Best & Worst Glastonbury Experiences

[UEF]

This moment following the flashmob at Glastonbury 2011 will go down as one of the best experiences of my life ever.

Edited October 22, 2012 by UEF

[Mrs*E*]

worst - 1st time of going in '98, all of it

Best - going back and having a great but different time each time I go

[MadCampingNut]

Only been once, last year. So.....

Worst: Fri walking towards the pyramid stage through a little opening was muddy as hell nearly loosing my welli in the thick mud. Thinking two more days of this is gonna be the end of me.

Best: Walking up to the stone circle and sitting up there for a few hours watching the sunrise on the sunday morning over Glasto!!

[zero000]

Best: Orbital in 2010, which was absolutely amazing. I'd never seen them before and didn't know what to expect but they were amazing!

Either that or a random Saturday night after Chemical Brothers in 2011. We intended to go to Arcadia but our friend was too drunk so we had to take him back to the tent. What followed after that was a wonder around the greenfields until 6am. Meeting loads of great people and wrestling then falling asleep in a sand pit.

Worst: Probably 2009. When I booked tickets I was meant to be going with a load of friends and my girlfriend of the time. By the time Glastonbury had come around we'd broken up and it turned out she had cheated on me with one of my friends who she was then going out with who was also coming. Pretty grim!

Edited October 22, 2012 by zero000

[TheSeventhOne]

Best: Probably being very drunk and having the most ridiculously joyful dance with a random person I'd just met to Passion Pit.

Worst: Getting phenomenally high and drinking too much far too early in the day, which led to me passing out in my tent and missing The Flaming Lips.

[Mardy]

OMG. Thank you. Best news ever. Now all I need is enough money to buy the rights to all his 'music'

to propa rid the world of him.

James Blunt has called time on his musical career, saying he wants to 'take more time for himself'.

Music career...LOL.

Apologies to Blunt fans.

[Krazypinkminx]

This moment following the flashmob at Glastonbury 2011 will go down as one of the best experiences of my life ever.

[Krazypinkminx]

THis was one of my best moments too, I am on a lot of the you tube videos ha ha excellent feel that day

[UEF]

THis was one of my best moments too, I am on a lot of the you tube videos ha ha excellent feel that day

[Krazypinkminx]

Oh wicked, I read all about the build up on Twitter, and was determined to get there on time, we did and it was great, lots of people there but would have been amazing to get elbow there to see it, they said they were flattered or something,lol

[LondonTom]

Russy is going come in here and explode over the love of flash mobs

[Mr.Tickle]

Best : Hard to say but that moment in 2007 when the rain drops sparkled in the lasers of the Other stage as the Chemicals played that just made all the rain of the weekend seem insignificant.

Worst : The rain in 2007 was bad but didn't dampen my spirits as it was my first Glasto, it was the year after 2008 on Friday when it was raining again and I just didn't think I could handle the mud we'd had the previous year. I went back to the tent defeated and slept for a couple of hours. (on the bright side when I woke up it was sunny and the site dried out within 2 hours)

[Mr.Tickle]

2008 - best - the weather, sitting on The Park hill with a cig and cider looking at the site

[Ted Dansons Wig]

It was pretty lovely after there was an initial downpour on the Thursday night I think it was. I dried up really quickly. I remember the ground was cracked and as dry as a bone by Saturday

[MrsRookin]

Best was probably pulp last year - the sun had come out, was with my best mates dancing like lunatics, best feeling in the world!

Worst was shortly after pulp last year. Overdid the vodka and somehow managed to give my mates the slip, and proceeded to spend hours crawling up and down the ditches either side of the railway tracks down by the naughty corner. My friends were searching the medical tents for me. I eventually staggered into our camp at 5am with mud EVERYWHERE, sobbing and hysterical about my ordeal, then discovered that my best mate who had been even more drunk than me had vomited on my toothbrush.

[moheetoes]

Best - too many to mention, but buying blankets from Oxfam blanket stall in 2010 and tying them to a pergola in Jazz World with our tent ropes to create some shade - made new friends as they stopped for a bit of respite from the fierce sun.

Worst - 2007 rain was tough going, 2004 losing my mobile in the mud and subsequently losing my group of friends became one of the worst to best times - I wandered off solo and saw things I probably wouldn't have come across otherwise.

[The Goo Goo Doll]

My favourite moment at the festival site was actually believe it or not the Pilton Party this year. Before anything really kicked off I was just sat with a group of my favourite people on earth as the darkness crept in. The atmosphere was great and the cider was just starting to take effect and I had one of those moments where I realised just how much I love my friends and how much I'm going to miss them when I go to Uni in America next year. They really do mean the world to me so to be able to spend Glastonbury with them all again next year will be amazing.

My best moment from the festival itself however is probably from 2010. We were stood 4th row for one of my favourite bands (Muse) hotly anticipating my first ever pyramid headliner and my friend took out a pocket mirror and held it up. We could see the thousands of people behind us stretch out for what seemed like miles in the dark. It was beautiful, I couldn't really believe it.

My worst moment has also got to be in 2010. The sun was ruthless and subsequently I became ill. My friends were watching a band they were huge fans of at The Other Stage and I was with them but decided that I just needed to get out so told them I was just popping to the loo and would be back (didn't want them leaving for me). However this was my first festival and I had no idea where the nearest toilets were so I ended up at the portaloos in the Kidz Field (I think). God knows how I missed the toilets at the back of the Other Stage but I was ill and young so forgive me. Still I made a full recovery thanks to the tree house cafe and the crafts fields. So not too bad really.

[Chimps in Balaclavas]

Best moment was probably 2000 my 1st Glasto, I felt like a kid in Disneyland.

Worst moment - I thought it was just me, I'm a pussy when it comes to too much sun but after reading this thread, I now feel like less of a sun pussy.

It has to be 2010's sun, it was a killer, I felt like I was baking alive. Looking for trees & bushes to hide from the sun, even chasing the small shadows around the Ice-cream van by the pyramid just to seek refuge in. It was probably the only time I wished for rain at Glasto.

[dorlomin]

Best moment was Radiohead 03. It was one of those "I was there" things.

Worst, every single Glastonbury the Monday morning, not that I am leaving but the utter pig stye people leave behind.

"Funny" story was leaving my brother in charge of getting transport sorted in 2000. He reckoned all he had to do was turn up to Victoria and get a bus, no booking needed. We eventually got a train that took us to Castle Cary where there was an epic queue. So not quite getting our geography right we walked, few hours later, much cursing and unhappyness we eventually found a tiny corner of the festival we could squeeze our tent into.

[rhysieg]

ive only been 2 years (2010,2011) but have to say sun is definitely a good thing, and should not be included in anybodies worst moments, i know it was intense in 2010 to say the least but having now experienced muddy glastonbury id sell my soul to have 2010 weather repeated. NFRNFC

BEST:

2010 on the wednesday night of my first ever glastonbury, somebody gave me a pill up the stone circle. i was never really into any drugs then bar the odd spliff. all i remember is being in a tent playing (shite) music, think it was called the queens head, i was just having the best time dancing around with strobe lights blaring. i remember they were playing rihanna - umberella at one point ...dont ask me how that moment is one of my best memories, but i guess it was the euphoria built up by being there for the first time combined with the pill.

also walking up to the glastonbury sign by the park in 2011, i didnt go up there in 2010 and i couldnt believe my eyes when i turned round and saw the view. magnificent. cant wait to get up there next year just to sit there with a cold can, one of my favourite places on site.

WORST:

ive never had a bad experience on site. but after 2011 i was hit with what you could call post glastonbury blues, i was seriously depressed for about a week afterwards which i think was due to exhaustion and the amount of drugs i took, gunna cut down on what i take next year to avoid it.

[acidstorm523]

Many great times in the 90s watching my favourites..Prodigy, Chemicals and Underworld..and hanging out at the sound systems in the campervan fields..but to be honest, those times are just a blur with flashes of memory! My best times now have been with the kids 2010 and 2011, because I remember it all! What a different experience!

No worst times really, the mud and rain and lost it moments are all part of the experience for me Oh, we did once drive our VW bay all the way to Andover from London, then the big end dropped out..we had to get towed back to London, then come back with my Beetle and a tiny tent!

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[Spindles]

Wtf! Why were you attacked? Just reading that has made me angry.

[Krazypinkminx]

Omg that is terrible, I hope you feel ok now as I bet that affected you for a long time

Why? Because some people feel that, with violence they can take whatever they want.

We went to the cinema field to watch fight club, 3 blokes with a very distinctive accent (don't hold a grudge against the rest of the city) sat down next to us as we had a candle and proceeded to go through stuff they had just 'obtained'. It became clear very quickly they were trouble when they beat the crap out of someone right in front of us. My mate did one, leaving me and his sleeping brother, they then started trying to set fire to my mate's sleeping brother's trousers with the candle, so I dragged him up to get him out of there and the just piled into us. My mate's brother didn't know what the hell was going on as I dragged him through the field while he was being attacked and no one was doing a damn thing to assist. After about 50 yards of dragging him with blows raining someone stepped in to help and the 3 of them disappeared to find easier odds. My mate's brother took most of the beating, with his ear being left a shredded mess, I still don't actually know his name, I'd only met him an hour before we went to the cinema field and I've only seen him a couple of times since, his ear is still ruined.

I'd seen violence at festivals before, but never this. These 3 blokes were literally walking through the festival beating people up and taking whatever was in their pockets when they were down on the ground. They were early 20s, shaved heads and trackies, it's my belief they saw the news saying the fence was down and decided to head down to glastonbury seeing rich pickings (a field full of posh students and stoned hippies).

That sort of thing doesn't happen any more. Like I say, it was the best part of a decade before I went back. It seriously messed me up at the time and it made it very hard for me to remain on friendly terms with my mate as he had done one, leaving me and his brother to face them alone. Our lift home had fallen through so we accepted a lift that morning with my mate's brother (who was obviously no longer keen to stay).

[Spindles]

Cheers, yeah it did. It is over now and it was in recognition of people having experiences like that in 2000 that the superfence came into being. Not that I reported it to the police, I just went back to my tent, shook and vomitted into a bin bag all night.

As mr Efests says, 2000 was not ALL like that. I'd not seen one single bad thing up until that point. We'd been front of pyramid all afternoon, spent the day with US marines who kept giving us beers but wouldn't accept our joints in return because of urine tests, had a great time. The previous night we'd blagged our way backstage and spent the night partying til dawn with minor celebs in relative luxury. Throughout the rest of my time at the festival I saw nothing to concern me, just 20 minutes of my life that I was completely unprepared for...when faced with violence I discovered I had no capacity to do more than escape, doing the best I could to protect the person I was with, which was not very much.

Glastonbury is not like that anymore. I've seen more violence at Reading over the years than I have at Glastonbury, but it was a warning to me that it is not the location, it is the people that define it. I now keep half an eye open for the kind of body language and behaviour that comes with trouble and when I spot it, I move away.

[eFestivals]

Perhaps I've been lucky, but despite having attended every Glastonbury since '86 I've never once seen any violence there.

Compare and contrast with Creamfields, where I've seen violence every time I've been (including a stabbing) - tho to be fair to Creamfields I've not been since it moved out of Liverpool, so perhaps things have improved.