Lessons learned

[Gabi_says]

What did you get so right this year that you'd do it again, or so wrong you felt like an idiot and swear you will never do it again?

What I got right was investing on a proper powerbank, taking those electrolyte salts people recommended and getting a massage at the Healing Fields. I hadn't that any of those things before and they made a big positive difference.

Wrong: the backpack+stool combo was in theory a great idea, but I should've tested it a bit more before the festival: it was way too heavy and uncomfortable on the shoulders, I hated it and had to carry it for five days. I'll have to keep researching options because this particular one is a no-go.

[Tartan_Glasto]

I thought I was a genius deciding to just have spirits mixed with water and diluting juice. When I tested it at home it was nice. On site in that heat, the water did not stay cool enough so wasn't that enjoyable and I ended up not drinking a lot of the 2 ltrs of vodka I took. 

What I did right was investing in an actual camp bed. It was heavier to carry but I had some of my best festival sleeps!

[paulshane]

Things I learned (learnt?)

when it's that hot, I really do need to bring water bottles and get them refilled rather than buying cans at £2 a pop

I -can- stay up till 7am, but i'm not going to get a lot done the next day

cycling up the Hill Of Death on a 45 year old pushbike is possible, once. Thought I was going to pass out at the top

Edited July 4, 2019 by paulshane

[Winslow Leach]

Next time: just half a tab.

[giantkatestacks]

That I don't cope well in too much heat and wearing gold hotpants over leggings will lead to heat exhaustion, a hoiking over the barriers and an exciting medical-based trip backstage.

Basically, you can never have too much water.

[Spindles]

Getting there so early the stewards let us park where we wanted.  Ended up on the end of the first row of cars in Yellow by the gate A exit where the AA are set up, got offsite in about 30 seconds.

Carrying exactly the right amount of gear.  I packed so that the last clean clothes went on Monday morning, the last booze was drunk Sunday evening and the only unconsumed items were half a dozen snackbars.

Washcloth, bar of soap and a small bowl of water: About a million times better than wetwipes.  Most nights I could strip wash in the tent before bed, repeat the same in the morning for the sweat and felt cleaner than I am used to at a festival.

[Jamie 2194]

Staying up all night and insisting I can crack the F on through Thursday resulted in me being in bed by 8pm.

hydration salts, water and zero tackle until I felt normal (ish) again was the way forward. It made for a better day longer night and this is something I will do next year. Not use the power of narcotics to get me over a hump which it never did.

eat more, did this as well and energy levels were better when needed for the wee small hours 

 

[Ryan1984]

Those orange camping rollmats Lidl were selling last week were brilliant.

[Ducky89]

First year in CV fields and I will never look back - the ability to sleep on a relatively normal bed in our old caravan was invaluable.

Sunday morning re-entry queue back into site - need to either be in early, I would imagine 9-10ish would be fine, or anytime after 2-3ish. I was stood in the queue for what felt like an eternity. So either better timing to avoid or planning wisely, knowing you will be sat around for a bit.

Not to be really wonky on leaving the festival and being searched on the way out..!

 

[Bixer]

My main takeaway from Glastonbury this year is that if I ever go again, I'm cutting my nails as shortly as I physically can on the morning I leave. So much dirt and gunk gets stuck under them that I think eliminating the possibility of that problem will just keep your hands feeling that little bit cleaner. 

Also, this may be unpopular, but I honestly think I'd just abandon trying too much of the nightlife in favour of getting a better nights sleep to enjoy the daytime more. I found myself missing a few of the earlier afternoon acts I wanted to see as I was too tired from the night before and felt I needed to nap, whereas in hindsight it didn't feel like a good trade-off. 

Also, buying a small bar of soap from one of the camping stalls made all the difference for after you go for a no. 2 and even just at the end of the day, so I'd make a point of bringing one in the first place next time. 

Edited July 4, 2019 by Bixer

[ktej]

11 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Getting there so early the stewards let us park where we wanted.  Ended up on the end of the first row of cars in Yellow by the gate A exit where the AA are set up, got offsite in about 30 seconds.

Carrying exactly the right amount of gear.  I packed so that the last clean clothes went on Monday morning, the last booze was drunk Sunday evening and the only unconsumed items were half a dozen snackbars.

Washcloth, bar of soap and a small bowl of water: About a million times better than wetwipes.  Most nights I could strip wash in the tent before bed, repeat the same in the morning for the sweat and felt cleaner than I am used to at a festival.

I second the bowl and washcloth alternative to wetwipes, it is surprisingly refreshing and means you don't have to join the shower queues. 

[Penrhos]

Microfiber flannel & towel with some soap > wet wipes.

Sitting on the pyramid hill in full sun all morning drinking cider = sunburn and being useless for the rest of the day.

In your late 50's staying out until 6AM means you inevitably miss the first act and need an afternoon snooze the following day.

leave East CV really early or late in afternoon - queued over 2 hours to get off site Monday lunchtime.

 

 

[sirjonnyp]

31 minutes ago, paulshane said:

when it's that hot, I really do need to bring water bottles and get them refilled rather than buying cans at £2 a pop

No disrespect, but not bringing a water bottle at all seems really foolish? What do you do when you wake up really thirsty first thing in the morning? 

[frostypaw]

Sun brolly is only lovely when nobody's about. There are always people about.

The steel cups are brilliant, genuinely kept my drink cooler but easy to put down and lose. Will be getting another and doing something so I can attach it to things.

Arriving later on Wednesday is an eyeopeningly peaceful experience by comparison.

I absolutely do have a far better Glastonbury experience ignoring most of the late night bonkers and doing arcadia/pangea then chill things and small tents before bed, this might expand to include iicon if it goes in the right direction 

[paulshane]

2 minutes ago, sirjonnyp said:

No disrespect, but not bringing a water bottle at all seems really foolish? What do you do when you wake up really thirsty first thing in the morning? 

i brought loads, I just need to -remember- to pack them each morning had one on my every day except saturday morning and spent loads on cans before I had chance to go back to the caravan and restock

[Aragorn]

5 minutes ago, sirjonnyp said:

No disrespect, but not bringing a water bottle at all seems really foolish? What do you do when you wake up really thirsty first thing in the morning? 

Obviously crack a beer innit mush

[Hugh Jass]

Best decision I made was buying one of those water bottles.

It’s sat on my desk now.

[dccool]

Things I got bang on....

Going to Lost Horizons every morning for a cold shower. Totally got this right sorted me out whether I felt I needed it or not.

Constantly drinking water and topping up whenever we passed a tap or refill point.

Wearing a floppy cricket style hat most of the day.

Things I got wrong....

Not going to bed at 8am Sunday morning after already being up for 24 hours. By the time i did make it to bed 4am Monday morning I was in a right mess and still recovering now.

Thinking that an apple and a handful of haribo would do me for breakfast most mornings.

[dingbat2]

Invest in some decent trainers rather than the cheapest I can find. And buy them several weeks before Glasto and do some long walks in them in the lead up to the festival, to get then worn in, and to get me fitter and my feet and back used to a lot of walking. Bought cheap trainers this year and got blisters pretty early on. Still managed 100,000 steps though

[Northtim]

Good:

Self inflating mattress thingys are comfy as

Drink as much water as alcohol when its hot and you'll be fine

Greenpeace stage is great

Steel cups are perfect for mixing rum & coke

Bad:

Shouldn't listen to the guys telling me to join q at gate A as D was busy.  5 hrs queuing at gate A only to find gate D queues had vanished and people had been walking through for 3 hours

Edited July 4, 2019 by Northtim

[AtomsForPizza]

40 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Getting there so early the stewards let us park where we wanted.  Ended up on the end of the first row of cars in Yellow by the gate A exit where the AA are set up, got offsite in about 30 seconds.

Carrying exactly the right amount of gear.  I packed so that the last clean clothes went on Monday morning, the last booze was drunk Sunday evening and the only unconsumed items were half a dozen snackbars.

Washcloth, bar of soap and a small bowl of water: About a million times better than wetwipes.  Most nights I could strip wash in the tent before bed, repeat the same in the morning for the sweat and felt cleaner than I am used to at a festival.

How did you manage to carry the bowl of water in without spilling it? 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

I learnt to hit control f5 faster this October 

[sirjonnyp]

8 minutes ago, paulshane said:

i brought loads, I just need to -remember- to pack them each morning had one on my every day except saturday morning and spent loads on cans before I had chance to go back to the caravan and restock

Ha fair do, can't imagine how I would have coped without mine on me all day! 

I kept seeing those still water cans about and until I read otherwise on here, had just assumed that they were part of the contingency plan for the heat / running low on water and were being given away for free. Shocked that they were being flogged for £2 each!

[Quark]

Oh man.  My annual post-Glastonbury debrief and self-flagellation.

Went Right

• Two water canteens, fill up both first thing and leave one in the tent.  If I then forgot to fill up on the way back to bed, I knew I had drinking water there and ready for when I woke up.
• Like @Spindles, bar of soap and a washcloth.  I'd mastered the art of washing with that and less than 500ml of water by the end of the weekend. The dry shower gel stuff isn't bad, but this felt way better. You just can't beat soap for getting grime off. Also carried a small bar in my day bag in case there's none at the loos; the anti bac gel's great for what it is but it doesn't get the muck off. Especially if you're a perpetual nail biter like me.
• First time I'd taken a camping stove, absolute morning game changer.  Only a little burner but enough to make a coffee to sit and watch the site before wandering out.
• P20 factor 30 sunblock.  Apart from forgetting to do my shins on Thursday, didn't get burnt at all, and that was with a single application first thing and one top up around mid afternoon. It's expensive, but because you don't have to reapply it works out OK.
• Top water up EVERY time I passed an empty tap. Never ended up without water.
• Return coach time of 10am was perfectly acceptable. Was home by about 4:30, and that was into London, train back out going south, and getting a bus home from the station.

Not so Good

• Need to accept that I can't do the festival without a plan. Not Benny levels of planning, but I have to have a rough path and know what my options are, otherwise I just drift aimlessly and don't really end up doing anything. Thursday was definitely a day wasted because of this. We got to the Park about an hour before Baggy Mondays, promptly roasted for a bit, then couldn't stay up there anymore and went to hide somewhere.
• Didn't allow enough time for the efests meet. I was meeting up with brother in law and mates, and only ended up giving myself about 90 minutes at the Ridge & Furrow. I was having a blast, and still loads of people I didn't see, meet or talk to. Next time I'll probably arrange to meet them for the fireworks and just enjoy catching up with people until then. And on that note...
• Need to be clearer with the people I want to catch up with on when and where.  I spent too much time bouncing between two or three different groups of people, which is great as I want to spend time with them all, but meant I was never personally settled or really focusing on doing my own festival.
• Spent hardly any time this year in the places I really love like the Green Fields, Permaculture etc, and didn't even set foot in Croissant Neuf. Addressing that next year.
• Rum was great as always, but probably won't bother with the flavoured vodka next time. Just a lot of faff in the build up, and not a great payoff for the effort.
• Also packed a bit too much, so will go a bit lighter next time.
• Research live sets a bit more. Really like John Hopkins, but turned out my expectation of a live set was way off, and just wan't what I was after.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Quark

[Gedh]

Just now, sirjonnyp said:

. Shocked that they were being flogged for £2 each!

Gave me a shock each time I saw someone order one - £2! - I mean two whole british pounds when they could just turn a tap. They weren't even chilled just taken from a stack.