A Newbie's High's and Lows

[AiiShotTheDJ]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share my highs and lows of my first (of many!) Glastonbury Festivals.

Highs

• The sheer scale of the site and the amount to do- we were absolutely blown away and only managed to watch 5 bands/artists in total
• The Back of Beyond- I absolutely fell in love with this place and will miss it an insane amount
• Arctic Monkeys Mardy Bum- I didn't want to watch Arctics but my partner did. This version of Mardy Bum blew me away
• Jake Bugg- His acoustic of Broken was amazing and although I found the rest of his set a little dull in places, I do give the lad kudos for getting up there and doing it- he must have been bricking it!
• Alabama Shakes- only caught the last couple of songs but she is amazing and has one heck of a voice!
• Making a plate in the craft fields- amazing experience with amazing people on hand to help and very reasonably priced
• Making a bracelet out of a fork- pretty much the same as above and it turned out to be a lovely design
• The site by night- we wandered up to the sign on the Sunday night to take it all it and it really is beautiful
• The ribbon tower- although we didn't make it up because of the queues, it's beautiful, especially in the dark
• The 'random' acts we saw wandering around including 'dancing grannies' on scooters and a man doing acts with a ladder
• Stonebridge Bar- played some really good songs to get us going on the Thursday
• Lock ups- brilliant service, overall very friendly and extremely easy. I felt comfortable leaving my things there at all times
• General wandering and never knowing what you'd find including a tunnel with plastic bottles that made noises, poles that you touched to create music and a jigsaw that you had to complete to make music!
• General feel of the place including the friendliness of people, lack of piss throwing (I saw 2 beers thrown, that was it) and the general overall respect of people which coming from V, is a very welcome change

Lows

• A couple of our group spoiled the experience slightly (but obviously not the fault of Glastonbury!)
• Litter- I really don't understand why people dropped litter a metre from a bin. We were camped next to 4 sets of bins yet the groups around me decided to leave their shit all over the place
• The amount of groups that turned up to watch the Stones and Arctics to say they'd seen them. We moved a lot to try and avoid them but it was the same theme- continual talking without even looking at the band once or singing once sentence to any song and was really annoying. One girl positioned herself straight infront of me by pushing through and spent the entire set on facebook.
• The Stone Circle- we went on on Wednesday for the opening ceremony and all you could hear was gas going off every 20 seconds. It didn't bother me per say but it wasn't what I was expecting and I didn't, and probably wouldn't return.

Overall, a brilliant festival and I really hope I get tickets next year- I hope you all enjoyed it too!

[yellowsnow]

The group that we were with (friends of friends) were okay now and then but overall I don't think I'd go with them again. Apart from that, I loved everything about the festival, just the grand scale of everything you could do.

We went to the Stone Circle Wednesday night and the amount of people going in/out meant there was a massive road block.. was actual scared about getting crushed. The amount of people there to see a bonfire was actually insane.

All the bands I saw where incredible, especially The Stones, Nick Cave, The XX, The Hives...

We tried to see Fatboy Slim at Arcadia but the sound was appalling.

Wish we'd spent more time in Shangri La.

The fact that there was so much to see and I didn't even get to see a fraction of it is making me want to go back again and again to explore!

Definitely need some tips on staying awake past 2am as we were knackered every single night due to the amount of walking we did!

[**claire**]

Lovely to read a newbie's report on the weekend! Welcome to the obsessives club!

[Matt87]

I only went with one mate and would have to go as a group next time. After a few days he just moaned and wouldn't embrace it (despite it being his 3rd time and my first!). He wouldn't venture into the crowds, and when we did agree to separate to see other acts he was a nightmare to meet back up with. He also got ridiculously wasted on Thursday night, so by 9pm I was carrying him back to the tent.

Luckily I knew a few other people who were there, so I ended up spending a lot of time with them.

Highs

• Watching bands I like on my own was actually really fun - especially compared to watching them with someone who wasn't into them.
• Spending time with people I didn't know that well beforehand.
• General friendly atmosphere.
• All staff I came into contact with were helpful.
• I must have been one of the few who were in a good spot in the Arcadia crowd for Fatboy Slim, as it sounded great where I was.
• The Hives kicking off the festival - some people next to me yelling at a guy to get the f*#k down in front when the lead singer told everyone to sit down.
• The Lumineers - very close to them when they came and played in the crowd, which was completely unexpected.
• Alabama Shakes - knew they were good, but she nailed it!
• Chic - the atmosphere was like a huge disco party; so glad I went to see them.
• Mumfords - wasn't really a fan but the huge singalongs really made it feel like a great end to the festival.
• Cassetteboy - cured my hangover on the Sunday.

Lows

• Some of large tents need some way of getting in cool air if it's hot.
• Didn't realise how hard it would be to sleep.
• The scale of litter dropping was a sad sight.
• My tent was too small, and just rubbish in general.
• Spending 5 days with my extremely pessimistic mate.
• Spending Thursday night having to roll my mate onto his side so he didn't choke on his vomit.
• Slightly disappointed with The Stones setlist.
• The Pyramid punters - you know the ones that just sit in the arena all day everyday. I don't get it.
• Silver Hayes just felt out of place. I went there a few times but I didn't get good vibes.
• That smell - you know the one.

Edited July 3, 2013 by Matt87