Levellers ‘94 - 300k - how?!

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Mr.Tease said:

Oh man, all these years I've just believed all the posts on festivals where people say "it was so busy in 2000, I honestly feared for my life"- I feel cheated! 😂

it was VERY busy! But the site was a fair bit smaller and there were fewer stages and little all-night stuff.

It's only in the last year or three it's seemed busier than it was in 2000.

[plot2pot]

I guess the main difference is that now there's a lot more people, but because it's licensed for the numbers there are enough toilets, camping pitches, food outlets and general space to cope with it.  Back in the 90's/2000 there were less people there than present day but it was way over capacity so probably seemed busier because it wasn't set up for that many people.

[Mr.Tease]

Here some videos of someone wandering round the site in 2000 for comparison:

 

[Mr.Tease]

And 1995:

 

They have lots of good glastonbury vids from the 90s:

https://www.youtube.com/user/kinokastvideo/search?query=glastonbury

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Mr.Tease

[philipsteak]

On 3/2/2020 at 1:57 PM, gooner1990 said:

Wasn't there but I've heard that Portishead in 1994 in a tent was dangerously tightly packed

 

 

On 3/2/2020 at 2:33 PM, eFestivals said:

I've no idea how tightly packed the tent was, as I couldn't get in the field because it was so tightly packed.

1995 wasn't it as I remember not being able to get anywhere near it too, and I wasn't there in 94

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, philipsteak said:

 

1995 wasn't it as I remember not being able to get anywhere near it too, and I wasn't there in 94

you're probably right, I don't remember the year.

[Mr.Tease]

And 1986:

 

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

And 1986:

just having a watch, see if i can spot myself.

The site was tiny back then compared to now.

[Chubby Dude in a Tiny Car]

1 hour ago, philipsteak said:

 

1995 wasn't it as I remember not being able to get anywhere near it too, and I wasn't there in 94

If this was 1995 in the acoustic tent then this is also tied in to the Evan dando “incident”...

[Chubby Dude in a Tiny Car]

1 hour ago, Mr.Tease said:

Oh man, all these years I've just believed all the posts on festivals where people say "it was so busy in 2000, I honestly feared for my life"- I feel cheated! 😂

My main memories from 2000 are of people spilling out through camping fields after main stage sets - there were so many people that it was actually impossible to move in any other direction and waves of people just headed out through tents just to move away... I actually DO remember 2000 as being crazy,  bordering scary, busy.

[stuartbert two hats]

4 hours ago, Chubby Dude in a Tiny Car said:

My main memories from 2000 are of people spilling out through camping fields after main stage sets - there were so many people that it was actually impossible to move in any other direction and waves of people just headed out through tents just to move away... I actually DO remember 2000 as being crazy,  bordering scary, busy.

That's true.  I don't remember having to walk through campsites in recent festivals.  

[Spindles]

5 hours ago, Chubby Dude in a Tiny Car said:

My main memories from 2000 are of people spilling out through camping fields after main stage sets - there were so many people that it was actually impossible to move in any other direction and waves of people just headed out through tents just to move away... I actually DO remember 2000 as being crazy,  bordering scary, busy.

On one of the nights we partied with some scottish folk we met who were camped in holts.  THAT was mayhem, like something out of madmax.  How anyone could spend the better part of a week living in amongst that I have never understood.  We'd nabbed a prime spot in Oxlyers looking out onto the Other stage from the door of our tents, much more civilised.

[fatyeti24]

8 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

That's true.  I don't remember having to walk through campsites in recent festivals.  

The campsites have been moved a bit over the years, generally towards the outskirts out of the way.  In recent years I've seen a bit of spillage into the area around the Mandela Bar when the Pyramid is busy, but that's it.  In 2000 I was camped in what's now the middle of Silver Hayes.

They're also far stricter on moving tents camped in the wrong spaces; nobody gets away with a tent in the Pyramid field anymore!

[MrHew]

13 hours ago, Chubby Dude in a Tiny Car said:

If this was 1995 in the acoustic tent then this is also tied in to the Evan dando “incident”...

I was one of the very few people in the field who was there to see Mr Dando...

[gooner1990]

1998...nice weather...

 

[eFestivals]

6 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

1998...nice weather...

1997 was worse. Similar weather but much heavier mud.

Because '97 was so bad, in '98 loads of peeps went home on Friday & Saturday. Apart from 2002 it was probably the quietest festival I can remember.

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, eFestivals said:

1997 was worse. Similar weather but much heavier mud.

Because '97 was so bad, in '98 loads of peeps went home on Friday & Saturday. Apart from 2002 it was probably the quietest festival I can remember.

1998 was the first year friends of my age went. I remember being very jealous...then not so jealous as after I'd watched England v Colombia in the World Cup down the pub, the landlord put 'Glastonbury live' on BBC2 in the back room on and we saw just how bad the site was!

I've never bailed a festival out early because of weather, and as Billy Bragg once said 'muddy glastonbury's sort out the real men and women from the posers!' 

[The Red Telephone]

3 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

1997 was worse. Similar weather but much heavier mud.

Because '97 was so bad, in '98 loads of peeps went home on Friday & Saturday. Apart from 2002 it was probably the quietest festival I can remember.

97 was definitely the worst year I’ve been.

I was a broken man (boy) by Sunday tea-time. Had my tent nicked too - the whole tent!

[gooner1990]

3 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

97 was definitely the worst year I’ve been.

I was a broken man (boy) by Sunday tea-time. Had my tent nicked too - the whole tent!

2007 was the worst I've done, but I understand not like 1997 or 1998 as the drainage had been improved vastly by then.

[The Red Telephone]

3 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

2007 was the worst I've done, but I understand not like 1997 or 1998 as the drainage had been improved vastly by then.

All evidence points to drainage not existing in Somerset until the 21st Century.

[gooner1990]

7 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

All evidence points to drainage not existing in Somerset until the 21st Century.

Its surprising that it got that far without having adequate drainage on site.

Given it was the first two years the festival was broadcast on prime-time BBC it was a bit of a PR disaster in one sense as it led many to believe it was muddy every year!

[eFestivals]

24 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

All evidence points to drainage not existing in Somerset until the 21st Century.

Probably early/mid 90s, they decided to dig a drainage ditch - about 6ft deep - alongside the main drag where it goes past west holts.

Which was fine until it got dark, when people walked off the path into the field and fell down the ditch.

[Crazyfool01]

Drainage much much better ... have they completely finished it ? I remember being stood in the other field when it was just a lake ... 

[eFestivals]

8 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

Drainage much much better ... have they completely finished it ? I remember being stood in the other field when it was just a lake ... 

I don't think it's something they ever 'finish'. I believe they do some stuff every year.

And it's probably the case with that soil that any land-drains they've dug (such as that one at west holts when it was covered over) get clogged up after a number of years and have less of an effect

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

I don't think it's something they ever 'finish'. I believe they do some stuff every year.

And it's probably the case with that soil that any land-drains they've dug (such as that one at west holts when it was covered over) get clogged up after a number of years and have less of an effect

That’s good to know ... I do like the behind the scenes things they do to make the festival as great as it is ... I’ve never seen anything on my visits of late but guess it’s not gonna be obvious and might be done in a short time frame now the major work is done