Has anybody ever been to Glasto that DIDN'T like it?

[Stevie P-alike]

I meet up with an old mate about once or twice a year, and at some point in the day we'll get onto the topic of festivals. This happens every year after a few drinks, and the conversation is always identical.

We both love our music, and at some point I'll say to him "Why don't you come to Glasto with me next year". He'll then go through a load of reasons why he'd hate it :

• too big
• too many people
• I want to see the bands, not just watch it on the screens
• too much choice - too many clashes
• etc. etc.

I always end up saying that I bet he doesn't know anybody who's actually been to Glasto that didn't enjoy it...and actually he doesn't. But there must be some. Just wondering if anybody knows anybody, and why

[eFestivals]

Back in the days when i worked in the kidzfield and they were fairly free with tickets, my ex and me along with friends used to take a mate with us - as babysitter.

He didn't have much interest in music and found the festival too crowded, so used to pretty much stay in the kidz crew camping and look after the kids.

[Hugh Jass]

There was a chap on here a couple of years ago who was having a rough time at the festival. Luckily the kind people of eFests were on hand to help.

[glastofun]

I remember waking up one day in my tent, boiling hot, sweat everywhere, hungover to hell, just wishing to be home. 

I also remember vowing never to return on a Monday morning when organisers trapped us in a field with no toilets or drinking water to try and control the queue for the bus to the train station. 

But these are just fleeting moments. 

[balti-pie]

I started Uni in 1997 and one of my flatmates went that year - she had such a miserable time with rain/mud/crowds/madness that she called her parents on the Saturday morning and left. She was a bit prissy though - not the kind of ‘iignore it, have a pint and crack on’ kind of attitude that’s pretty important in muddy years 

[glastofun]

1 minute ago, balti-pie said:

I‘iignore it, have a pint and crack on’ kind of attitude that’s pretty important in muddy years 

I find it hard to have a pint at Glastonbury when it's pissing it down. Everyone is in the tented bars so you have to stand outside, and the rain waters the beer down! 

[CaledonianGonzo]

I've met plenty of 'one and done' people. More so than regulars for sure.

[DareToDibble]

One of my mates didn't try for tickets in 2017 after the mudfest of 2016, he just got a bit tired of how much hard work it was. 

Of course, when we were all there in 2017 he text us to say he wished he was with us. Glad to say he'll be returning in 2020 after securing a ticket in my group  

[DarrenVonBoathook]

A mate that went alot in the 90s. I think he now finds it too big (maybe too sanitised) and different enough from the past that the current festival doesn't seem to quite work for him anymore. I think he wants it too, but the reality sometimes falls short. In recent years he has got tickets only to not pay the balance come April and bail out.

The time served reveller in the campervan next to ours at the last Bearded Theory, another whose Glastonbury heyday was years ago and found it "too commercial" last times he tried it and won't go again.

[Matt42]

I worked on the gates with Oxfam one year and it was a rainy morning. Positioned outside the VIP gates a middle class family stormed out of hospitality. We offered to give them a pass out and they refused.

They said that they felt like they pissed thousands of pounds to go on holiday in a wet muddy field. They said they were shocked that people would come to something like this and say they are enjoying themselves. 
 

We we’re really intrigued and asked them to list what they didn’t like

- Noise, Mud, Strobe Lights, Drunk People, Unpredictable Weather, Soundchecks in the morning, people being out and about till late at night and lack of services in the hospitality.

I think this is more a case of a festival not being for them, but I don’t really know what they expected when they purchased a ticket. He said he was going to try and get a refund for his hospitality ticket because the service was “that bad”.

I don’t think it’s exclusive to Glasto I think the issue is more festivals in general. Some people can’t let loose and enjoy a bit of a rough weekend. Also some people just can’t see the beauty in 100,000 people getting fucked up.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

My wife has been twice, and has declared that she didn't really like it, and only went because it was such a big thing to me. Now she has actually vowed never to go again.

I did have one year when I would have liked it, but one of my brothers (who also went) had a mental breakdown in front of me while we were there. He was so very very sad, and there was nothing that I could do to cheer him up. So, there was no way that I could enjoy that festival. 

[Crazyfool01]

Ive been with quite a few one timers over the years ..... its bloody hard work physically at times and I suffer back issues aswell and one year I was taken out by Ambulance .... but I fucking love it nevertheless 

[brandycoke]

2 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

I worked on the gates with Oxfam one year and it was a rainy morning. Positioned outside the VIP gates a middle class family stormed out of hospitality. We offered to give them a pass out and they refused.

They said that they felt like they pissed thousands of pounds to go on holiday in a wet muddy field. They said they were shocked that people would come to something like this and say they are enjoying themselves. 
 

We we’re really intrigued and asked them to list what they didn’t like

- Noise, Mud, Strobe Lights, Drunk People, Unpredictable Weather, Soundchecks in the morning, people being out and about till late at night and lack of services in the hospitality.

I think this is more a case of a festival not being for them, but I don’t really know what they expected when they purchased a ticket. He said he was going to try and get a refund for his hospitality ticket because the service was “that bad”.

I don’t think it’s exclusive to Glasto I think the issue is more festivals in general. Some people can’t let loose and enjoy a bit of a rough weekend. Also some people just can’t see the beauty in 100,000 people getting fucked up.

Strangely all the same reasons that i go.

[stuartbert two hats]

On 10/11/2019 at 5:22 PM, Hugh Jass said:

There was a chap on here a couple of years ago who was having a rough time at the festival. Luckily the kind people of eFests were on hand to help.

Particularly @kalifire, who I'm still going to buy a pint for his kindness if I ever meet the good chap.

Edited October 13, 2019 by stuartbert two hats

[jparx]

My girlfriend came for the first time this year and had a cold AND got food poisoning on the Friday. She was pretty down on it after that, but then the Saturday ended up being the greatest day ever and she “got” it. Really excited for her to experience it in better health next year.

[Matt42]

3 minutes ago, brandycoke said:

Strangely all the same reasons that i go.

Exactly. The shenanigans and debauchery makes the festival. 
 

Unfortunately there are people out there that can’t really ‘let loose’ like that.

[swelsbyuk]

7 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

My wife has been twice, and has declared that she didn't really like it, and only went because it was such a big thing to me. Now she has actually vowed never to go again.

I did have one year when I would have liked it, but one of my brothers (who also went) had a mental breakdown in front of me while we were there. He was so very very sad, and there was nothing that I could do to cheer him up. So, there was no way that I could enjoy that festival. 

Hope your brother has things sorted now?

[priest17]

I personally hate the place, I just go so I can keep up with everything on here.

 

One of my mates that came this year didn't rate it much, think as others have said though that's more a festival thing rather than a glastonbury thing though.

[Smeble]

28 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

I've met plenty of 'one and done' people. More so than regulars for sure.

For some that’s enough though, They have done it, they are off to the next thing to tick off their list.

im by no means a regular, next year will be just my 4th, but quite a few people I know who have never been are genuinely surprised when I say I’m going again, they don’t say it but you can tell they are thinking why would anyone go more than once, which I find bizarre.

[mashedonmud]

As I've gone through life I've found that friendships come and go. Some people became so boringly normal that I had to let them go. No fault of theirs as they are good honest hardworking peoples that many are glad to have as their  friends. But they didn't come to festivals with me and get spangled because they wouldn't like it. 

So fuck them. ?

Yes I'm on the Kraken. (It's my birthday) 

Edited October 11, 2019 by mashedonmud

[scho]

My first Glastonbury was 2010 and to be honest, it was a terrible first experience of the place.

I'm not good with heat and anyone who went that year knows how hot it was... I couldn't go anywhere and was exhausted from the heat by the early evening.

Still went back the following year though and most after that. Get's better the more you go!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

11 minutes ago, swelsbyuk said:

Hope your brother has things sorted now?

Hello swelsbyuk,

Thanks for that. Unfortunately it's not the case, as he continues to to fall in to depressive bouts every now and again. 

Strangely enough, he's actually here in front of me right now, as he is visiting us for a few days. Fortunately he's in a kind of OK'ish form. He doesn't help himself in some ways as he drinks himself in to a right state (something i used to do for many a year myself, admittedly). To give you an example, he got up this morning at 9am and drank two bottles of white wine and a half litre of gin before I returned to the house at 2.30pm. Now, I could probably take that intake in my stride, but he can't. He starts to fall over, and becomes a bore etc. Ho hum!

[FuzzyDunlop]

In 2011. Someone with us didnt really like it. She didnt get it. Treated it like a "normal" night out. They went to a stage to see who they wanted, then went back to their tent.  

Didnt wander around. 

Didnt leave the tent area for anything other than food or the toilet on the Thursday.

They liked what they saw, but that was it. 

 

[Sasperella]

I had a friend who went in 2015 when I couldn't get a ticket. She did NOT have a good time and came back saying it definitely wasn't for her. To be fair she was chronically jetlagged (having flown back from a month in Thailand on the Tuesday) and had originally got tickets with her bf and subsequently broken up in the interim so I think those might have had an impact...but she swears she won't go back

[Ayrshire Chris]

I recollect in 2016 listening to a couple arguing in a tent near us about how awful it was, how they hated the mud, toilets and how they could have had a fortnight in Spain for what they spent on tickets, new tent, equipment etc. Thet packed up on the Sunday morning and left. Pity, they missed coldplay.