What was it like in the olden days?

[eFestivals]

38 minutes ago, rzwodezwo said:

How is Boomtown like? I always loved their aftermovies but in terms of acts playing it looks horrible (for me). 

the acts on the main stages is where Boomtown differs most, because Glasto has always had a strong mainstream element to its music - tho it's become more and more mainstream as it's had more and more bands as the years have gone by.

[maelzoid]

Big Wax candles everywhere meant there was always a low-lying veil of smoke over the campsites - your eyes would be streaming from it.

I used to love the Glasto daily paper, which would give you a quick review of the previous day and schedules for the coming day. Also used as kindling for camp fires.

A lot less dome tents. Looking at photos from the day - the campsites are full of triangular tents - it just looks older!

[deschwah]

Welsh mushrooms, lovely Welsh mushrooms (think deep Valleys accent) was a refrain going round the campsites muchos in the early 90s

its different now but maybe not so much.. more commercial and all that but I still believe the spirit of Glasto remains

and 'see you on Monday at the car' really was a thing

[HalfAnIdiot]

Joe Bannans.

 

More specifically dancing outside of Joe Bannans Blanket Store off your tits to the early hours (or mid morning for the really dedicated).

 

I miss Joe Bannans.

[Padgey]

@glasto-worker will be able to give you a good insight, also has some good photos of the old days.

[morph100]

2 hours ago, Gwladboy said:

More robbing back in those days?

Yep lots more, someone came in our tent with an axe asking for money we told them to bugger off and they went to the next tent, sure lots handed stuff over though :-(

[Johnnyseven]

19 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Joe Bannans.

 

More specifically dancing outside of Joe Bannans Blanket Store off your tits to the early hours (or mid morning for the really dedicated).

 

I miss Joe Bannans.

Don't you mean Joe Banana's, or did I always read it wrong?

When Pavement played in (I think) 2000 they got Joe Banana to introduce them on stage. Or at least they said it was Joe Banana.

Edited May 31, 2017 by Johnnyseven

[rzwodezwo]

29 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

the acts on the main stages is where Boomtown differs most, because Glasto has always had a strong mainstream element to its music - tho it's become more and more mainstream as it's had more and more bands as the years have gone by.

had a proper look at the website. The areas, stage design etc. look absolutely excellent. I'm not into Reggae though so I would have to look at the Folk / Soul, Jazz / Balkan stages for daytime and Techno / House at night (not into DnB or Psychedelic either). What else is there to do? 

[brandycoke]

4 hours ago, Gwladboy said:

Q2. And, how the hell did people find each-other an

Back in the in the early days, you never knew who was going to play, so was always a nice surprise Coldplay were announced on stage.

It never rained at all in them days either ,which is just as well, because wellies hadn't been invented back then.

I did though ,have what was called a "Mobile phone", i'm presuming that the fact that it came with it's own wheelbarrow was the "Mobile" part .

[Pinhead]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

I'm not saying it is necessarily chaotic (tho some of it definitely is), but it has that feel.

It's probably merely the difference that comes from being something new, where much of it isn't run by full-time been-doing-it-for-decades professionals who've had extra improvements forced them year on year over decades whether they've really been necessary or not - which is what's happened with Glasto (from my perspective, anyway).

While it's been running for quite a while now, Boomtown still has that new feel - I guess because a lot of it is new, due to having kept on expanding.

Give it a few decades and I don't doubt boomtown will have had a lot of the same conformity pushed upon it as Glasto has - and probably more-so, just because it doesn't have the long history that Glasto does where it can make a strong case against some some things that regulators might try and push on it.

Yep, I'll buy that. So it sort of still has that 'unscripted' and 'spontaneous' feel that Glasto has less of these days? Stewards say it separates the men from the boys - most of your time is spent calling up medical or taking people to welfare apparently...

[fewcloudy]

Went to Glastonbury and also Reading Rock Festival in 1983 (Stranglers fans, and they were headlining Fri night). A bit of nostalgia here http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/reading-83.html 

No need to do the same link for Glastonbury as it's all on the History part of the main website.

Q1. It was much more anarchic and chaotic than nowadays. I was 17 years old and I'm sure 17 year olds will find going to Glastonbury this year just as amazing as I did then, no reason why they shouldn't.

It felt more dangerous and unsafe. Now you can't turn round without bumping into a steward. Necessary I'm sure to get a licence.  Back then I definitely felt the danger much more, from various large groups i.e. bikers at Reading, riding over tents and each other, smashing lights/toilets up and a sense of impending violence at any given time. A sense of there not being any help if anything did go wrong or kick off. It was quite lawless, drug use and sales far more open. Surprisingly large number of unattended bodies laying motionless, in that is-he-isn't-he dead sort of way. Today there would be an Oxfam steward/Security/Medic on the scene quicker than you can say peas. Not saying that's a bad thing mind you, just different.

Q2. Made a lot more effort to be where we said we would be. Tried not to get split up. Had well planned places to meet if we did. A bit like as if you were taking your 6yr old kids to the fair lol.

[payneruk]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

Nah, there's very little counter-culture at Boomtown from the punters (staff is a bit different). They're very-much the consumer-ist brigade on the whole.

But the feel of the place is the same chaotic that Glasto used to have but has lost due to age and regulation.

That's me sold for next year! I was gonna go this year but a trip to Vietnam got arranged.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Vietnam's not as good as it used to be, in the good old days before all the kids with their selfies and their hashtags and their soy milk lattes.

[Raincatcher]

1 hour ago, maelzoid said:

Big Wax candles everywhere meant there was always a low-lying veil of smoke over the campsites - your eyes would be streaming from it.

I used to love the Glasto daily paper, which would give you a quick review of the previous day and schedules for the coming day. Also used as kindling for camp fires.

A lot less dome tents. Looking at photos from the day - the campsites are full of triangular tents - it just looks older!

I remember the first couple of times I went you could buy those big wax garden flares for up at the stone circle.

Anyone know if you can you get them anymore or are they banned now? 

[russycarps]

There were more people dragging massive wooden crosses around the site. 

Well, one person anyway.

 

 

[maelzoid]

10 minutes ago, russycarps said:

There were more people dragging massive wooden crosses around the site. 

Well, one person anyway.

 

 

"If you've got a problem, just put a wheel on it!"

And the Rhino...

[maelzoid]

I think the idea of the counterculture is somewhat dated.  Back in the 80s/90s it was very much Gen X vs. Boomers that created the counter culture with the former being marginalised due to the homogeneity of TV and print publications.  Since the rise of the internet there is a much greater outlet for any counter cultural ideas so that they don't seem so hidden or marginalised and we have just got used to them. Instead of a singular counter culture we have a plethora of micro cultures that people adopt from Emo to Furries to Grime! Some of these make an appearance at G, but some are quite absent. I haven't noticed that much of a change at the festival over the years, if anything the change has happened in the broader culture

[6t6o6m]

4 hours ago, Pinhead said:

How does Boomtown get away with it then - presumably it has the same regulations? Are Hampshire County Council more lenient compared to Mendip - thought it was the opposite tbh.

Winchester City Council handle it I think, and I know they get a battering from the press and locals every year. 

I only complain when I'm trying to get home from work on Monday and the roads are clogged with people not knowing where to go.

[musky]

8 hours ago, eFestivals said:

easiest answer:

if you want to get the best idea of what Glasto was like decades ago, go to Boomtown. 

It's the closest you'll get to it nowadays.

Noted!

7 hours ago, Gwladboy said:

More robbing back in those days?

I first went in '86 and I was warned by a 'veteran' friend that thieving from tents went on, and 'even whole tents are knicked'. Plus ca change. I don't think the mugging thing started until the 90s. I didn't feel it was dangerous just exciting, though that was probably just down to my attitude at the time.

A big change for me was when they started allowing the police on site ('89 I think). Before that pretty much anything was allowed. Besides the big dealers shouting their wares at the bottom of the hill there were loads of people wandering around with trays of confectionery laced with your choice of trendy chemical amusement aids. There was even a shooting gallery that had been set up, complete with mattresses to crash out on. The whole place was like a cross between Mad Max and a Rabelaisian carnival.

Like others said, if you wanted to meet up with friends you'd arrange a time and place although I'd just wander on my own and check out our favoured bars when I felt like meeting up. It was much smaller so that was actually feasible.

There were far less bands on (one main stage), I was familiar with most of them and as far as I was concerned they were pretty much all gash. That was the reason I'd never been before '86 and only went that year to help out friends who begged me to fill in after someone dropped out of stewarding at the last minute. People often say the festival isn't all about the music nowadays, but for me it absolutely wasn't anything at all to do with the music back in the day. It was an event, a happening. It was only in '87 with the opening of the NME stage that things started to look up from my point of view.

As for the druids, nobody knows who they were, or what they were doing. I could have said the same about myself in '86.

Edited May 31, 2017 by musky

[bexj]

There was more fires everywhere, around the camps, infront of stages everywhere. You woke in the morning and there would be a thick hazy smog across the site. 

There was more soundsystems everywhere... And much  more randomness. You didn't really have much after the bands finished so lots of people would d gather infront of  a wine bar and dance to abba with a rhino until the early hours. 

There was more drugs sellers openly selling... And more blokes walking round selling fags and cold beer...and less real things to buy like camping stuff or wellies for example. 

I loved it then, i love it now. Its different not better not worse, we have to own it though and help  make the fun, the entertainment and the memories. It had to change but i think it copes with change well. 

[Amy Lawn]

I wish nudity was still acceptable around the site, I'd be in the nip all the time.

[Flysheet]

53 minutes ago, bexj said:

There was more fires everywhere, around the camps, infront of stages everywhere. You woke in the morning and there would be a thick hazy smog across the site. 

There was more soundsystems everywhere... And much  more randomness. You didn't really have much after the bands finished so lots of people would d gather infront of  a wine bar and dance to abba with a rhino until the early hours. 

There was more drugs sellers openly selling... And more blokes walking round selling fags and cold beer...and less real things to buy like camping stuff or wellies for example. 

I loved it then, i love it now. Its different not better not worse, we have to own it though and help  make the fun, the entertainment and the memories. It had to change but i think it copes with change well. 

This up above

Cottage tents full of Brizzle drug dealers

Sound systems

Travellers fields 

Joe Bananas raves

Other raves

Weed smoke everywhere 

A feeling of togetherness 

[scaryclaireyfairy]

38 minutes ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

I wish nudity was still acceptable around the site, I'd be in the nip all the time.

@sime to thread!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

In the olden days you could just walk in to a record shop and buy a ticket to the festival. No queues, fuss, no not getting a ticket.

As bexj said, there were a LOT more camp fires. Hanging around them was very much the late night entertainment for a lot of people.

Then we used to get up before we went to bed, and lick streets clean. Then it would be time for a nice slice of butter with some Hovis bread on it. Ee by gum, they were the days! 

Actually e by gum has pretty much been with us all along.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Those days were strong and stable - unlike today's coalition of chaos.