Why has Glastonbury got so popular?

[Wooly Mammoth]

apart from those less wealthy than you, of course.

[akradiabra]

At the end of the day you've got to find the the full ticket price plus fees and pp - what's wrong with the old fashioned way of saving for a rainy day? I don't earn much more than the minimum wage but i've always made sure that whatever I've comitted too, I've had the savings to cover it outright. Discipline and budgeting seems nowadays a lost art.

[fred quimby]

I think it's all down to a combination of things

[DeanoBaggio]

It feels like this year they'll be more new-comers than most years previous, I think more and more people are realising that there's such a variety of things going on at Glasto and it's not just a one-trick pony. I could go to Glasto and not see any live music and still have the best week of my life.

[Jie Bie]

The main thing is probably that with Glastonbury older people (like myself) keep coming back year after year and young people still want to go for the first time every year! I have a new policy. I will no longer rave about Glastonbury to people I meet. Instead I'll say it's shit and I only go because my husband loves it. He will say the same but just say he only goes because of me. I'm hoping everybody will follow suit and then soon it's popularity will wane!

Only kidding but it is an idea!!

My other thought is for those that go in large groups make sure that every member of your group is as committed to getting tickets as you are. I know a lot of people who say they wouldn't go through ticket day and they are only going because somebody else got their tickets for them. I think you should experience the trauma of ticket day as a pre-requisite for entering the festival after all how can you really appreciate the highs if you haven't felt the lows.

[waynewdk]

I like R n B/ Rap but dont really like Jay Z's music, but he smashed it, put on a right show, and alot of people were impressed, it was rammed, to be fair out of the 6 Headliners ive seen he was the best performance, got the crowd really going, headliners ive sene where Jay Z, The Verve, Kings of Leon,Beyonce, U2, and Coldplay, U2, the Verve and Coldplay being some of my favourite bands!

Edited October 14, 2013 by waynewdk

[guypjfreak]

My first was 2007 ... still going )

My

[evilduck]

Every year our group gets bigger due to us ranting and raving about it for months. Maybe I should stop telling people how good it is..

[FuzzyDunlop]

A mudbath this year which makes the news would make things easer next t-day (but I don't want that)

[gmb1992]

Every year our group gets bigger due to us ranting and raving about it for months. Maybe I should stop telling people how good it is..

[Mikeydread]

I suppose the question is - is it a problem for the organisers? Not really - it's a great product with a great following - bigged up by the BBC and the Guardian. Back in the late 70s and early 80s the 'normal' populace recoiled in horror when you told them where you had spent the weekend and Thatcher had the placed buzzed by fighter jets. Now it is an accepted summer pastime as highlighted elsewhere on the post. Plus it's pretty damn safe - even the leery parts are very tame compared to the 90s.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Mikeydread

[angelin]

I do miss the old days. I'm talking early 90's not the 70's ! It just seemed more chilled somehow. I loved Lost Vagueness. Why did that area change? I don't remember anyone been in a rush to get tickets. At work now all the twentysomethings are disparate for tickets. When I was their age people at work used to turn their noses up at Glastonbury! Infact, I used to keep it to myself that I was going as their would be the inevitable comments about hippies and would I be taking drugs? We all used to keep it quiet from work. Bizarre, really.

[amfy]

I'm the manager of a drug treatment service and we were joking that it used to be the service users that went to Glastonbury, then it was the staff, & now its the managers that go! I don't know whether that's because Glastonbury has changed or just because we grew up & carried on going!

[angelin]

True.

[little_jim]

Look at the hype the BBC gave the festival this year. It was almost on the Olympic scale I think i heard, don't know, was at the festival enjoying the real thing.

But yeah the media have hype it up a lot. I have friends that would turn their noses up at the thought of sitting in mud and rain, sleeping in a tent surround by loads of strangers. They really couldn't understand why I did it year after year.

I guess the social network generation hit and they saw more then just me and a mate banging on about it and decided to come along that and the wide choice on at Glastonbury.

That being said a lot of them came to Reading to test the water first, then came along to Glastonbury after.

[5co77ie]

I think it's down to Pete Loveday:

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/lost-festival.html

Edited October 14, 2013 by 5co77ie

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I think it's down to Pete Loveday:

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/lost-festival.html

[frostypaw]

Glastonburys promotion has reached an absolute epic scale in recent years. If you are not reporting on Glastonbury you are not in the media game.

[waynewdk]

facebook is the main thing i think

[amfy]

.........could it be that it's quite good?

[mrtourette]

.........could it be that it's quite good?

[gizmoman]

This reminds me of a certain festival which I went to this year whereby the customers (me and my girlfriend) were left most puzzled by the response from one retail outlet. We went to the stall initially and asked them could they make us a birthday card in glitter stuff for someone's birthday surprise later that day. They said they could and they would. When we went back there the bloke on the counter (a different bloke from before) was evidently stoned out of his tree and didn't know what we were talking about. He pointed to the owner of the stall who was lying on the grass about 10 feet away. We went over to him to find him also very stoned and nearly incapable of speech. We did manage to ascertain that he hadn't done the card. We then went back to the bloke at the counter asking if we could use their supplies to make a card ourselves. His response was 'do whatever you like man', said with a big smile. So we made a card using their stuff. Then we went back to the bloke on the counter and offered him money for using their stuff. His response was ' we don't want your money man'. We looked over at the owner of the staff to see him laughing uproarioulsy at something else that was going on.

Overall it was evident that the owner of the stall and his staff had a different approach to that of capitalism going on. The customer was definitely king in their books. The idea that they should take money off the customer for their resources was quite an anathema to them.

I do wonder how much that little trip cost them.

[efcfanwirral]

This talk of Glastonbury 2009 selling out in October isn't right....I didn't get mine til January 2009. Had wanted to go for years but with uni and school never could, never really considered it that year until I saw Blur were announced and I realised I could finally go! Then the Springsteen rumours hit full force and I convinced three friends to go. I remember booking on my birthday, tickets were gone 10 days later after Bruce was announced I think

[CrunchyFrog]

Its the one festival your Gran can go to and not feel like she shouldn't be there. All encompassing acceptance.

My first one was in 2007 and we've been going ever since. There is so much variety and you dont have the feeling that you are being ripped off like you do at other festivals. The other one I loved was Hop Farm so Im gutted that's gone under because it felt like what Glasto must have been years ago.

[UEF]

Overall it was evident that the owner of the stall and his staff had a different approach to that of capitalism going on. The customer was definitely king in their books.