2019 Move

[dentalplan]

15 minutes ago, incident said:

Why do you assume that an event elsewhere would have the same provision, the same people, the same arts?

There's a whole amazing variety of circumstances and events that have brought everyone involved in Glastonbury into the fold, and it's pretty much a miracle that it's held together as long and as successfully as it has. There's a danger - a very real likelihood actually - that a significant upheaval would result in an extremely large number of the groups involved in making the Festival what it is either wouldn't be in a position to move with it or would look at it as time to stop and do something else.

I know after this year many of the people who make the areas I love most were saying that it'd been one of the toughest years ever and wondering if it was all still worth it - I expect that most will ultimately decide to come back if they've not already, but a change in location is likely to turn the decision the other way. This already happens to an extent - there's various venues / organisations that stopped coming to the festival over the years because they were asked to move two fields over - two counties over won't be any more popular.

Meanwhile the Festival is a lot more embedded in the local community than you realise. There's the obvious ones like food stalls and a few smaller venues run by local rugby clubs or the street sub aqua club or local schools amongst others. But in addition to that a significant propportion of the on-site stewarding (ie at venues and campsites) is provided by groups local to the Festival - PTAs, Youth Groups, etc. Dropping in to help out from home is a lot more difficult when home is over an hour away instead of 15 minutes.

If or when Emily, Michael, and Nick choose to run another Festival elsewhere, then there's a very high chance I'll be there for the first one. I've got a lot of trust in them, and will give them the opportunity to show that my trust is deserved. But it inevitably won't, and can't be Glastonbury Festival as we know it. Emily has actually said something similar so I really doubt they'd even try to make that claim - it'd be "Stroud Festival brought to you by Glastonbury" or whatever.

Sure but as you say, there are various organisations and venues that have come and gone and the festival has changed while still remaining of a quality where people wanna go back every year regardless, possibly without even noticing. I'm not saying that I'd expect the same festival or that it would be Glastonbury elsewhere but that it could still be curated in a similar way by the people in charge. I don't think they'd even be entertaining the prospect of moving elsewhere if they didn't think that they could reasonably simulate the festival elsewhere.

[HalfAnIdiot]

3 hours ago, 5co77ie said:

would that be Earl Bathurst?

 

Maybe.

After a short 'google' I'm wondering about Cheltenham racecourse. I know Wychwood is a small festival but wats the capacity of the racecourse?

I'm with Incident on dounting the logisitcs of the move - teh festival depends on so much good will, I doubt that a permanent move would be sustainable. Howver an alternative site for teh fallow year and/or foot & mouth type issues does make sense.

 

 

 

[incident]

6 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

Sure but as you say, there are various organisations and venues that have come and gone and the festival has changed while still remaining of a quality where people wanna go back every year regardless, possibly without even noticing. I'm not saying that I'd expect the same festival or that it would be Glastonbury elsewhere but that it could still be curated in a similar way by the people in charge. I don't think they'd even be entertaining the prospect of moving elsewhere if they didn't think that they could reasonably simulate the festival elsewhere.

I don't think they could, or would want/try to, simulate the Festival elsewhere.

As Emily said..

"It's going to be the whole team behind the Glastonbury Festival but it's not going to be called Glastonbury," she said, explaining the event would be a "visual feast" featuring "larger-scale installations, as well as music".

"The main thing to set straight is that Glastonbury Festival itself will always be at Worthy Farm."

[Untz]

Forgot about the leylines. You've not done Glastonbury til you've vomited up Brothers on a leyline while wearing a felt hat from an Oxfam stall that has shrunk in the rain.

While trying to burn passers by with a wax candle.

Edited October 28, 2016 by Untz

[grumpyhack]

42 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Maybe.

After a short 'google' I'm wondering about Cheltenham racecourse. I know Wychwood is a small festival but wats the capacity of the racecourse?

I'm with Incident on dounting the logisitcs of the move - teh festival depends on so much good will, I doubt that a permanent move would be sustainable. Howver an alternative site for teh fallow year and/or foot & mouth type issues does make sense.

 

 

 

Wychwood is my first festival of the season and I thoroughly enjoy it but attempting to recreate Glastonbury there would be a bit like trying to pack the whole of Glastonbury festival onto the Bath and West Showground.

[Spindles]

I suppose you could look at it that a lot of people who went in the 80s and 90s say that Glastonbury has already changed beyond all recognition and is not the festival it once was offering the freedom it was all about, being overly commercial and 'elf and safety conscious.  We've accepted the evolution, embraced it, if anything most of us who've really got the bug in the late 90s/early part of this century are probably more passionate, more in love with what the festival offers, so who is to say that evolution away from the farm would be as devastating as some say.

Of course, I'm slightly playing the devil's advocate here, I am firmly in the keep it at worthy farm camp.

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, incident said:

If or when Emily, Michael, and Nick choose to run another Festival elsewhere, then there's a very high chance I'll be there for the first one. I've got a lot of trust in them, and will give them the opportunity to show that my trust is deserved. But it inevitably won't, and can't be Glastonbury Festival as we know it. 

And I don't automatically see that as a bad thing. It could well be something better. Just the idea of these immensely talented people creating something new excites me a lot. More than "just" doing Glastonbury again.

[HalfAnIdiot]

4 minutes ago, Spindles said:

I suppose you could look at it that a lot of people who went in the 80s and 90s say that Glastonbury has already changed beyond all recognition and is not the festival it once was offering the freedom it was all about, being overly commercial and 'elf and safety conscious.  We've accepted the evolution, embraced it, if anything most of us who've really got the bug in the late 90s/early part of this century are probably more passionate, more in love with what the festival offers, so who is to say that evolution away from the farm would be as devastating as some say.

Of course, I'm slightly playing the devil's advocate here, I am firmly in the keep it at worthy farm camp.

I'm with you on this one.

The festival has evolved and will continue to do so, either embrace it or get left behind frankly!

Thats not to say I'm not nostalgic for the 'good old days' but thay were dodgy, and like I enjoy watching old eposodes of the Sweeny and fantisising about storming around London in a Ford Granada after drining half a bottle of scotch I wouldn't want to do it for real (again)!

 

 

[BlackHole2006]

15 minutes ago, Spindles said:

I suppose you could look at it that a lot of people who went in the 80s and 90s say that Glastonbury has already changed beyond all recognition and is not the festival it once was offering the freedom it was all about, being overly commercial and 'elf and safety conscious.  We've accepted the evolution, embraced it, if anything most of us who've really got the bug in the late 90s/early part of this century are probably more passionate, more in love with what the festival offers, so who is to say that evolution away from the farm would be as devastating as some say.

Of course, I'm slightly playing the devil's advocate here, I am firmly in the keep it at worthy farm camp.

I've been going to Glastonbury since 2008 and have definitely noticed major changes since then in terms of the crowd it attracts now and I suppose that it's down to the fact that Glastonbury has become this hip place to be, which I don't mind at all.

However, without sounding too dramatic, I think the year it does move to another location if it happens would be very dissapointing.

[arcade fireman]

So many of our experiences in life are tied with and enhanced by past memories. I'm sure many here will agree with me when I say once you start going for a while, walking around all these parts of the site where you've had various memories, making new ones, bringing new friends along is a massive part of the enjoyment of just being there.

It's like if someone made a carbon copy in a lab of mine (or indeed anyone else's) other half, same personality, looks etc. Even if it was as close as to the real thing as it could possibly get, the fact those experiences and memories would be reset to zero would make it just like meeting someone completely different. It will be a desperately sad day when Glasto eventually leaves Worthy Farm.

Maybe on a purely objective level the new place could be just as good - maybe some of the imperfections with the current site could even be improved upon. But in a purely subjective way, it will not even come close to the real thing. Could any new site match that feeling of looking out over the festival from the Stone Circle on the first festival sunset of the Wednesday evening? Of sitting down on the grass towards the back of the Pyramid Field with a cider and an ice cream in the sunshine watching an afternoon set? Of being so far away from any train station or city (by English standards anyway) that it does feel like being so far away from the day to day grind? 

Maybe I shouldn't get sentimental, a wise man once told me it always ends up drivel. But any move would be a big let down. 

Edited October 28, 2016 by arcade fireman

[HalfAnIdiot]

8 minutes ago, arcade fireman said:

So many of our experiences in life are tied with and enhanced by past memories. I'm sure many here will agree with me when I say once you start going for a while, walking around all these parts of the site where you've had various memories, making new ones, bringing new friends along is a massive part of the enjoyment of just being there.

It's like if someone made a carbon copy in a lab of mine (or indeed anyone else's) other half, same personality, looks etc. Even if it was as close as to the real thing as it could possibly get, the fact those experiences and memories would be reset to zero would make it just like meeting someone completely different. It will be a desperately sad day when Glasto eventually leaves Worthy Farm.

Maybe on a purely objective level the new place could be just as good - maybe some of the imperfections with the current site could even be improved upon. But in a purely subjective way, it will not even come close to the real thing. Could any new site match that feeling of looking out over the festival from the Stone Circle on the first festival sunset of the Wednesday evening? Of sitting down on the grass towards the back of the Pyramid Field with a cider and an ice cream in the sunshine watching an afternoon set? Of being so far away from any train station or city (by English standards anyway) that it does feel like being so far away from the day to day grind? 

Maybe I shouldn't get sentimental, a wise man once told me it always ends up drivel. But any move would be a big let down. 

Sure the place has got character and as you say lots of memories for many people but at the end of the day it's all just a show, a good one that develops year on year but a show all the same.

A new equally impressive show can be put one elslewhere given the right environment. New experiences will be had and new memories will be made.

The chosen site will be a key element, hence my keeness to identify where it might be located.

 

[ian the worm]

Quick, everyone should move to Stroud. Be my neighbour AND bag local tickets.

[Untz]

9 minutes ago, ian the worm said:

Quick, everyone should move to Stroud. Be my neighbour AND bag local tickets.

Where the fuck is Stroud? Is it outside of the M25? Can I get to it on the tube? 

Sounds like a bollocks made up place mate. 

[Quark]

2 hours ago, Untz said:

Forgot about the leylines. You've not done Glastonbury til you've vomited up Brothers on a leyline while wearing a felt hat from an Oxfam stall that has shrunk in the rain.

While trying to burn passers by with a wax candle.

So you're the reason I had to bin those shoes and have a scar on my calf.

Knobhead x

 

[Untz]

6 minutes ago, Quark said:

So you're the reason I had to bin those shoes and have a scar on my calf.

Knobhead x

 

You've kept the ill fitting felt cap though, yeah? Sorted, my wrinkly sci-fi friend. 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

1 hour ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Sure the place has got character and as you say lots of memories for many people but at the end of the day it's all just a show, a good one that develops year on year but a show all the same.

A new equally impressive show can be put one elslewhere given the right environment. New experiences will be had and new memories will be made.

I can't say that I agree with this really. Glastonbury at Worthy Farm is like Brigadoon emerging from the fog. It's natural ampitheatre perfectly formed to enable the festival to have a carnival atmosphere. Just moving the elements within the festival to a new site and trying to pretend it's the same, or even close, aint going to cut the mustard. It would be a new experience for sure, just like walking out of the house is every day, but it wouldn't be a similar or even better experience. I think it would fall far short of the mark.

[themuel]

5 hours ago, parsonjack said:

This completely for me too.  It simply won't be the same anywhere else.  I think the Eavii should think long and hard about trying to make that magic elsewhere.....

You know I suspect he has, and is. 

[Quark]

29 minutes ago, Untz said:

You've kept the ill fitting felt cap though, yeah? Sorted, my wrinkly sci-fi friend. 

Fits my head ok

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

9 minutes ago, Quark said:

Fits my head ok

You should consider investing in one of these;

http://zapatopi.net/afdb/

[OG]

I think the problem is that "we" as in efestival members have a skewed view about Glastonbury. Every single member on here could not buy a ticket to the new festival and it wouldn't matter one bit. Glastonbury is a business, and a very good one at that. I have worked in hospitality for many years and the return regulars be it a restaurant, hotel or cafe make up a very tiny percentage of all custom. We on efestivals build it up to be something that is only for us, 99% of Glastonbury punters wouldn't really care where it was held and the Eavi know this. 

[clarkete]

3 hours ago, Spindles said:

I suppose you could look at it that a lot of people who went in the 80s and 90s say that Glastonbury has already changed beyond all recognition and is not the festival it once was offering the freedom it was all about, being overly commercial and 'elf and safety conscious.  We've accepted the evolution, embraced it, if anything most of us who've really got the bug in the late 90s/early part of this century are probably more passionate, more in love with what the festival offers, so who is to say that evolution away from the farm would be as devastating as some say.

Of course, I'm slightly playing the devil's advocate here, I am firmly in the keep it at worthy farm camp.

I've been going since then but I disagree with as much of what you said as I agree with, in so far as the only things that changed a lot were ones they had no choice about - fence,  coppers etc. 

My perception of overly commercial are the ones that have an arena where you have to buy the narrow range of drinks supplied - I did go to V once in a fallow year and it made me appreciate Pilton more. 

[eFestivals]

12 hours ago, Pinhead said:

I hope Michael realises the difference between Glastonbury at Worthy and 'Glastonbury' on some country estate elsewhere. I believe he does, however the latter may likely serve as an experiment for an alternative festival (as yet unnamed) in 2018 and a backup for Glastonbury should a situation arise that makes using Worthy (and the surrounding land) untenable one year.

Emily keeps making clear that it's only Glastonbury festival if it's at worthy farm.

[slash's hat]

8 hours ago, ian the worm said:

Quick, everyone should move to Stroud. Be my neighbour AND bag local tickets.

When Gloucestershire was mentioned I did get a little excited at the prospect of local tickets...but living in Gloucester don't suppose it would stretch that far if it was Stroud. 

I think a new festival from them would be an exciting prospect, but wouldn't work if try to recreate glastonbury. Maybe cater for the south east corner demographic (if there is such a thing as not an area I've been in) and keep Glastonbury going but with perhaps a more traditional vibe and smaller, therefore easing the renting of land problems. 

[eFestivals]

10 hours ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Maybe.

After a short 'google' I'm wondering about Cheltenham racecourse. I know Wychwood is a small festival but wats the capacity of the racecourse?

I'm with Incident on dounting the logisitcs of the move - teh festival depends on so much good will, I doubt that a permanent move would be sustainable. Howver an alternative site for teh fallow year and/or foot & mouth type issues does make sense.

 

 

 

The race course is only good for 10000 or so.

[jparx]

9 hours ago, arcade fireman said:

It's like if someone made a carbon copy in a lab of mine (or indeed anyone else's) other half, same personality, looks etc. Even if it was as close as to the real thing as it could possibly get, the fact those experiences and memories would be reset to zero would make it just like meeting someone completely different. It will be a desperately sad day when Glasto eventually leaves Worthy Farm.

Like the Black Mirror episode where the woman's partner passes away and she orders the Android replacement thing that is made up from all of his past email/texts/videos etc.