Best & Worst Glastonbury Experiences

[ads1980]

We found a wallet and handed it in in 2010 I think... It was also full as it was earlyish in the festival...glad to know they can be reunited with owners....

[Sketchead]

That's a great story. I remember the first time I went to Leeds festival my mate's older sister and her fella got their car keys/money nicked whilst they were sleeping.

Similarly, a year later, someone was doing the rounds going into peoples tents, we could hear people shouting at him. My mate put his wellies on and waited for him to try his tent. He opened the zip and my mate kicked him full on in the face. Beautiful.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Sketchead

[helenc]

Best moment the first time !!! 2008 .... walking through the barriers to that unique smell of barbeques and smoke...constant chatter.... new friends and 24 hour MUSIC x pitching tent and making even more friends immediately x I could go on and on ...

Worst moments desperately needing wees.... wish i had a willy to pee in a bottle x x x x

[ads1980]

That's a great story. I remember the first time I went to Leeds festival my mate's older sister and her fella got their car keys/money nicked whilst they were sleeping.

Similarly, a year later, someone was doing the rounds going into peoples tents, we could hear people shouting at him. My mate put his wellies on and waited for him to try his tent. He opened the zip and my mate kicked him full on in the face. Beautiful.

[ghandi]

Best: 2009 ( first year!) , Sunny afternoon rambling through the West Holts field where everyone was lying on the floor soaking up the sun and to Avalon to see " The Mummers", they sing a song called " This is Heaven " , there i was cider in hand , the lyrics just made me realise that i was in my heaven, my shangrila so to speak, there were tears . I've not missed one since.

Worse : Not many, 2011 realising on the Monday morning after packing up that i'd lost my wallet and couldn't remember when i had it last, it was all a bit hazy

[Guitargeek]

I have to say I'm struggling to narrow down my best experience at glastonbury. It's very much an overall thing for me. I reckon it'll make more sense if I start with my worst.

My first glasto was 2009. I'd only been to Reading the year before and had what was, at the time, probably the best weekend of my life. Then glasto rolled around. I only bought a ticket based on the premise that Led Zeppelin might play, or so my friend told me!! Anyway, I remember reading the line up the day it came out and it starting to dawn on me just how massive this thing was. An absolute juggernaut compared to reading. Ten times the number of stages. Loads of crazy acts that I didn't think played live, let alone toured the festival circuit!!

Stayed the night at a mate's in Vauxhall the night before as his was closer to victoria than mine, which was where we got the train from. We'd planned to make hash brownies before to eat on the way in, but ran out of time, so ended up making hash and sausage sandwiches for lunch on the Wednesday.

So we then rocked up as early as we could to Victoria train station and joined the queue. Then the sniffed dog started strolling towards us, smelt the top of my mates bag (where the sandwiches were) and casually strolled off. To say our hearts were in our mouths would be a bit of an understatement, especially with us both being 18. So we got on the train and apart from me emptying an entire carlsberg on my mates lap, nothing of note happened until we got to Castle Cary.

Then we saw the queue. He'd been the year before and was convinced it would take too long. He was badly wrong.

We queued in a truly jam packed castle cary station for 6 hours, standing up, holding crates, the whole time. I have a really strong memory of a guy with really long hair behind us desperately trying to read a battered Terry Pratchett and doing his absolute best to ignore everything else going on around him. It was raining on and off, we'd hardly had any sleep the night before due to sheer excitement and we were knackered before we got on the coach to the site.

We later found out it was all due to a traffic accident that blocked one of the A roads in the area, so there was a huge diversion around the festival site. Nightmare.

Anyway, by the time we actually got onsite and met up with our 5 or so mates, it was pitch black, drizzling and we were convinced that there was nowhere left to camp. Now that I remember, the 2 of us actually found a space cos they arrived later than us, and then they had the cheek to ask us to take our tents down and go and find somewhere closer to the main site!!! I was furious. Needless to say, it all worked out alright and we set off to the stone circle for the nights activities!!

So with regards to best experiences..... It has been a continual improvement since that day. I've been to the last 3 and enjoyed each one progressively more than the last. From Neil Young to QotSA, it's just got better and better.

I feel like glasto has really helped shape the person that I have become, offering a different perspective on life and how we live together on this planet. The feeling of excitement that I get whenever I'm on site and remind myself exactly where I am. That atmosphere that makes this particular field full of people the best field full of people there ever has been or ever will be. The way you sit down next to anyone and spark up a conversation knowing that they feel the same way, to at least some degree.

Glastonbury 2013, I cannot wait. A fallow year is a horrible thing!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

That's a great story. I remember the first time I went to Leeds festival my mate's older sister and her fella got their car keys/money nicked whilst they were sleeping.

Similarly, a year later, someone was doing the rounds going into peoples tents, we could hear people shouting at him. My mate put his wellies on and waited for him to try his tent. He opened the zip and my mate kicked him full on in the face. Beautiful.

[Wanderlei]

Lost a contact lense in my tent one night. Didn't have my glasses with me, and had to get up early the next morning to do a recycling crew shift. I was really pissed off.

In the morning i found it all crumpled up on the floor. I managed to wash it in the solution and uncrumple it. I popped it in my eye and it was fine. It all worked out right in the end.

[Nyika]

Best: Oh loads, Bruce Springsteen joining The Gaslight Anthem in 2009 and being at the front. Same year finding my new friends in the massive pendulum crowd. Turning round at the stone circle for the first time. Ray Davies in the acoustic tent. Elbow in 2011. Knitting in the shade in 2010 in the greenfields. Frank Turner in the leftfield tent.

Worst: The rain in 2011, kind of made things lose the magic somehow. 2010 had it's bad moments too, just split up with my first proper boyfriend so I had a very misguided fling on the Thursday night with someone who didn't really fancy me that much. Then met a really nice guy the next day, fail. Which didn't really go anywhere either. Basically bit of an emotional mess that year! Oh and the bit on the Sunday night where I got far, far too mashed and was sick and shivery and too hot and too cold and hearing things that weren't there. That was incredibly uncool. I really can't remember how I got home in 2011 now, I presume I must have got a coach cos I definitely didn't get a train.

On people stealing at festivals, I litterpicked at Leeds this year and was pretty shocked at the attitude my fellow litterpickers had when it came to "finders keepers". They took phones, cameras, all sorts and when I said they should hand them in I felt like the uncoolest person ever. I found £10 in change and a zippo lighter...

[BA4 4BY]

Lost a contact lense in my tent one night. Didn't have my glasses with me, and had to get up early the next morning to do a recycling crew shift. I was really pissed off.

In the morning i found it all crumpled up on the floor. I managed to wash it in the solution and uncrumple it. I popped it in my eye and it was fine. It all worked out right in the end.

[Kareneh]

Best moment the first time !!! 2008 .... walking through the barriers to that unique smell of barbeques and smoke...constant chatter.... new friends and 24 hour MUSIC x pitching tent and making even more friends immediately x I could go on and on ...

Worst moments desperately needing wees.... wish i had a willy to pee in a bottle x x x x

[Kareneh]

Worst: The rain in 2011, kind of made things lose the magic somehow.

On people stealing at festivals, I litterpicked at Leeds this year and was pretty shocked at the attitude my fellow litterpickers had when it came to "finders keepers". They took phones, cameras, all sorts and when I said they should hand them in I felt like the uncoolest person ever. I found £10 in change and a zippo lighter...

[Sketchead]

Good shout about the urinating scenario. My bladder control is shocking when I've had a few drinks, always struggle at gigs if I have a few before-hand and it's always so far to the toilet if you're in a good spot!

[BA4 4BY]

Good shout about the urinating scenario. My bladder control is shocking when I've had a few drinks, always struggle at gigs if I have a few before-hand and it's always so far to the toilet if you're in a good spot!

[Sketchead]

I'll admit I pissed in a plastic pint cup at Leeds 2010. I had a really good spot waiting for the Libertines to come on and I was ready to burst. Not good but I at least made sure I covered my front with a jumper wrapped round, and a couple of mates covering. Very grim.

[eoinca]

The piss situation is a nightmare for me at glasto, I've got an awfully small bladder so once the seal is broken I'm going every 20 minutes. I actually avoided booze for most of the Sunday in 2010 so I wouldn't have to leg it off during stevie wonders set

[BA4 4BY]

I'll admit I pissed in a plastic pint cup at Leeds 2010. I had a really good spot waiting for the Libertines to come on and I was ready to burst. Not good but I at least made sure I covered my front with a jumper wrapped round, and a couple of mates covering. Very grim.

[eoinca]

I can't understand the mentality of someone who would do that. It's one of the most disgusting things I've ever heard, thankfully never seen it or been on the receiving end of it

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I can't understand the mentality of someone who would do that.

[Sketchead]

What the hell led her to do that?! Am I missing something?

[eoinca]

Yer man threw piss an it hit her I think

[Sketchead]

Don't really have a problem with this if it is done as carefully as you describe and then gets emptied in the correct place, as opposed to over the ten rows of people in front!

[ads1980]

Yes, I have never understood that at all!

[Ted Dansons Wig]

2009 got the dreaded warm feeling down the back of the legs 2 nights running during Bruce and then Blur. Pretty near the front. Tw@t behind me decided it'd be easier just to piss where he was standing. When it happened on the second night his reaction to getting lamped was "What was I supposed to do?"

[mandolin]

Best

Also the same year, me and my girlfriend were walking through one of the fields near The Other stage and there was a DJ booth and all of a sudden he started playing They Might Be Giants - Birdhouse In Your Soul. We just stopped and danced like loons without a care in the world and not giving two shits what anyone else thought.

Edited November 8, 2012 by mandolin