How have the sort of people who attend the festival changed & when?

[Ex_ollie]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

[Purple aki squat]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

Oooooh, you absolute bitch

[gmb1992]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

Hmmmmmmmm you do have a point there, it can't be that bad nowadays otherwise people wouldn't keep going.

[stiff]

The Super Fence, Society changes and the high Return Factor are the biggest factors.

As we get older and older and very old, like me, we still keep going.

This as limited the opportunities for the next generation to go to the festival.

We all need to chill out about the festival, its a reflection of us all and therefore we have the power to make it whatever we want.

[tombertb]

can't find the exact thread (it might not have been on efests) but these give a flavour;

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/topic/160142-was-the-atmosphere-at-glastonbury-2000-that-bad/

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/forums/topic/126970-2000/

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/2000/review-fest15.shtml

But as you can see from those threads and other reviews, for some it was their favourite year, for others it was their worst by far.

Reading people's reviews over the years gives a flavour of how the festival has changed over the years but 2000 was the year it had to change otherwise there wouldn't be a festival to go to in 4 weeks.

http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/ has some great reviews of early glastonbury's too.

Thanks for taking your time to find those, some good reading that.

[Valka]

I don't care what people wear, we're all walking through the same mud - It's how you treat each other that matters.

I accept that the BBC audience probable does draw in a crowd with a set perception of what Glastonbury is - BBC can not cover everything and they will get their eyes opened to a beautiful other way of living and their minds opened to more important concerns that they 'may' have been previously unaware. Those that get it, that buy into the Glastonbury we love will be the ones who come back again and again, but you always need to have to newbies to experience it to take back with them into the 'real world' if we ever want anything to change.

don't moan about others, do lead by example and make them feel that this is a home they want to be a part of.

*steps off soap box*

[russycarps]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

dont you think it's the younger generation that should be finding a new festival, or starting their own?

Arent you embarrassed to be partying with your mums and dads?

Not having a go, just curious. I wouldnt have been seen dead at this glastonbury.

[eFestivals]

Nah, I respectively disagree, it was not busy on the Wednesday until the naughties.

Still tens of thousands of people but now where near the amounts we get now.

You could see and feel the festival fill around you by Friday it was at full pelt.

But weds was half full at best.

I don't disagree that by Wednesday it was half full at best.

What changed that was the festival advertising itself as starting on the Wednesday rather than the Friday - which was in 2009.

[Wooderson]

When did Michael start banging on about "young people"? Deffo a concerted effort at one stage from fest top brass to stop it sliding inexorably into some vat of middle-aged puss and creaking knees.

[The Nal]

My first was 2004 and we got in late on the Wednesday and there wasn't really anything open. The odd stall here and there and the very odd bar. A lot of the people with stalls hadn't even arrived.

Edited May 27, 2015 by The Nal

[Wooderson]

Best I can come up with for Mick E quotes on "young people" are from July '07 with the Beeb.

[SteveTLizard]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

Unlike a lot of festivals (V, Coachella etc etc) Glastonbury is a massively diverse collection of entertainment (festival of performing arts?) . To call for older people to stop going to make way for younger people would remove the diversity and thus the magic that makes Glastonbury so special. I think that also you'll find that this would be a form of discrimination which I'm fairly sure the Eavii are pretty much against.

I'm in my forties, and as you can see from my sig, have been to Glastonbury for donkeys, there is very little in this world that would stop me from attending until they stick me in my box, at which point I'd like to be planted in the Pyramid field please, just to the left and back a bit from the mixing desk. Cheers

Edited May 27, 2015 by SteveTLizard

[The Nal]

Best I can come up with for Mick E quotes on "young people" are from July '07 with the Beeb.

Was 08 wasn't it? Jay-Z, Panic at the Disco, KOL.

[mrpman]

When did Michael start banging on about "young people"? Deffo a concerted effort at one stage from fest top brass to stop it sliding inexorably into some vat of middle-aged puss and creaking knees.

Saw the Creaking Knees on the band stand one night, they were a late replacement for Sanatogen Overdose.

[Wooderson]

Was 08 wasn't it? Jay-Z, Panic at the Disco, KOL.

He got the hump about it the summer prior though. Was pointed in many interviews about the lack of youth.

[Wooderson]

Saw the Creaking Knees on the band stand one night, they were a late replacement for Sanatogen Overdose.

Bowel Complaint were on before them yeah, halcyon times.

[Mash011]

This thread is hilarious. Older, heavy 'Glastonbury' forum users who spend a lot of time talking about Glastonbury, complaining about how its not what it used to be. Some of the comments actually sound like you don't even want to be there anymore.

Maybe time to let it go and find a new festival? The new 'trendy' hunter wearing crowd isn't going anywhere and it appears to be you guys that need to change to keep in line with modern society.

Yeah the attitudes in this thread are staggering. I thought the festival was supposed to be inclusive, welcoming, etc.? Yet a lot of people here seem to be very pissed off by people enjoying themselves in different ways from them.

[Bradders]

[CaledonianGonzo]

Youngsters these days just need to accept the fact that nothing's as good as it was back in the good old days.

[Spindles]

The futures not what it used to be.

[amfy]

I think the biggest change for me does come out of the proliferation of smart phones.

If you sat down on your own for a bit, you'd always strike up a conversation with the person next to you, and it felt really open and friendly for that. Now - one or both of you will get you phone out. To be honest - this is the same everywhere now, cafes, pubs, bus stops - everywhere, people look into their little window on their own world rather than looking out at the one they're sitting in. I'm as guilty as anyone of this.

Edited May 27, 2015 by amfy

[fred quimby]

I wouldnt have been seen dead at this glastonbury.

But your young self in 2015 would be a different person to your young self in the 90's so hard to compare

[SteveTLizard]

I think the biggest change for me does come out of the proliferation of smart phones.

If you sat down on your own for a bit, you'd always strike up a conversation with the person next to you, and it felt really open and friendly for that. Now - one or both of you will get you phone out. To be honest - this is the same everywhere now, cafes, pubs, bus stops - everywhere, people look into their little window on their own world rather than looking out at the one they're sitting in. I'm as guilty as anyone of this.

Too true. I was in a pub having a beer a few weeks back and there were a couple sat at a table on their own, probably early/mid 20s. They were both sat staring and prodding at their phones and didn't utter a word to each other, as far as I could tell, for the entire time I was there (3 pints).

Could well have been a Tinder date gone horribly wrong though, they both had a face like a slapped arse.

[swede]

I think the biggest change for me does come out of the proliferation of smart phones.

If you sat down on your own for a bit, you'd always strike up a conversation with the person next to you, and it felt really open and friendly for that. Now - one or both of you will get you phone out. To be honest - this is the same everywhere now, cafes, pubs, bus stops - everywhere, people look into their little window on their own world rather than looking out at the one they're sitting in. I'm as guilty as anyone of this.

The one place im not guilty of it is Glastonbury, best place on earth for people watching.

[ghostdancer1]

There two big factors that have changed the festival in my eyes one is the fence, its the made the festival a lot safer and a lot less exciting.

I loved the festival before the fence but it was crazy and genuinely out of control. That rizla tent on one if the main strips was like a whos who of Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool and London's crime gangs. It's was nuts. I saw some crazy shit and the festival had to change. Oh and some one was gonna die in crush eventually, it was a matter of time.

That while getting rid of a lot of the problems has taken a lot of the spark out. The travellers and mad heads where a massive part of the festival and they've gone.

But on balance it was a good thing, no muggings and less theft is a massive plus. The crowd numbers being under control has kept the festival going.

The other massive change is mobile phones, and importantly reliable mobile phones.

In the past if you lost your mates that was it you had to find new ones. But you you did and so did everyone else. Now a lot more people stick to there gang which is sad.

Fence by far the biggest change. Before that the festival was much more exciting - but you were far more likely to be smacked around the head with a baseball bat (as happened to my mate - he was okay though). The end.

give me Hunter boots and people taking selfies over that any day, sounds fucking shit tbh

e: although it's a bit easier to take being assaulted and robbed if you haven't paid loads for the privilege, i guess.

Edited May 27, 2015 by ghostdancer1