2019 - A vintage year

[Winslow Leach]

It’s already getting better and better in my mind as everything flushes out of my system and is replaced by pure nostalgia instead...

[ourkid1984]

Only my 2nd Glastonbury but I absolutely loved it. I like hot weather anyway and also I'm used to going to festivals abroad that tend to be even hotter and do well so the heat of Glastonbury was perfect weather.

I saw the majority of acts at smaller stages that, apart from Beans on toast at Greenpeace, Idles in the Park, Frank Turner at Avalon and Fontaines DC at the rabbit hole all had decent space in decent areas. 

I can't think of one act that disappointed although for the few songs I saw of Billie Ellish I was in a poor spot at the side of the stage by the path towards Leftfield. I could only see half the screen and not much of the stage and there was just loads of kids just playing on their phones. That aside everything was fantastic. The atmosphere seemed really good, acts were good and some were top notch, food was amazing.

There were less dicks. I put it down to more water being drunk and less alcohol and/or drugs. Don't get me wrong I drink a fair bit and have used drugs before but some people do sometimes have way too much.The only time I saw people peeing on the land was at the most pointless place as it was right next to the urinals at the back of the pyramid. Apart from that my wife told me that there was a fight at Stormzy and in the Bread and Roses bar after the Cure there was a group who seemed to be trying to start trouble.

So many good memories.

 

[mjh310]

23 hours ago, Keithy said:

That was a great set. One of my favourite Glastonbury sets if all time. Desperately hoping people have photos of it.

I was at the very front, DM me if you'd like some videos!

[Spindles]

23 hours ago, Paul_F said:

Only our third visit so not much to compare to.

Can I just say that I love that only 3rd is currently considered not much.  We all keep going back, again and again, while some sour faced tit at the office tells you glastonbury is shit now and they "did it once in the 90's" but can't recall who played or which year.

 

I hope your 4th is a corker.

[Hugh Jass]

If it’s ever that hot again then I plan to get down to a stage nice and early in the day, probably the Pyramid, get a nice spot towards the back that’s out of the way armed with the following three items and just sit there all day...

Golf umbrella/parasol,

Bucket for water,

Child’s paddling pool.

Think of all the friends I’d make.

[Hugh Jass]

For clarity nobody other than me shall be allowed into the paddling pool.

[BlackZeppelin]

On 7/1/2019 at 8:07 AM, Flysheet said:

Magnificent, as usual...

Tough going due to the heat, has to be said, but rather these conditions than the mud.

Highlights for me,

Spending a fair bit of time up in the Greenfields esp on Wednesday and Thursday. 

Fontaines DC x 2

Chems

The Cure

Frank Turner x 2 (especially the headline slot)

Doc Brown

The Bar-Stewards ?

An apparently lower than previous dickhead quotient 

 

How was Doc Brown?

 I just couldn't get there. Like a few on here, by the Sunday I was flagging badly. Spent a couple of hours in the shady Permaculture area with a towel over me Boris Becker style.

[Flysheet]

2 minutes ago, BlackZeppelin said:

How was Doc Brown?

 I just couldn't get there. Like a few on here, by the Sunday I was flagging badly. Spent a couple of hours in the shady Permaculture area with a towel over me Boris Becker style.

Saturday when we saw him, purely by accident whilst sheltering from the heat. I didn’t know who he was till he said but he was bloody great!

[StevieGed]

Had a great time which is always guaranteed at Glasto but not a vintage year for me, will just go down as a solidly good time with friends there.

I think, that was down to a combination of things. Our party was smaller than it’s ever been this year, with only 4 of us making our way down for the Wednesday, 2 following late Thursday and then 2 following down on Saturday (meant to be Friday but family matters intervened). Usually we’re around 20/25 people deep, couples and friends all there, and even though it’s difficult at times to move around the site with that many of us, it just feels special when we’re altogether which we have been for 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2017. The other several times I’ve been have been in smaller groups and they just don’t have the same level of enjoyment and emotion across the festival for me. 

Didnt make it into the rabbit hole this year as others wanted to see other sets in the night time, and the rabbit hole/funkingham palace backstage area is my favourite area of the festival without doubt. Done a lot of pointless walking from one place to another for areas to be too crowded. Any set I fancied watching at the beat hotel this year didn’t come off as whenever I did get there you couldn’t make your way into the tent the crowd was that full (and very very young may I add). 

The weather drained me Friday and by Saturday afternoon I just couldn’t make my way about anymore, ended up watching tame impala which I couldn’t enjoy due to low energy levels then caught fat boy eats everything who put on a cracking set, but just couldn’t find my groove.

Waking up on a sweaty blow up bed at 7 in the morning after a few hours sleep is part and parcel of the good weather, but whether it’s because I’m getting older now I just couldn’t hack it this year and would go to sleep praying for some rain and wind come 8/9/10 o clock to be able to have a decent amount of sleep.

The only sets of the weekend I really enjoyed and felt like the Glasto spirit was there for was Kylie and Chems.

My biggest disappointment was the amount of people there, I know everyone wants to go and the more tickets the better the chance, but it did feel like to me this year there were just too many people to really enjoy being in certain areas. The glade was overcrowded pretty much all weekend for me, and in certain parts of south east corner I just simply couldn’t get into any of the sets I really wanted to see as the crowds were too much for me. Tame Impala are my favourite band currently, and I promised myself that with only a small amount of people in our group this year we’d get ourselves pretty deep into the crowd, but within around 5 minutes before they began a sea of people just seemed to appear and cram in from nowhere. We had to move back several times before even being able to have space to feel like we could breathe, let alone have a dance!

Hope I don’t sound like I’m complaining too much here but this was the first time round at Glastonbury I didn’t seem to have too many of those magical moments over the 5 days that elevated me like in the past.

I will still be 100% trying in October and hope I get them for 2020, and if so would love worthy view or a tipi for a change from the camping malarkey. 

[EamerRed]

Feeling a bit soppy now with a big comedown but that was genuinely up there with the best 5 days of my life. Tame Impala were just beautiful, Johnny Marr playing This Charming Man pretty much completed my life. And I even clicked instantly with a girl on the first day (this never happens to me), who spent the last couple of nights with me and we have several plans to meet up very soon. The whole weekend was just perfect. Absolutely perfect. God I've missed Glasto.

Edited July 3, 2019 by EamerRed

[cdm22]

14 hours ago, Lubic87 said:

 

Oh and Let's Eat Grandma not doing their 3am set was disappointing. Waited at the front for nearly an hour before a rabbit-man emerged from his burrow and told us they weren't playing due to tech issues.

 

They had tech issues at their Williams Green set too but thankfully they managed to get going 25 minutes after their official start time. I am now selfishly thankful that I didn't decide to go for their 3am set now!

[Magma]

Yep, this one goes down as a classic. It got everything right.

Was also the first time I've been with kids in tow (my niece and nephew - so unlike their parents I was also able to be without them still occasionally ?) - really makes for a very special experience indeed.

Thank you everyone. You all played your part. Not exaggerating, my soul was in trouble beforehand after one of the worst years of my life. I think last week allowed it to turn a corner. Lauryn Hill cracked my heart open and it was exposed all weekend... tears of joy, tears of love, tears of laughter... I don't think I stopped smiling all weekend... and I still am.

Now I'm worried about tickets for next year. I can't leave it so long again. It's like skipping dialysis.

[FakeEmpire]

The crowd overall were just fantastic this year.   I came across very few dickheads and just found the majority of people to be brilliant, music-loving, thoughtful folk.   Very few pushing in and out of sets or talking all over everything, lots of people being kind to each other.   The best crowd in years, maybe of all the years I've been going.   I'm not sure if that's down to the weather stopping people from getting too fucked up but, whatever the reason, it made 2019 a vintage year for me.

Sure, the temperature was a little too hot for my personal tastes on Fri/Sat and made things a bit more tiring than normal but you can't have everything!

[Yokel Again]

1 hour ago, EamerRed said:

 And I even clicked instantly with a girl on the first day (this never happens to me), who spent the last couple of nights with me and we have several plans to meet up very soon. 

Awww. Good luck ? 

[Lubic]

1 hour ago, cdm22 said:

They had tech issues at their Williams Green set too but thankfully they managed to get going 25 minutes after their official start time. I am now selfishly thankful that I didn't decide to go for their 3am set now!

Yeah was on the barrier for that too ha. Nervy times watching them messing around with the equipment! Was a great set in the end though.

[cdm22]

16 minutes ago, Lubic87 said:

Yeah was on the barrier for that too ha. Nervy times watching them messing around with the equipment! Was a great set in the end though.

I was on the barrier too  They looked utterly gutted that it looked like it wasn't going to happen then finally all was good. 

 

Aaaaanyway, crowds were mostly fine this year really, apart from a few that turned up near me at some sets just as they started to then just talk all the time (i'm looking at you twat at Jeff Goldblum when I was on the second row and two sets of older muppets at The Good, The Bad & The Queen) but thankfully the group around me at the front for The Cure were all awesome. The heat did massively limit my movements on the friday and saturday though so fewer bands seen than I would have liked, although Sunday was my full on day so really glad the temperature dropped for that one. Overall though highs outweighed the lows and got great positions for the main ones I wanted to see.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

On 7/1/2019 at 11:58 AM, Keithy said:

The SE Corner at night has become hell on earth for me now. I get that nights of hedonistic excess is exactly what people want but it's lost some of it's quirky fun now. It is just people getting off their tits and raving now, which is fine, each to their own etc, but it gets on my tits more each year. Losing places like Copperdollar and that fun, interactive, showy, cabaret side of things has changed it. IICON visually looks amazing but a 19,000 capacity field for it feels a very significant step change for the late night stuff and with the huge Common area, is committing the area to a proper late night raving festival and pushing out some of the other stuff. I don't blame the Eavii, the demand is there but it feels less like an area to explore now.

I agree about the SE Corner. I remember individual or tiny little themed bars with cabaret and places you could get in, be surprised, do a shot and move on. Now it just seems like clubs in London or Birmingham on a Sat night, smashed people, raving, everyone elbowing for their quarter metre bit of space, shouting "bare" and losing its originality. I understand the SE corner wasn't scale-able under its old guise because of the number of people attending the festival etc, but there's already Silver Hayes, it'd be nice to see some more weirdness and less conformity. 

Another 7k people isn't gonna help neither next year, but alas, cos I missed this year, I'm gonna have to try in October. 

Also, hope you've recovered from the emotional crashes etc, and they're not still hanging around. I've had some awful nights following glastonbury with sleep paralysis etc. Hope you're well 

Edited July 3, 2019 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[fred quimby]

4 hours ago, EamerRed said:

 And I even clicked instantly with a girl on the first day (this never happens to me), who spent the last couple of nights with me and we have several plans to meet up very soon. The whole weekend was just perfect. Absolutely perfect. God I've missed Glasto.

Hope it all goes well. Love those stories

[Diva Sam]

My seventh Glastonbury. 

My favourite Glastonbury.

[fred quimby]

The first one I went to was in 1982 and have been to everyone since (except 2009)

 

This one was just perfect in ever way

Mrs Q got a ticket the week before, sadly as a friend had broke a leg, so she came down on the Tuesday and had more time to ease into the festival so was brilliant to have more time together away from everything to just be with each other and have a great week.

Monday walk around site had me full of Excitement and the sunset that evening was very special. tear inducing beautiful.

Spending time with friends having a laugh.

Meeting some of you freaks on the Wednesday

Being Dry and able to amble wherever I wanted to.

Less dickheads

I never found it crowded, apart from Kylie and was able to get a good spot for everything I wanted to see. In fact I was able to see all the sets I wanted to and was there for each one before they started.

Only saw one bad set (not my thing) in a whole week.

Just overall amazing, can't wait to be there next year, and may even do more work after the festival.

No real down side except not going to a few places due to Queues, wormhole on Saturday was mad, but there was always something to skip over too. Also Me thinking it was later than it was and walking to fast to see Pond which made me a sweaty mess

Danced so much more than I have done at the past couple and seemed to be stood up a lot more

Sun normally mucks my skin up but no issues with it and would take that over wet every year.

They have all been great but this one just came together in a perfect combination

[FakeEmpire]

2 hours ago, Lubic87 said:

Yeah was on the barrier for that too ha. Nervy times watching them messing around with the equipment! Was a great set in the end though.

This seems to  be a common problem for them - they could do with some assistance, I think.  One of the downsides of being in a smaller band without the cash to spend on roadies.  I saw them in Bristol last year and they had to stop the show so many times due to equipment problems.   Lots of messing around with the equipment and, at one point, it looked like the show just wasn't going to happen.

[BOBBY_FIRMINO]

First one for me & my girlfriend so don't have a marker to compare against but really enjoyed it. Weather was a big downside though, with it only being our first we weren't able to explore the site as much as we'd have liked and seemed to spend a fair chunk of the afternoons just trying to survive rather than enjoying ourselves, so felt like we were restricted slightly in that sense.

Bit disappointed by the beer available at most of the bars too. Don't mind paying a fiver for a pint as that's more or less the norm at festivals and events now, but a fiver for a pint of 3.8% Carlsberg is a bit grim. Had to opt for the cider instead as that was a bit stronger but I didn't really enjoy the taste & it weren't too much of an upgrade on the warm Strongbow I was carrying around in my bag if I'm honest.

But all in all it was very good, thought the festival was well prepared for the heat & did the best it could to make it less of an issue for the people who attended. Definitely be trying again in October
 

[rawrsomesauce]

1 hour ago, FakeEmpire said:

This seems to  be a common problem for them - they could do with some assistance, I think.  One of the downsides of being in a smaller band without the cash to spend on roadies.  I saw them in Bristol last year and they had to stop the show so many times due to equipment problems.   Lots of messing around with the equipment and, at one point, it looked like the show just wasn't going to happen.

Agreed, they had roadies when supporting Chvrches and they were on time every night with no equipment problems as far as I could tell. 

Was gutted when they cancelled the Rabbit Hole set but needs must etc

[thrillhouse188]

Our first time so nothing to compare to.. but for me it was an absolutely life changing experience, every cliche in the book is absolutely true, having done a V and a few Readings a few years back, glasto is just different, there's definitely a magic in the air. 

Missus got a little overwhelmed on the Wednesday night after a brief stint in a packed beat hotel, and we had a few hiccups with trying to meet up with our group who seemed to not really want to do anything we did, but eventually we just gave up stressing and got on with our thing and was better for it. 

Weather was tough, but didn't struggle as much as I expected actually, apart from Saturday morning where we lost the suncream and (stupidly) walked from the park to the coop to try and buy some, before realising we could just stop at a lock up and use some there. But the worst of the damage is a nice red v on my chest. 

On the music, I think every act I was surprised by pretty much everyone I saw, even the ones I was already excited about exceeded my expectations. Mentioned in the emotional moments thread, but my gf and I sitting by the park stage on Sunday night after Rex Orange County sobbing after letting the cumulative emotion of the occasion finally wash over us (after I'd just about held it together at David Attenborough) was something I'll never forget. Feel a real connection with The Park, we camped right by it in South Park, it was the first area we explored on Wednesday after setting up, and 4 of the best acts I saw were there.

Roll on 2020, already have ticket day anxiety!

[Joshuwarr]

Was my 10th Glastonbury on the trot since first attending as a very lucky teenager in 2008 but I have to say this one was the most magical yet. Non stop blues since coming home.