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Levellers ‘94 - 300k - how?!


jimmillen
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It was small but still felt very big at the time. Now its just off the scale thanks to SE corner and numerous other expansions. Hard to believe there was no real SE area then (other than a little field called "Weird Beard" or "Roy's Field" just off the railway at that point). I guess the larger expansions were when ME convinced adjacent landowners to have festival rather than just parking on their parcels of land. When first I went in '94 it was mainly all about the Babylon area with a 'thread' of festival following up the main drag to King's Meadow. Not a great deal of nighttime stuff - mainly peeps were back at their tents around campfires after the stages finished - except for around soundsystems in Babylon and few parties in the developing Green Fields.

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9 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

Wow - interesting to see it was still quite a small site even in the late 90's when it was starting to become a very big 'event'

One factor is that average tent sizes are much larger now - in that photo there's not much that's bigger than a 2 man dome, and if someone did bring a 3+ man tent then odds are there was multiple people in it.

Another part of it is that a lot of the camping space used back then has been converted into markets or into other things like the SE corner. When I started going (in 04), Park Home had only just been switched to camping and even Pennards was still thought of as a fairly new addition and they were almost considered to be outlying suburbs, whereas today so much former prime space is no longer public camping that both are thought of as very central.

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7 hours ago, incident said:

One factor is that average tent sizes are much larger now - in that photo there's not much that's bigger than a 2 man dome, and if someone did bring a 3+ man tent then odds are there was multiple people in it.

Another part of it is that a lot of the camping space used back then has been converted into markets or into other things like the SE corner. When I started going (in 04), Park Home had only just been switched to camping and even Pennards was still thought of as a fairly new addition and they were almost considered to be outlying suburbs, whereas today so much former prime space is no longer public camping that both are thought of as very central.

I worked at the festival last year, but popped over to a friends campsite one afternoon and noticed that all four of them had a 3 man tent to themselves each, plus a storage tent for beer etc. 

I first went in 2004 too, it felt big back then compared to other festivals' I'd been to at that point and I recall going for a walk one night and thought that the Pennards area was, like you say a bit like the suburbs....now its right in the thick of the action!

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16 hours ago, Pinhead said:

It was small but still felt very big at the time. Now its just off the scale thanks to SE corner and numerous other expansions. Hard to believe there was no real SE area then (other than a little field called "Weird Beard" or "Roy's Field" just off the railway at that point). I guess the larger expansions were when ME convinced adjacent landowners to have festival rather than just parking on their parcels of land. When first I went in '94 it was mainly all about the Babylon area with a 'thread' of festival following up the main drag to King's Meadow. Not a great deal of nighttime stuff - mainly peeps were back at their tents around campfires after the stages finished - except for around soundsystems in Babylon and few parties in the developing Green Fields.

I would love to have a time machine and do one of the mid-90s festivals...was just sadly way too young to go at the time!

I went round Lost Vaguness a fair bit in 2007 although I can't say I recall going down that way much in my first couple of years in 2004 and 2005. 

I've seen the videos of Babylon on youtube - looks great. :)

Personally, I feel that the community spirit has been lost a little as everyone is now out all night, it used to be people would filter back from various things at around midnight...have a fire...perhaps chat to whoever was camped next to you, have a smoke or whatever else and then go to bed about 3am.  Then nightime for our crowd shifted around 2008-09 when the S.E corner started picking up and sitting around the campfire with a few beers and a pill or two became a thing of the past and everyone was down in the S.E corner till 4-5am.  Sometimes if one of my friends who I'm camped with has watched different stuff I can go two days without seeing them! 

I suppose its just how the festival has evolved but I do miss that part of the festival somewhat. 

 

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8 hours ago, incident said:

One factor is that average tent sizes are much larger now - in that photo there's not much that's bigger than a 2 man dome, and if someone did bring a 3+ man tent then odds are there was multiple people in it.

 

1995, 3 of us in a 2 man tent. With a big rip in it. And I'm not small. Luckily the other two were. Never trust the person who says 'yeah, we've got an old tent in the loft. I'm sure it's fine'. It wasn't fine

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Yeah and look at all those old A frame tents in the old vids, then watch the gradual take over of the igloos as the years go on. You could almost do an evolution of the tent study on it - if you had nothing better to do 😄

It lost a lot of its spontaneity as time went on and safety / site management and licensing concerns became more rigorous. Seems to go through a sort of 'tock' evolution after every fallow year - if we ever get to go back, I reckon it will be very much changed...

 

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On 9/25/2020 at 5:54 PM, Pinhead said:

It lost a lot of its spontaneity as time went on and safety / site management and licensing concerns became more rigorous. Seems to go through a sort of 'tock' evolution after every fallow year - if we ever get to go back, I reckon it will be very much changed...

 

I go to Truck Festival two miles from where I live most years and have been going since the 2nd one...albiet on a smaller scale its gone from 500 ish people then it went to 5,000 ish for a while now its about 20,000 and its completly changed in all aspects bar the name and location.  I feel a lot of this is the same with Glastonbury too.

Even since I've been going since 2004 Glastonbury has changed (expanded) a lot although from what my older friends say to me still the biggest change was the change in 'clientele' once the super fence arrived in 2002. 

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On 9/25/2020 at 5:54 PM, Pinhead said:

Yeah and look at all those old A frame tents in the old vids, then watch the gradual take over of the igloos as the years go on. You could almost do an evolution of the tent study on it - if you had nothing better to do 😄

 

That comment reminded me of that video of the people walking through the pyramid field in 2000 which is on youtube somewhere....hard not to notice the complete lack of camping chairs and rugs!

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4 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

I go to Truck Festival two miles from where I live most years and have been going since the 2nd one...albiet on a smaller scale its gone from 500 ish people then it went to 5,000 ish for a while now its about 20,000 and its completly changed in all aspects bar the name and location.  I feel a lot of this is the same with Glastonbury too.

Even since I've been going since 2004 Glastonbury has changed (expanded) a lot although from what my older friends say to me still the biggest change was the change in 'clientele' once the super fence arrived in 2002. 

I'd agree with this.  I went to 5 Glastos before the fence and after 2000 I didn't go back until 2008.  The change in punters was very noticeable.  Much more white, much more middle class.

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On 9/25/2020 at 9:20 AM, gooner1990 said:

I would love to have a time machine and do one of the mid-90s festivals...was just sadly way too young to go at the time!

I went round Lost Vaguness a fair bit in 2007 although I can't say I recall going down that way much in my first couple of years in 2004 and 2005. 

I've seen the videos of Babylon on youtube - looks great. :)

Personally, I feel that the community spirit has been lost a little as everyone is now out all night, it used to be people would filter back from various things at around midnight...have a fire...perhaps chat to whoever was camped next to you, have a smoke or whatever else and then go to bed about 3am.  Then nightime for our crowd shifted around 2008-09 when the S.E corner started picking up and sitting around the campfire with a few beers and a pill or two became a thing of the past and everyone was down in the S.E corner till 4-5am.  Sometimes if one of my friends who I'm camped with has watched different stuff I can go two days without seeing them! 

I suppose its just how the festival has evolved but I do miss that part of the festival somewhat. 

 

You are correct. I remember in 99 we didn't want to watch Skunk Anansie or whoever was headlining the Other (Afro Celt Soundsystem?) so we just sat around the tent getting stoned (probably). There wasn;t that much else to do really. I remember in the mid-90s I used to say to people 'the best part of Glastonbury is just going campoing with your mates and having a laugh'. All unthinkable now!

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26 minutes ago, fatyeti24 said:

I'd agree with this.  I went to 5 Glastos before the fence and after 2000 I didn't go back until 2008.  The change in punters was very noticeable.  Much more white, much more middle class.

I’m somewhere between working class and lower middle class I’d say...and I’ve noticed over the years more and more people being like me or more middle class than went I first started doing festivals (1999)

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22 minutes ago, Homer said:

You are correct. I remember in 99 we didn't want to watch Skunk Anansie or whoever was headlining the Other (Afro Celt Soundsystem?) so we just sat around the tent getting stoned (probably). There wasn;t that much else to do really. I remember in the mid-90s I used to say to people 'the best part of Glastonbury is just going campoing with your mates and having a laugh'. All unthinkable now!

Yeh I used to love that it was a chance to just go camping with your mates and a lot of the early Readings were like that for me.Just sitting around a campfire with some beers, weed and a ghetto blaster...but that part has now sadly gone! 
 

But it’s inevitable that if you put stuff on late at night people will go and the campsite side of it will suffer.

looks odd when I now see people having a fire when at one point pretty much every campsite had one going! 

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17 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Yeh I used to love that it was a chance to just go camping with your mates and a lot of the early Readings were like that for me.Just sitting around a campfire with some beers, weed and a ghetto blaster...but that part has now sadly gone! 
 

But it’s inevitable that if you put stuff on late at night people will go and the campsite side of it will suffer.

looks odd when I now see people having a fire when at one point pretty much every campsite had one going! 

The weird paradox is that even though I'm older, I do more naughties than I did back in the day because of how great the nightlife is. In the early to mid 2000s I got through whole festivals doing none or very little. I used to go to bed at about 1am. I didn't really see the point in missing out on bands the next day so I could dance around the wine bar to Queen with my mates!

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13 minutes ago, Homer said:

The weird paradox is that even though I'm older, I do more naughties than I did back in the day because of how great the nightlife is. In the early to mid 2000s I got through whole festivals doing none or very little. I used to go to bed at about 1am. I didn't really see the point in missing out on bands the next day so I could dance around the wine bar to Queen with my mates!

Not sure how old you are but I’m 39 and it’s exactly the same as our group.

used to be beer and weed and bed at 2-3am - now it’s sweating our tits off till 6am and die until 4pm the following day and then do it all over again.

the comedowns last a week though :( 

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4 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Not sure how old you are but I’m 39 and it’s exactly the same as our group.

used to be beer and weed and bed at 2-3am - now it’s sweating our tits off till 6am and die until 4pm the following day and then do it all over again.

the comedowns last a week though :( 

I'm 44 and I grew un in Bristol mate, so was lucky enough to start going in 94. Yes indeed. My mate introduced me to the every other night strategy which is quite good. Basically, say 2am Thurs and Sat and do 6am Fri and Sun. Works me (well, I still feel awful sometimes!).

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31 minutes ago, Homer said:

I'm 44 and I grew un in Bristol mate, so was lucky enough to start going in 94. Yes indeed. My mate introduced me to the every other night strategy which is quite good. Basically, say 2am Thurs and Sat and do 6am Fri and Sun. Works me (well, I still feel awful sometimes!).

At Glastonbury I tend to keep Weds and Sun quietish till 1am or so, Thurs and Fri 4am or so and Sat is the big one till 6-7am 

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Was really chuffed with myself last year as managed to make it until light around 4-5am every night - first time for years - maybe it was the better weather or maybe sitting around more during the day cos of the heat. Seemed as if a veil was lifted as the sun went down and it began to get much cooler and then the energy came back!

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11 hours ago, Pinhead said:

Was really chuffed with myself last year as managed to make it until light around 4-5am every night - first time for years - maybe it was the better weather or maybe sitting around more during the day cos of the heat. Seemed as if a veil was lifted as the sun went down and it began to get much cooler and then the energy came back!

I usually find a more laid back approch to daytime helps me manage night time a lot better!

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  • 2 years later...

I worked it, and the crowd was going all the way up into the campsites facing the main stage. Having worked it two years before with the same layout, as it was back then, it would have been easy to fit that many people. Watch their song One Way from that year and it will give you an idea of how many people was in front of the sound tower never mind everywhere else! I also worked the Iron Maiden show at Rock In Rio in 2001, 250,000, and there was more for the Levellers at Glastonbury 1994 believe me!!!

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On 6/21/2023 at 3:43 PM, ak666 said:

I worked it, and the crowd was going all the way up into the campsites facing the main stage. Having worked it two years before with the same layout, as it was back then, it would have been easy to fit that many people. Watch their song One Way from that year and it will give you an idea of how many people was in front of the sound tower never mind everywhere else! I also worked the Iron Maiden show at Rock In Rio in 2001, 250,000, and there was more for the Levellers at Glastonbury 1994 believe me!!!

 

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On 6/21/2023 at 3:43 PM, ak666 said:

I worked it, and the crowd was going all the way up into the campsites facing the main stage. Having worked it two years before with the same layout, as it was back then, it would have been easy to fit that many people. Watch their song One Way from that year and it will give you an idea of how many people was in front of the sound tower never mind everywhere else! I also worked the Iron Maiden show at Rock In Rio in 2001, 250,000, and there was more for the Levellers at Glastonbury 1994 believe me!!!

I also was there in '94. At no point did it approach the level of crowdedness it does frequently these days, and the site was half the size. There was no way 300k were on site let alone at one stage.

And you have to ask... Were Levellers ever the kind of band that could attract 300,000 fans...?

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1 hour ago, maelzoid said:

I also was there in '94. At no point did it approach the level of crowdedness it does frequently these days, and the site was half the size. There was no way 300k were on site let alone at one stage.

And you have to ask... Were Levellers ever the kind of band that could attract 300,000 fans...?

I find the claim completely unbelievable. It's just not credible.

I'm almost completely sure there was a new record for largest audience last night for Elton.

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