss it. It's a great venue to see 20+ bands over a weekend.

People in Scotland are fairly patriotic at the best of times but I remember in 07 watching Scissor Sisters (we were in the circle for KoL and just decided to stay in for Snow Patrol... but feck just 2 festivals ago Snow Patrol AND Scissor Sisters were ahead of KoL on a bill... how fckd up does that sound!)

Anyways... I'm drifting on here. Anna Metronic or whatever she's called starting telling a story and started it off with; I went to Glastonbury last month... she got immediately booed and jeered. She was a bit shocked, but I'd imagine that a lot of the festivals like V and Leeds etc, crowds would have a similar reaction to the mention of that big festival in Somerset where it floods at the slightest shower, is full of rich kids from the South East, doesn't have as good a line-up as the big music-only festivals etc and still get's media overload each year!

They love their festival and some of the weekends at T have been so amazing that I do genuinely wonder what Glasto will be like to better it considerably, as it seems no one even considers for a minute that it won't be better than every other festival.

[WildChildRockChick]

Hence why im trying glastonbury this year

[amfy]

Glastonbury is by far and away my favourite of those I have been to but that doesn't mean that I think everyone will like it best. Some people look for different stuff out of their fetivals and will enjoy other stuff better. I have done V a few times and always had a great time, but it's nowhere near the Glastonbury experience for me.

I know I won't do Leeds/Reading because the music isn't heavily enough my thing, although I like some of it - that "some of it" will be at Glastonbury. For people who are heavily into that style, Reading/Leeds might be the one for them, although i still think most would have a great time at Glastonbury too. I love Glastonbury for the musical mix, because I like so much different stuff, and it also opens my ears to stuff I wouldn't normally listen too as well.

I'm not in a position to comment on the atmosphere/people at Reading Leeds because I haven't been, but my experiences of V have been that people have been just as friendly as at Glastonbury.

I love the sprawling random vagueness of Glastonbury - some other people maybe don't like having to walk too far - that's fair enough.

Anyway - each to their own I say, although I do think everyone should try Glastonbury at least once, and I'll still think most will come away agreeing with everyone on here that it's in a class of it's own!

The comment about "floods at the slightest shower" jars a little. On the weekend of Glastonbury 2007, Sheffield, Hull and half of Worcestershire were underwater! Glastonbury does flood when the weather is really bad, but so do alot of places. It is fair to say however, that it's been pretty unlucky weather wise a few times in the last 10 years! Fortunately, this year wasn't one of them.

[scappaflow]

Rich kids from the South East? What are you basing that on? I wouldn't say it floods at the slightest shower, maybe at one of the biggest storms for tens of years though would be a fair comment, and as for the line up that depends what you're into but whatever it is you'll be pushed not to find something that you're into at Glastonbury, which isn't the case for most other festies (if not all).

[mikeb]

Of course it is... and there are many peeps with perceptions based on little more than inaccurate media reports and stereotypical bollox rather than any form of personal experience etc. For instance:

Always cold and wet

Always a mudbath

Full of drugged up hippies

Loads of crime

Too many 'rich' coke sniffing kids/wannabes/celebs

Too many 'dodgy' scousers/mancs/travelers/whatever

Too many 'old' peeps

Cr@p headliners

Too expensive

Not as good as it used to be

Blah, blah, blah

... spring to mind for starters ! Not suggesting that any of those might not have been sort-of true at some specific point in time or place or in some peeps personal opinion regardless perhaps but certainly not all of them all of the time as some idiots would have you believe. If I had £1 for every time that I've allegedly been stupid enough to stand in the middle of some field up to my knees in mud, freezing cold and soaking wet, surrounded by drug crazed hippies and fighting off the scousers trying to rob me, not able to find my tent and be listening to some 3rd world music or second-rate band that no one's ever heard of etc. then ME would have retired years ago cos I'd have had more than enough do$h to buy Worthy Farm and the rights to run the festival myself by now

As for festival "A" is better than Festival "B" ... it would be pretty d@mn boring world if all festivals were much the same and so easily comparable in that way but fortunately, that is about as far from true as it's possible to get. I go to several festivals every year and each one is a really great festival and each one is the best festival ever ... but only when compared to the relevant previous festivals ! I couldn't compare any one festival with another festival because I choose to go to each of them for completely different reasons and therefore it's absolutely impossible to compare them. If I want rock/metal then I don't expect to find it at Glasto so go elsewhere for that every year. Ditto if I want various current big name headliners really because whilst it might well happen at Glasto some years it's far from guaranteed to. I go to Glasto to experience a shedload of stuff that I've never seen and maybe have never even heard of so haven't ever thought of seeing, so it's all primarily about stuff I probably wouldn't see otherwise. Plus an even bigger shedload of non music-related stuff to experience of course, absolutely all of which is stuff that I definitely wouldn't ever see otherwise. None of the other festivals I go to offer me all of that which is why Glasto fits the bill perfectly in addition to several other reasons.

All the festivals I go to do exactly what it says on the tin and a real good time is always had at every single one. However, as variety is always a good thing of course, all my 'tins' are carefully chosen so as to contain different goods and provide a well balanced diet so to speak The time Glasto doesn't offer me 1001 things to see/do but not enough hours in the day to actually check them all out is the time to give up. I defy anyone to go and not be able to find way too much good stuff going on somewhere on site even if the programmed headliners aren't perhaps as 'good' as they would like or as 'good' as [insert other festival here] on paper.

[shoptildrop]

Fri,sat, sun but that only includes bands on the sat n sun and the first two acts on every stage were cancelled this year on the sunday grrr. You have to pay £10 for the stage times aswell

[Poppy80]

Yeah, as the title says, I've only ever done Reading Festival before and I decided to go for Glastonbury this year, as Reading's gotten pretty rubbish compared to previous years. The only problem is, I know f'ck all about Glasto, only what I've seen online.

So, basically, I wanna know what's up with it, what's good, what's bad. How's it different to Reading? Better? Worse? What to expect? Your recommendations for the festival. Anything you can tell me about it would be appreciated.

Cheers

[anitstar]

Yeah, as the title says, I've only ever done Reading Festival before and I decided to go for Glastonbury this year, as Reading's gotten pretty rubbish compared to previous years. The only problem is, I know f'ck all about Glasto, only what I've seen online.

So, basically, I wanna know what's up with it, what's good, what's bad. How's it different to Reading? Better? Worse? What to expect? Your recommendations for the festival. Anything you can tell me about it would be appreciated.

Cheers

[OneLittleFish]

It's my first time too - I was getting very bored of the major commercial festivals such as T in the Park or Rock Ness. I don't like how you pay your money and that's about it, and there are so many different ways of trying to get your money out of your pocket back in their hands - £7 for not very accurate timetables etc. and not much else apart from what's on the stages at that point.

Belladrum Tartan Heart is at the minute my favourite festival closely followed by Connect - I like festivals that offer a variety of music and decent food and drink, plus some extra entertainment. Whether or not it follows the concept of what a festival "should" be (still have no idea what that is), but it's such a different atmosphere when there's no pressure to go and see a band just because it's someone to see.

I'm really looking forward to spending the five days searching for the real Glasto - sure, I'd probably see the likes of Radiohead or Elbow if they played, but I'm looking forward big time to seeing some cabaret, comedy, heading to the Healing Fields and the like and trying new things that I wouldn't necessarily do outside of a festival but kind of feel right in the moment, something I've found you can't really do at many of the other main festivals.

Either way, it's going to be good to try a completely different festival with a proper history to it.

[Paul ™]

Either way, it's going to be good to try a completely different festival with a proper history to it.

[OneLittleFish]

You will love it mate, and I will see you at the Cider Bus

[Paul ™]

I brought you that Strongbow at Belladrum in 2007, the debt is repaid