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Your (potentially) Contraversial Changes to Glasto


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There's some stuff i have quibbles with but some of this i think is me changing, not just the festival. In terms of crowds, it's always going to be tricky at an event of this scale, and by and large the main inconvenience to me is definitley getting around, but also losing a feeling of freedom and relaxation I know I felt more the first time i went (2005 - we had a camping spot with enough room for a massive campfire and a gazebo FFS!). I also chatted to our camp neighbours much more, which does make me feel a bit sad now, but then again i go with a different group and maybe we are just all a bit more cliquey and insular without realising it.

In terms of stuff that could be do-able, here's what I'd have on a wishlist:

- I love the T&C fields. I don't feel like I'm at Glastonbury properly until i have a walk around there. However, compared to various other developments over the years i think these areas have been neglected a little and, dare i say it...can start to feel a bit samey? I can practically predict what act will be on and at what time without looking now. I certainly wouldn't do away with the staples- walkabouts, little sideshows etc. but i think some space could be given over (both physically and in the schedule) for something a bit more cuting-edge and exciting - an immersive/interactive theatre-film-multi-sensory type thing? (I'm thinking along the lines of the Punchdrunk stuff where it's all a bit mysterious and you walk around, and move through the 'story'- something like that could take over a field. A really high-profile production or premiere to 'relaunch' the theatre/circus side of things?  

- ..on a similar tip, let's face it a lot of folks arrive on Thurs - this could be a good day to promote and showcase some of the additional arts as well as the bands?

- A breakaway 'West Holts' area with smaller venues, with traditional  jazz, blues, world acts - loads of great touring bands you just don't see at G. And also, you could have some DJ sets - e.g. Giles Peterson-type stuff - some ace global dance music that isn't just typical Western EDM and perhaps more inclusive/accessible for a casual listener looking to discover new things, or have a more chilled out evening than techno/DnB for six hours (nowt wrong with that of course) . This would make an area like this a bit more contemporary, as i know just trad acts alone might not have wide appeal or get a bit samey. A small area could be made to look visually really interesting too, and with some great food stalls of course. I know some of this is scattered around now, and i do like a mix accross the site, but 'zoning' it could be really impactful and exciting  

- Space-wise I'd agree the dance village (and maybe Other) nees a rethink. Admittedly I don't spend much time there these days but it's also because it feels a bit...dated to me. Reminds me of when i used to go to Creamfields in the late 90s/early 2000s (I know).

- Bring back some 'mystery' - my number one thing. There's so much to se and do, and they do try really hard to ring the changes with much success, but everything is very 'mapped out' and 'scheduled' now its really hard not to get swept along. I miss getting lost and finding unexpected corners - familiarity breeds comtempt of course but it's not as easy. I don't know how I'd do this, but it feels like its been a while since i walked into an area and though 'wow - where am i?' or 'what's around this corner?' - maybe a fallow year could allow for a bit of a layout or area change? They used to do this much more in LV and SL (e.g. alleyways) but it now feels more like just another place for big late-night dance stages now (or maybe I'm not looking hard enough!)....less of a problem for a Newbie than a more seasoned attendee maybe!

 

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Don't bring your parents

unless you're certain they are going to enjoy it

Saw waaaay too many mature folk with slapped assess, arms crossed, frowning at people having fun, pushing through crowds and trying to be as difficult as possible.

These are the type of people which definitely wouldn't attend unless someone sorted a ticket for them - i'm sure of it

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59 minutes ago, kh24 said:

- Bring back some 'mystery' - my number one thing. There's so much to se and do, and they do try really hard to ring the changes with much success, but everything is very 'mapped out' and 'scheduled' now its really hard not to get swept along. I miss getting lost and finding unexpected corners - familiarity breeds comtempt of course but it's not as easy. I don't know how I'd do this, but it feels like its been a while since i walked into an area and though 'wow - where am i?' or 'what's around this corner?' - maybe a fallow year could allow for a bit of a layout or area change? They used to do this much more in LV and SL (e.g. alleyways) but it now feels more like just another place for big late-night dance stages now (or maybe I'm not looking hard enough!)....less of a problem for a Newbie than a more seasoned attendee maybe!

 

Definitely this. Was mine and hubs' main quibble that made me feel like a little old lady. Even just little things like the stone dragon being so open and practically signposted now! Was thrilled to see the Piano Bar had moved... Though they defo could have done more! Really miss the SL alleyways too... 

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14 hours ago, glastolover19 said:

Bring back the green police :) This shouldn't be controversial,just a suggestion to make things better. Caught my wing man pissing in hedge and proceeded to drum up a crowd with their megaphone and the mock and embarrass the shit outta him for 5mins. Bring them back

Why does bringing back something that stops people pissing everywhere get a down vote? Let me know what tent your in next time and we can use that seeing as you have no problem people slashing everywhere

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A lot of what is being discussed comes down to the fact that selfishness is the new big thing and tolerance is a thing of the past. I am not sure it can be stereotyped by posh camping, camping chairs, youngsters out of their mind etc, there will be selfish people in all those demographics and there will be kind tolerant people in all those demographics. It is like people want a festival designed around their own likes and dislikes, a homogenised festival just for you.

I was at a Belle & Sebastian concert in the week before the festival, as is done by a lot of bands they fired 15-20 large inflated balls into the audience during their last song. The normal reaction to this is that people knock them back and forward to share the enjoyment, what happened at this concert really shocked me, in less than a minute all the balls had stopped flying above the crowd as people caught them and claimed them as their personal property, after the concert I spotted people trying to get them on buses and stuff them into cars. It really pissed me off, not because I wanted one but just the absolute selfishness of it.

To quote Sleaford Mods,

Clinging onto years of that's not yours that's mine, give me it

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3 hours ago, HoTWire said:

There aren't that many local hotels to be honest.  At least very few that aren't already getting booked up for the festival period anyway.

The thing with Glastonbury it has become a thing to be at.  The wall to wall BBC coverage, the magazines, the papers, the PR have all made it this thing in a way that other festivals in the UK aren't.  So you get people that rarely go to festivals that want somewhere nicer than a eurohike in a field to stay.  Thus glamping.  Even if you remove the glamping side of things those people are still going to come to the festival, because thing, so you'll end up with them in the campsites, and then people will be complaining about either a: getting complained at for making noise, or b: people camping badly, or c: people making too much noise, or more probably d: all of the above.

The bottom line is that most of the complaints in this thread amount to the festival is too popular.  Well that is what the organisers want and that is what they have got, ticket sell outs, log jammed stages, commercial line up, glamping, all of it is what is desired by the organisers when they set down the path to make it as popular as possible and when they signed whatever deal they have with the BBC they secured that.

Spot on. Not so long ago Jay-Z was a controversial booking because he wasn't an indie band. Now they're booking the most broadly popular acts in the world like Adele and  Sheeran. It's clearly what the festival want. 

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2 hours ago, kh24 said:

- I love the T&C fields. I don't feel like I'm at Glastonbury properly until i have a walk around there. However, compared to various other developments over the years i think these areas have been neglected a little and, dare i say it...can start to feel a bit samey? I can practically predict what act will be on and at what time without looking now. I certainly wouldn't do away with the staples- walkabouts, little sideshows etc. but i think some space could be given over (both physically and in the schedule) for something a bit more cuting-edge and exciting - an immersive/interactive theatre-film-multi-sensory type thing? (I'm thinking along the lines of the Punchdrunk stuff where it's all a bit mysterious and you walk around, and move through the 'story'- something like that could take over a field. A really high-profile production or premiere to 'relaunch' the theatre/circus side of things?  

Agreed. Really felt it this year. It needs a "no same acts in two consecutive years" rule. But I guess that's difficult when the whole thing is a bit of a family and you'd be turning around to people telling them "no Glastonbury for you this year". I know some comics who used to get booked in Cabaret tent for years and years and don't anymore, and got quite upset about it. Suggesting that they just buy a ticket doesn't go down very well though....

For circus I would drop Sensation Seekers and Little More Sensation, and the juggling tent, and replace them with a literature tent and alt-comedy/theatre tent. I'd schedule more "event" shows like Infinite Monkey Cage, Setlist, etc over just acts doing their club sets. 

The whole place has become a side-show designed for people who want to fill an hour in between acts they want to see, rather than somewhere people go to see specific things.

The immersive theatre thing - Shangri-la used to be as much about that as it did the dance music. You look at the stuff from the first few years and it was all the end-of-the-world stuff and the decontamination thing... memory is hazy but but there was a story to experience.  

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32 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

The immersive theatre thing - Shangri-la used to be as much about that as it did the dance music. You look at the stuff from the first few years and it was all the end-of-the-world stuff and the decontamination thing... memory is hazy but but there was a story to experience.  

Yes - agreed - I definitely remember this. My first few times in SL (or even LV for that matter, although I think it was already on its way out a bit in 2005 and 2007) I couldn't really explain what I'd seen, as it felt a bit reductive just to describe it as a late-night dance tent area, cos there was just so much mad stuff. I totally get the naughty corner thing and I don't want that type of stuff replacing (I sound like a grandma - I'm not!), its just in more recent years I've wanted back 'in' on a bit of the wondering-around-weirdness, whereas it sometimes feels like a bit of a conveyor belt past some dance tents. It would be ace if T&C could take on some of this mantle as I don't think it needs to be in one place, or all happen after-hours - appealing to those that love the installations/characterisations/story or whatever but don't necessarily want a 5am finish.

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49 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

But I guess that's difficult when the whole thing is a bit of a family and you'd be turning around to people telling them "no Glastonbury for you this year". I know some comics who used to get booked in Cabaret tent for years and years and don't anymore, and got quite upset about it. Suggesting that they just buy a ticket doesn't go down very well though....

For circus I would drop Sensation Seekers and Little More Sensation, and the juggling tent, and replace them with a literature tent and alt-comedy/theatre tent. I'd schedule more "event" shows like Infinite Monkey Cage, Setlist, etc over just acts doing their club sets. 

Yes, I get this  - and of course it is kind of nice that 'regulars' come back, not to mention what makes the atmosphere so nice (I'm so contradictory, I'd be first at the gates with a pitchfork if the likes of Mik Artistik were denied re-entry in the name of progress!). Then again, a lot of the T&C acts play repeatedly over the weekend. This could perhaps be reduced a little to accommodate some things on the programme that change every year? The T&C area itself could be reconfigured into a traditional area - with all the old faves, maintaining the traditional circus/carnival design, but there could then be space for something completely bonkers and wonderful here too.    

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Yeah I felt that older Shangri-La was like walking through a shitty looking glass and ending up in a dystopian version of wonderland.  This time it felt like a street with some stages/venue around the edges of it, missed wandering through the alley ways and looking through a door way at a "venue" with twenty or so people squeezed in.

I can see this being a problem though with how popular it all is over there now, those extra alleys and tiny venues/experiences are going to be crowded etc. etc.

Edited by HoTWire
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No more programs. I love them and have them all sat on top of my cds in a back room but we could save a small woodland not bothering with them. Just email the thing to lucky ticket holders in the week before to ramp up the excitement and give out the lanyard thingy at the gate. 

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32 minutes ago, kh24 said:

Yes, I get this  - and of course it is kind of nice that 'regulars' come back, not to mention what makes the atmosphere so nice (I'm so contradictory, I'd be first at the gates with a pitchfork if the likes of Mik Artistik were denied re-entry in the name of progress!).   

I've had that as the Cabaret tent does slowly rotate out acts (Brendon Burns, Mitch Benn, Craig Campbell are all old regulars that I was sad to see no longer getting booked).

But then I also don't think it's the end of the world if they only played every other year. And maybe "fans" like us of people like Mik might actually go to one of their gigs when they're playing locally rather than just going "no point, I'll see them at Glastonbury".

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47 minutes ago, kh24 said:

Yes - agreed - I definitely remember this. My first few times in SL (or even LV for that matter, although I think it was already on its way out a bit in 2005 and 2007) I couldn't really explain what I'd seen, as it felt a bit reductive just to describe it as a late-night dance tent area, cos there was just so much mad stuff. I totally get the naughty corner thing and I don't want that type of stuff replacing (I sound like a grandma - I'm not!), its just in more recent years I've wanted back 'in' on a bit of the wondering-around-weirdness, whereas it sometimes feels like a bit of a conveyor belt past some dance tents. It would be ace if T&C could take on some of this mantle as I don't think it needs to be in one place, or all happen after-hours - appealing to those that love the installations/characterisations/story or whatever but don't necessarily want a 5am finish.

Totally agree with this. I remember ending up in LV in 2007 and finding it difficult to explain what I'd seen or how I'd got there to my friends.

If we're seeing this as a wish list, my contraversial changes would be to get rid of Block 9, Unfairground and The Common. Possibly Arcadia too.

I like dance music a lot, but I don't like the direction the festival is taking with regards to the SE Corner and its unwavering dedication to all night dance music.

Keep Shangri La.

Make Silver Hayes better.

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I'd probably give up on the SE corner entirely. Expand Silver Hayes out into bits of Woodsies and/or Oxylers with Block 9, The Temple and Hell Stage. Let it finish at 3am like Silver Hayes because that's actually fine now the headliners finish at midnight. Or finish the headliners at 11pm every night instead of just Sunday. Use the space for something new and not dance focused.

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I didn't bother going down SE corner after 22:00 this year as it's gradually become a parody of itself.

Loads of venues playing roughly the same shit with loads of wasted people milling around with no real purpose but excess...

Why can't they have dedicated venues for a style of music for the night. IE a venue playing house music all night and another garage, DNB, gabba etc...

Also it'd be nice for some late night blues, jazz, folk, r&b in some venues. 

Hell even some karaoke bars would be good for a change - imagine the carnage of Glasto karaoke after a couple of days of heavy partying.....

Glastonbury after midnight is becoming a crap tommorrowland.

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34 minutes ago, Penrhos said:

I didn't bother going down SE corner after 22:00 this year as it's gradually become a parody of itself.

Loads of venues playing roughly the same shit with loads of wasted people milling around with no real purpose but excess...

Why can't they have dedicated venues for a style of music for the night. IE a venue playing house music all night and another garage, DNB, gabba etc...

Also it'd be nice for some late night blues, jazz, folk, r&b in some venues. 

Hell even some karaoke bars would be good for a change - imagine the carnage of Glasto karaoke after a couple of days of heavy partying.....

Glastonbury after midnight is becoming a crap tommorrowland.

Kamikaze Karaoke were in the SE corner for a few years but not this year.

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I've only been three times, I absolutely love it and would go again and again if it stayed in it's present state... however so much of the impressive stuff has been there for years now, and definitely as long as I've been going. Things like London Underground (or pretty much 95% of the SE corner) the Blues, even things like the Beat hotel they are all the same every year. The fiddle around at the edges but it's been pretty much the same for years now, hence why places like the SE corner are always rammed because people know all about it. I think they need to scrap a lot of things and start again, they could maybe sell some of the stages off to fund it. I appreciate this would be near impossible from a cost point of view, just to start all over again, but that would help massively with crowds if everything was new and nobody knew what was what for the first few years.

Edited by Deaf Nobby Burton
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Was thinking about this more last night. With the SE Corner becoming more and more popular and developed, Silver Hayes has become like the SE Corner's crap cousin. Why have two areas of the site dedicated to dance music? Seems excessive now.

What about keeping SE Corner as the late night dance area as it is now and scrapping Silver Hayes completely. Re-design it as another Park-like area - maybe even putting Shangri-la up there, minus the music venues so it's easier for people to explore. Can still have things like a silent disco for the noise restrictions, and some bars and other interactive art installations. Make it more of a destination.

I suppose the one advantage of clustering the dance stuff in one corner as it is now in the SE Corner, is if it's not your thing, it's very easy to avoid. But the current setup makes getting into SL difficult - moving it to Silver Hayes solves that problem.

 

 

 

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felt much busier this year because of the approximate 20,000 brass band members racing all over the site to play another brass cover of get lucky or some shit. i love a good brass band but fucking hell they seemed to be everywhere

no more brass bands in the vending machine please!!

Edited by liamium
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Everyone has their photo taken upon entering the gates in a 'going down the roller coaster' vein and this then becomes your official Glastonbury photo which goes on the ticket. This will help the ticket checkers as right now they're having to work out if that happy person with the huge grin is the same as that dead eyed pale one on the ticket. 

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