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Camp Fires


shuttlep
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On 7/12/2019 at 4:26 PM, bombfrog said:

I think that's the motivation but I think the reality is that nobody doesn't get a space, they just have to go further out than they would like, there's always plenty of space on the aerial pics.

Another factor is that they keep putting things like Cineramageddon and Glastonbury on Sea in spaces previously used for camping. Now, I'm nto saying those are bad things. I had a look round Cineramageddon this year and it's very impressive, and I know there will be people who would say we're better off with those things than more camping space, but for some people the camping experience might be more important. I certainly think that blaming people with gazebos and campfires for the (perceived) lack of space is a bit rich.

The trend isn’t stopping though. We have been camped in Rivermead since tat field was open for camping and it’s got consistently busier every year.

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Realise I'm going against the grain here but I'd be happy for the festival to ban camp fires. Last thing id want if I'm crawling into my tent in the early hours is a roaring fire right outside and spending the night lying awake terrified my tent is going to go up in flames. 

There's no shortage of areas around the site where you can congregate to have a chat with your mates without impacting those camped nearby. 

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33 minutes ago, El Matador said:

Realise I'm going against the grain here but I'd be happy for the festival to ban camp fires. Last thing id want if I'm crawling into my tent in the early hours is a roaring fire right outside and spending the night lying awake terrified my tent is going to go up in flames. 

There's no shortage of areas around the site where you can congregate to have a chat with your mates without impacting those camped nearby. 

The festival is known for reacting to and fixing problems. If (even back in the day when tents weren't flame retardant) there had ever been a problem with campfires setting fire to tents the festival would almost certainly banned them and Mendip Council would have forbad them in the licensing conditions, that's how they roll.

I love a camp fire and miss the days when there were beautiful smudges of smoke all across site at sunrise.

Edited by Sawdusty Surfer
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30 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

I love a camp fire and miss the days when there were beautiful smudges of smoke all across site at sunrise.

I recall meeting someone I knew from Birmingham at his very first Glastonbury, many years ago. I'd walked down the hill from what was then called Top Webbs Ash, and he'd just turned a corner and met my eye. We then had a good old chat, as I hadn't seen him in a few years. As we talked, I noticed him look up, and his eyes just lit up. I turned around and saw what he had seen for the first time ever. It was that of a bank of camp fire smoke, lying low on the hillside, across the whole of the camping area, at sunset. With all the tents (A frame, at that time), it made the whole place look like a refugee camp. And indeed it was - lots and lots of refugees together, all sheltering from the outside world. Fucking magic.

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44 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

I recall meeting someone I knew from Birmingham at his very first Glastonbury, many years ago. I'd walked down the hill from what was then called Top Webbs Ash, and he'd just turned a corner and met my eye. We then had a good old chat, as I hadn't seen him in a few years. As we talked, I noticed him look up, and his eyes just lit up. I turned around and saw what he had seen for the first time ever. It was that of a bank of camp fire smoke, lying low on the hillside, across the whole of the camping area, at sunset. With all the tents (A frame, at that time), it made the whole place look like a refugee camp. And indeed it was - lots and lots of refugees together, all sheltering from the outside world. Fucking magic.

Exactly this.

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14 hours ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

I recall meeting someone I knew from Birmingham at his very first Glastonbury, many years ago. I'd walked down the hill from what was then called Top Webbs Ash, and he'd just turned a corner and met my eye. We then had a good old chat, as I hadn't seen him in a few years. As we talked, I noticed him look up, and his eyes just lit up. I turned around and saw what he had seen for the first time ever. It was that of a bank of camp fire smoke, lying low on the hillside, across the whole of the camping area, at sunset. With all the tents (A frame, at that time), it made the whole place look like a refugee camp. And indeed it was - lots and lots of refugees together, all sheltering from the outside world. Fucking magic.

This and the wandering from fire to fire full of excited life recounting the days adventures and madness until the sun started to rise and we all headed to the stone circle was part of what I loved so much.

All basically gone since the SE corner

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  I was our camps Twisted fire starter back in the day ... they dwindled when people sat round them quite happily started complaining of smelling of smoke duh !! I loved them :) but I guess the SE corner and after hours stuff had an effect ... loved  the mystery of the smoky effect that used to hang over the site ... I suppose the 3 for £5 flares added to that :) 

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On 7/12/2019 at 4:02 PM, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

I once went to the World Conker Championships, many moons ago now. There wasn't much health and safety going on in those days - everybody was on the lash - competitors and the general public. And there were Morris Dancers there too, who'd had a fair bit to drink. As a quirky British held event, I'd recommend it to anybody.

I know that this post is off subject, but I just had to come out with it, in a Tourette's kind of manner.

I never liked playing conkers as a kid. Didn't mind marbles, but conkers was a faff, trying to get the shoe lace through it without the whole thing splitting. Plus there was nothing more annoying than seeing your prized conker explode after being struck by one that someone had coated with some sort of hardening chemical agent. 

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15 hours ago, Pinhead said:

I do remember when there were little fires everywhere, even in the stage arenas after the music was done for the night. Even have memories of starting one of my own roughly where the seating is now opposite the Cider Bus in '04.

Ha, if forgotten about this--I remember after the headliner people would pick up all surrounding paper cups at the stage arena's to add to the fire- the desperation to find anything to use as fuel! 

Edited by Mr.Tease
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3 hours ago, frostypaw said:

This and the wandering from fire to fire full of excited life recounting the days adventures and madness until the sun started to rise and we all headed to the stone circle was part of what I loved so much.

All basically gone since the SE corner

cant have been great for the environment... although it never got out of control we did chuck lots of different things on ours :( 

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3 hours ago, crazyfool1 said:

cant have been great for the environment... although it never got out of control we did chuck lots of different things on ours :( 

It's a difficult thing to work out is environmental impact.  Obviously burning all sorts of shit on a fire isn't great, but then the construction of the SE corner - indeed the entire festival - comes with its own footprint.

I saw the Extinction Rebellion procession on the Thursday (by chance) and it was being led by a couple of the Mutoids' vehicles, and the Arcadia Bug, all chucking out thick fumes.  It seemed a tad incongruous, to say the least.

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1 minute ago, fatyeti24 said:

It's a difficult thing to work out is environmental impact.  Obviously burning all sorts of shit on a fire isn't great, but then the construction of the SE corner - indeed the entire festival - comes with its own footprint.

I saw the Extinction Rebellion procession on the Thursday (by chance) and it was being led by a couple of the Mutoids' vehicles, and the Arcadia Bug, all chucking out thick fumes.  It seemed a tad incongruous, to say the least.

the same ... think we were walking up to park for baggy mondays and it was heading down the track towards us ... although I seem to remember Arcadia was powered by vegetable oil ? or chip fat ? maybe the bug was the same ? or maybe I was imagining it 

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3 hours ago, Mr.Tease said:

I never liked playing conkers as a kid. Didn't mind marbles, but conkers was a faff, trying to get the shoe lace through it without the whole thing splitting. Plus there was nothing more annoying than seeing your prized conker explode after being struck by one that someone had coated with some sort of hardening chemical agent. 

I wasn't really in to playing conkers as a kid either. I'm not sure what age I was but at one point in my life as a kid I got an erection for the first time, climbing up the support pole for some swings in the park. I couldn't stop playing with me conkers after that!

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4 hours ago, Mr.Tease said:

Ha, if forgotten about this--I remember after the headliner people would pick up all surrounding paper cups at the stage arena's to add to the fire- the desperation to find anything to use as fuel! 

Check out the old Radiohead pyramid set video and you can see campfires starting from halfway up the field mid performance.

The complaining about smelling of smoke thing drives me nuts. Even as an ex-smoker still maddens me that the biggest issue people had was "my hair smells" not "cancer" ffs humans sort your shit out.

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20 hours ago, crazyfool1 said:

cant have been great for the environment... although it never got out of control we did chuck lots of different things on ours :( 

I was thinking the same thing. I love how so many people have got on their high horse about something as innocent as needing and taking a piss in a bush, or leaving behind some gash tent, then lament the fact that lots of fires belching out environmentally dangerous smoke aren't so prevalent anymore. Massive double standards.

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3 hours ago, jimbarkanoodle said:

I was thinking the same thing. I love how so many people have got on their high horse about something as innocent as needing and taking a piss in a bush, or leaving behind some gash tent, then lament the fact that lots of fires belching out environmentally dangerous smoke aren't so prevalent anymore. Massive double standards.

A completely false equivalence there.

There's a specific reason why pissing on the land is discouraged and it's because the festival itself has limits placed on it with regard to pollution of the river and it has been claimed the festival could lose it's licence if the stream is polluted.

You can't compare that with burning a bit of wood before going to bed. Campfires were quite popular before the industrial revolution when CO2 levels in the atmosphere started shooting up you know!

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10 hours ago, jimbarkanoodle said:

I was thinking the same thing. I love how so many people have got on their high horse about something as innocent as needing and taking a piss in a bush, or leaving behind some gash tent, then lament the fact that lots of fires belching out environmentally dangerous smoke aren't so prevalent anymore. Massive double standards.

It wouldnt be an issue if it wasnt for the millions of metric tons of CO2 being belched out in the US and China for example.

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4 hours ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

Off topic but I love psychology especially group dynamics. I notice that when you get a set of strangers camping together at a festival the default position is to form a circle of  chairs. It awesome to watch. 

That's fascinating. Will be watching this in future. I can imagine doing the same, I guess no one wants to initially be seen as being dominant or otherwise. 

 

On topic, I think the answer to the fires this year is really obvious and boring. It was very windy and the grass was very dry. Not really ideal for multiple fires near tents. Could spread too easily if it got out of control. 

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13 hours ago, H.M.V said:

On topic, I think the answer to the fires this year is really obvious and boring. It was very windy and the grass was very dry. Not really ideal for multiple fires near tents. Could spread too easily if it got out of control. 

Yeah, I think you are right on the money there.

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Based on some of the people I've camped near in the past, I wouldn't trust them to look after a campfire properly. Maybe each field should have its own campfire circle, Strummerville style. Would be another place for people to congregate, socialize etc, rather than it being loads of individual groups doing their own thing.

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22 minutes ago, mouserat said:

Maybe each field should have its own campfire circle, Strummerville style. Would be another place for people to congregate, socialize etc, rather than it being loads of individual groups doing their own thing.

That's quite a nice call actually.  Would also encourage more of the communal feel of the fires. Me likey.

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2 hours ago, mouserat said:

Based on some of the people I've camped near in the past, I wouldn't trust them to look after a campfire properly. Maybe each field should have its own campfire circle, Strummerville style. Would be another place for people to congregate, socialize etc, rather than it being loads of individual groups doing their own thing.

That's a nice idea, but it's a different thing. Sitting with your own friends, chatting about the bands you've seen that day and what you've been up to is different, half the fun is starting your own fire and looking after it yourself, cooking a few marshmellows over it or whatever. I like your idea but it's not a replacement for individual fires.

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8 hours ago, Quark said:

That's quite a nice call actually.  Would also encourage more of the communal feel of the fires. Me likey.

And thats what the Young Greens did in Pennards and a few other adjacent campsites over the last few years. The communal fire circles, some even with little makeshift stages, were all linked by paths that helped with access into the deeper areas of the campsite. Camped next to one of these several years in a row as a mate of mine was helping them out. Didnt see any evidence of them this year however unless anyone knows otherwise.

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