It was fifty years ago today!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

17 minutes ago, glasto-worker said:

but of course the numbers were far lower then - I used to park and we would bang the tents up near the red dot - handy to reach and handy to get out ## but then they started a one way system for cars ## and funny enough ' I don't have a fucking clue which year that was but it was sometime in the 80's 

there was a exit - at least by 1984 { blue dot } so it made more sense parking and camping ' near the new exit ' 

## but that track - well the track heading down towards the A303 did have a sting in its tail because it was a narrow track and at one point if they had been heavy rain there was a dip in the track and there would be a stream crossing the track so it was very hairy trying to cross that bloody stream in a mini - I always made it but I reckon some people did get stuck ##

I cant recall which year they stopped allowing in Punters cars in as by then I was with the WBC so I would arrive before ticketholders and the crew site was well tucked away so did not really notice.

 

 

Hello glasto-worker,

You are, as ever, the font of all wisdom. Well, nearly all wisdom - I'll email my brother to find out what year or years that he went to Glastonbury and was allowed to park the car next to their tents (ie. him and his mates). I think it was for several years, but that might be a phantom memory.

[Punksnotdead]

Excellent work from our resident Glasto historians in this thread!🙂

[glasto-worker]

1 hour ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

Hello glasto-worker,

You are, as ever, the font of all wisdom. Well, nearly all wisdom - I'll email my brother to find out what year or years that he went to Glastonbury and was allowed to park the car next to their tents (ie. him and his mates). I think it was for several years, but that might be a phantom memory.

I was puzzling more about the new exit as that screwed up leaving by the main entry gate - some people would still chance their arms but may have been turned round { although there was not much turning space }

now they were not parking and camping in every field - this shot - look close and you will see a mini near the Pyramid - I would suspect they were only unloading and would park elsewhere - the other shot is the field that now has the Mandela tent.

so it has to be in the 90's { Or later as I did not pay attention } when they started restricting where you could park but what year I would not a have a clue - if I ever get round to printing out the thousands of 35mm negatives I should be able to work it out as I would try to get some general shots of each year.

I have a feeling that it was close to when they moved the market but as to any year I just cant recall.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

2 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

I was puzzling more about the new exit as that screwed up leaving by the main entry gate - some people would still chance their arms but may have been turned round { although there was not much turning space }

now they were not parking and camping in every field - this shot - look close and you will see a mini near the Pyramid - I would suspect they were only unloading and would park elsewhere - the other shot is the field that now has the Mandela tent.

so it has to be in the 90's { Or later as I did not pay attention } when they started restricting where you could park but what year I would not a have a clue - if I ever get round to printing out the thousands of 35mm negatives I should be able to work it out as I would try to get some general shots of each year.

I have a feeling that it was close to when they moved the market but as to any year I just cant recall.

Hello glasto-worker,

It'll come as no surprise to you that I am currently unable to read your post. I am trying my mightiest just to write this bit. Here are copies of two emails that my brother has sent me;

 

My friend Nic in NZ thinks cars were allowed 80/81-87. 88 was a fallow year because 87 was so wet. He went to NZ in 88.

 

Soz 85 was wet. 87 was OK

 

 

[Freewheelin2]

From about '83-'86 we used to camp in Hawkwell i think it was called, down and right from the farmhouse, no idea what it's called now, and always parked by the tents. Some mates of ours used to take the seats out of their car and have them round our campfire.

Insane when you think of it now in terms of H&S but I remember they still managed to keep the fire lanes open/clear for emergency vehicles.

Mad meories of vehicles trying to get out on the Monday, especially after moist ones: people pushing cars, cars towing cars, tractors & jeeps towing cars, people riding on bonnets to 'give better traction'(?). As always at Glasto lots of looking out for each other, love, laughs and the occasionally muddy smear - it just kind of works.

Happy 50th Glasto!

 

[glasto-worker]

7 hours ago, Freewheelin2 said:

From about '83-'86 we used to camp in Hawkwell i think it was called, down and right from the farmhouse, no idea what it's called now, and always parked by the tents. Some mates of ours used to take the seats out of their car and have them round our campfire.

Insane when you think of it now in terms of H&S but I remember they still managed to keep the fire lanes open/clear for emergency vehicles.

Mad meories of vehicles trying to get out on the Monday, especially after moist ones: people pushing cars, cars towing cars, tractors & jeeps towing cars, people riding on bonnets to 'give better traction'(?). As always at Glasto lots of looking out for each other, love, laughs and the occasionally muddy smear - it just kind of works.

Happy 50th Glasto!

 

this is a shot of us at Notting Hill Gate in the 80's - there was 4 adults in that mini - camping gear on roof rack and Beer in the boot and it made it to Glastonbury and back even although there was years I did wonder if the little mini would make it out.

can you recall the guys with the motorbike { with side car } ? - they would have a heavy duty van battery in the sidecar and would zip round and charge a fee to start cars  - they must have made a fortune.

Most bizarre thing I saw was a AA Recovery truck who was towing someone out and the AA Recovery truck got so stuck in the mud that he had to call for a second AA Recovery truck  !!!!

while he was waiting - there would be a stream of people all asking him for help which would wind him up even further.

that was in a crew car park and I had to wait until the AA Guy moved so that I could drive out so sat in the Security Portakabin watching the fun. 

[eFestivals]

12 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

so it has to be in the 90's { Or later as I did not pay attention } when they started restricting where you could park

no, it was the late eighties.

By the 1990 festival you definitely couldn't park next to your tent (I remember where I was camped in 1990).

I think 1987 was the last year you could do it. But it might have been 1989.

[Kizzie]

6 hours ago, eFestivals said:

no, it was the late eighties.

By the 1990 festival you definitely couldn't park next to your tent (I remember where I was camped in 1990).

I think 1987 was the last year you could do it. But it might have been 1989.

1989, I parked next to tents in the general campsites, had the car in 1990 too, but that was in the Green Field so may have been different to other parts of the site.

[glasto-worker]

23 hours ago, eFestivals said:

no, it was the late eighties.

By the 1990 festival you definitely couldn't park next to your tent (I remember where I was camped in 1990).

I think 1987 was the last year you could do it. But it might have been 1989.

100% you could camp and park { in certain areas } in 1989 - this is 1989 map

17 hours ago, Kizzie said:

1989, I parked next to tents in the general campsites, had the car in 1990 too, but that was in the Green Field so may have been different to other parts of the site.

I was a ticketholder to 1987 joined the WBC in 1988 and drove into Glastonbury in 1989 and there was lots of vehicles { who were not crew } onsite but cant say where they were going and I have a feeling it was like that in 1990 but as I was not heading to a ticket holder camping area I would not know if they were allowed to ' camp and park ' 

so its either 1989 or 1990 {or close} - map 1990

[eFestivals]

2 hours ago, glasto-worker said:

100% you could camp and park { in certain areas } in 1989 - this is 1989 map

 

pretty sure they're the campervan fields rather than everyone being able to drive their car in side the fence.

So it looks like 1987 must have been the last time it was open to everyone. I had an 'unofficial' stall on the main drag somewhere between williams green and west holts that year, and that field was stuffed full of vehicles.

Edited September 28, 2020 by eFestivals

[eFestivals]

Just found a pic on the official site of cars amongst tents in what it says is 1989 (below) - although it's a user-submitted pic so it's not impossible that person has the year of their photo wrong.... Having said that, the bare skin suggests 1989 and not 1987.

There's also a 1990 pic which shows cars but they appear to be to do with traders rather than punters.

Edited September 28, 2020 by eFestivals

[Kizzie]

2 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Just found a pic on the official site of cars amongst tents in what it says is 1989 - although it's a user-submitted pic so it's not impossible that person has the year of their photo wrong.

There's also a 1990 pic which shows cars but they appear to be to do with traders rather than punters.

If you look at the speaker stacks they have the 'dancers' logo banners on them, they didn't in 1987 

[eFestivals]

4 minutes ago, Kizzie said:

If you look at the speaker stacks they have the 'dancers' logo banners on them, they didn't in 1987 

Yeah, I think your right. As I said in my edit above, the bare skin strongly suggests 89.

Odd that there's just 2 cars in that picture tho. In 87 the cars were much more prevalent.

[Chas]

89 was my first year and there were definitely "car parks" on the West side, although one of those designated fields did end up with people camping next to their cars, I was one of those, but on the whole the stewards did their best to keep the cars seperated. Not sure about the East side. It was around this time that they started to seperate cars and tents at Reading as well.

[glasto-worker]

19 hours ago, eFestivals said:

Just found a pic on the official site of cars amongst tents in what it says is 1989 (below) - although it's a user-submitted pic so it's not impossible that person has the year of their photo wrong.... Having said that, the bare skin suggests 1989 and not 1987.

There's also a 1990 pic which shows cars but they appear to be to do with traders rather than punters.

 

19 hours ago, Kizzie said:

If you look at the speaker stacks they have the 'dancers' logo banners on them, they didn't in 1987 

 

19 hours ago, eFestivals said:

Yeah, I think your right. As I said in my edit above, the bare skin strongly suggests 89.

Odd that there's just 2 cars in that picture tho. In 87 the cars were much more prevalent.

as you know - the main problem is photographs at that time did not have a digital stamp so its very difficult to work out a actual date.

for sure it was bad weather in 1987 { but not as bad as the very muddy state of the ground in 1985 } and at times 1989 was scorching.

-----------

I have a clear dividing line because between 1979 and 1987 I was a ticketholder and I know I camped beside my car - from 1989 I was camping in a WBC crew site but I did see cars but where they parked I don't have a clue.

I was not paying attention to where ticketholders were camping {or parking}

anyway - a very bizarre shot I know was taking before I joined the WBC in 1988.I scanned it from the paper photo so I know its mine.   
 

[gooner1990]

18 hours ago, Chas said:

89 was my first year and there were definitely "car parks" on the West side, although one of those designated fields did end up with people camping next to their cars, I was one of those, but on the whole the stewards did their best to keep the cars seperated. Not sure about the East side. It was around this time that they started to seperate cars and tents at Reading as well.

As recent as 2005 cars could park in the same field at Reading as the campsite it was just cars on one side and tents on the other.  In 2006 they changed it to all cars over the other side of the Thames. 

[gooner1990]

22 hours ago, eFestivals said:

pretty sure they're the campervan fields rather than everyone being able to drive their car in side the fence.

So it looks like 1987 must have been the last time it was open to everyone. I had an 'unofficial' stall on the main drag somewhere between williams green and west holts that year, and that field was stuffed full of vehicles.

What was your stall selling?

[Crazyfool01]

2 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

What was your stall selling?

Efest mugs ?  

[eFestivals]

20 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

What was your stall selling?

My girlfriend of the time made jewellery. We sold very little, apart from to very spangled people at 3am on Sunday morning.