Will Glastonbury as it was, ever return?

[zero000]

7 minutes ago, Andy0808 v5 said:

Isn’t he just. He viewed the site four hours ago; I sometimes think he must post here in some guise and we’re all just unaware.

Wish he’d call me a c**t one last time 😢

[Quark]

14 minutes ago, Andy0808 v5 said:

Isn’t he just. He viewed the site four hours ago; I sometimes think he must post here in some guise and we’re all just unaware.

He was Edmond Dantes, and he was my father and my mother, my brother, my friend. He was you and me. He was all of us.

C For c**tdetta

Edited January 21, 2021 by Quark

[Charm]

3 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

This 100%.

You know when it's been cold and raining for three weeks solid and you can't remember what a blue sky looks like and it feels impossible to imagine that you could ever go outside on a lovely summer day?

It's that. This pandemic will go away. Fully go away. The virus may not entirely leave, but all *this*? It will be over. It's just taking ages, but it will go.

 

Thank you, really needed that. 
Charm x
 

[Matt42]

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period - I personally think 2021 is another write off year - but I am not saying at all that glasto will never come back. It’s definitely coming back and better than ever. Believe that from the bottom of my heart. The vibe in those fields that weekend is going to be historical. People are going to feel so free. It’s going to be emotional, think how touching some songs are going to sound in a crowd - especially when some singers dedicate them to the hard times we’ve faced.

What I’m trying to articulate is that this period is going to go on for a long time. We’ve got a lot to work out and go through. But it’s not never ending.

[Pinhead]

If it comes back, it will be different because we'll all be different after all that time without it and because of what's happened to the world and how its changed so many things.

Until then, some decent pics here I hadn't seen before I've just found to remember it by:

https://www.wired.co.uk/gallery/glastonbury-pictures-sci-fi-future-gallery

[Zoo Music Girl]

48 minutes ago, Andy0808 v5 said:

Isn’t he just. He viewed the site four hours ago; I sometimes think he must post here in some guise and we’re all just unaware.

That's interesting. I actually feel like I'd recognise his posting style, but maybe not...

He definitely would liven things up a bit!

[Ryan1984]

24 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period - I personally think 2021 is another write off year - but I am not saying at all that glasto will never come back. It’s definitely coming back and better than ever. Believe that from the bottom of my heart. The vibe in those fields that weekend is going to be historical. People are going to feel so free. It’s going to be emotional, think how touching some songs are going to sound in a crowd - especially when some singers dedicate them to the hard times we’ve faced.

What I’m trying to articulate is that this period is going to go on for a long time. We’ve got a lot to work out and go through. But it’s not never ending.

I want to see bands enjoying their sets - grins as wide as Brandon Flowers during The Killers’ last headline set. It’s going to be glorious when we get there.

[stuartbert two hats]

19 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period - I personally think 2021 is another write off year - but I am not saying at all that glasto will never come back. It’s definitely coming back and better than ever. Believe that from the bottom of my heart. The vibe in those fields that weekend is going to be historical. People are going to feel so free. It’s going to be emotional, think how touching some songs are going to sound in a crowd - especially when some singers dedicate them to the hard times we’ve faced.

What I’m trying to articulate is that this period is going to go on for a long time. We’ve got a lot to work out and go through. But it’s not never ending.

I understand, and to a certain point share your pessimism about 2021. By the way, sorry if I was a bit harsh in a reply to you earlier. I never really had much optimism about 2020, because there wasn't really a clear path out of it. Zero covid aside, without herd immunity through infection or vaccination, exponential growth was always going to pop right back up again. We would simply have to carry on living under restrictions or see lots of death, no matter how untenable it seemed, because there was no alternative. I remember Mark Kermode talking about Bond being delayed to November, saying he couldn't imagine it still going on by then, but there was no mechan

But this time, there is. The vaccination programme is going to accelerate over the next few months, as more vaccines come on line and AZ I'm particular continue to deliver 100m doses over the course of the year.

Plus, numbers are coming down pretty nicely across the country now, just as they did in Manchester, after Tier 3 followed by lockdown.

If we basically repeat last year with millions of us being vaccinated, we'll be good to go for proper gigs this year.  Most of the festival season may well be a bust, but the whole year? That's showing the same lack of imagination as Kermode has when he couldn't imagine things sail being shut in November 2020.

Look at the numbers, the bulk of this pandemic will be over this year.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

As I said in the other thread, Glastonbury’s strength is its weakness. It can afford to call it now and still be around in 2022. The risk of spending loads of money and not being able to go ahead is simply a risk not worth taking.

Lots of other festivals can leave things much later, or may be in a position where they have no choice but to gamble and assume they can go ahead, because if they cancel it will be curtains for them anyway.

I’ve no doubt some festivals will happen later on in the year, simply because many don’t have the choice to make the decision Glastonbury have made.

Edited January 21, 2021 by Deaf Nobby Burton

[John the Moth]

Glastonbury will come back the same, it’s us who will have changed.

[Pinhead]

1 hour ago, John the Moth said:

Glastonbury will come back the same, it’s us who will have changed.

This

[bamber]

7 hours ago, zahidf said:

Yes. Probably next year

Yes. I concur.

Probably is an ill-defined word however. It really is. Is it 90%+ Or 50%+ Or something else?

[Suprefan]

9 hours ago, Cooter said:

What's the betting the year it does return it'll be wet and muddy as fuk.

I'll still love every second though!

Pray that its biblical weather this June so that next year will be reasonable! We need to keep the good weather streak up!

[sadimmock]

8 hours ago, Matt42 said:

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period - I personally think 2021 is another write off year - but I am not saying at all that glasto will never come back. It’s definitely coming back and better than ever. Believe that from the bottom of my heart. The vibe in those fields that weekend is going to be historical. People are going to feel so free. It’s going to be emotional, think how touching some songs are going to sound in a crowd - especially when some singers dedicate them to the hard times we’ve faced.

What I’m trying to articulate is that this period is going to go on for a long time. We’ve got a lot to work out and go through. But it’s not never ending.

I think that that is a very absolute position. I would agree that festivals that can't be planned under uncertainty (e.g. have long/expensive builds or come early in season) are vulnerable, but it is important to remember that events still went ahead last summer under much worse conditions. I predict that in about two months we are going to have seen a pretty large fall in the hospital admission and death rates; that will be the starting flag for hospitality being unlocked in May. After that it's not a big leap to imagine events in August/Sept.

The government will push for the economy to reopen as quickly as possible as soon as the risk of the NHS being overwhelmed has subsided (or more accurately the risk of bad optics has subsided). There just isn't the political or social will for this year to run the same way as 2020.

 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

On 1/21/2021 at 9:33 PM, Andy0808 v5 said:

Isn’t he just. He viewed the site four hours ago; I sometimes think he must post here in some guise and we’re all just unaware.

AKA Bad Man MC 

Edited January 23, 2021 by Supernintendo Chalmers

[Cooter]

10 hours ago, Big durbs said:

If it is a wet one , I’m wearing fucking flip flops just to get the FULL Glasto experience.

bring it on baby 🙂

yep sounds good durbs, plus no tent and 37p in your pocket.

[pilton digger]

2 hours ago, Suprefan said:

Pray that its biblical weather this June so that next year will be reasonable! We need to keep the good weather streak up!

feck you too

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

3 hours ago, Suprefan said:

Pray that its biblical weather this June so that next year will be reasonable! We need to keep the good weather streak up!

The locals get all weird about comments like that, like as if you actually have control over the weather weird.

[aj6658]

Simple answer- 100%

 

Long Answer - Come on. To suggest that Glastonbury won't return as it was is being myopic. What you are saying is that the global attitude to life has shifted permanently and that mass gatherings are no longer a thing. Thats madness for three reasons. 

1. This virus has killed too many people but people below under 50 is relatively small. People under 50 are not as concerned about catching the virus than other age groups. I myself and many others are not too concerned with catching it but adhere to the rules as I don't want to spread the virus and understand its a team effort 

2. People are eager to return to normal life. People understand they took simple things like the pub for granted. Once restrictions are over, its going to be mad celebration well into next year 

3. The plague and the Spanish flu are examples of deadly pandemics and societies recovery from it. After the Spanish flu there was a period of celebration 

[SwedgeAntilles]

9 hours ago, John the Moth said:

Glastonbury will come back the same, it’s us who will have changed.

Beat me too it. @Ddiamonddtoo who also made a similar point.

I'm pretty confident that the festival will be back in it's normal form in 2022, but I'm not sure we all will.

Even living in a country that hasn't gone into full lockdown I've probably physically met about 20, maybe 30 people since March. I've been on public transport twice. I've not been in anything that resembles a 'crowd' since I was in Japan in February. 

That's insane when you think about, compared to the amount of interactions we have in any other year.

Psychologically that's going to take a while to recover from. Even if we feel the relief of being able to mix and socialise again, I think consciously or subconsciously our behaviour will change. Maybe by June 2022 we'll be over it, but given how the rest of 2021 could pan out I'm not so sure we'll have had adequate time. 

[Mellotr0n]

Understand the despondency, but...of course it will. May take 2-3 years to be properly back to normal, but we will get there.

The human race has lived through many pandemics before, and come through every single one.

[nikkic]

It will be back.

We’ll dance. We’ll drink. We’ll laugh. We’ll hug. 

And we will all be there. 

 

[Zacko]

16 hours ago, Matt42 said:

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period - I personally think 2021 is another write off year - but I am not saying at all that glasto will never come back. It’s definitely coming back and better than ever. Believe that from the bottom of my heart. The vibe in those fields that weekend is going to be historical. People are going to feel so free. It’s going to be emotional, think how touching some songs are going to sound in a crowd - especially when some singers dedicate them to the hard times we’ve faced.

What I’m trying to articulate is that this period is going to go on for a long time. We’ve got a lot to work out and go through. But it’s not never ending.

I keep getting goosebumps imagining that first Pyramid headliner on the Friday. Whoever it is (Kenny, Blur, Dua, WHOEVER) will be unleashing three years of Glasto excitement and hype and it's just going to be fanfuckingtastic ❤️  Imagine the buzz and fizz in the crowd during that beautiful lull before a headliner walks out on stage. 

 

 

[stuie]

22 hours ago, Matt42 said:

There’s a chance I could grow wings tomorrow. Albeit low.

 

17 hours ago, Matt42 said:

I hope people don’t think I’m being a knob when I talk pessimistically about the 2021 festival period

 

[Funkyfairy!]

42 minutes ago, Zacko said:

I keep getting goosebumps imagining that first Pyramid headliner on the Friday. Whoever it is (Kenny, Blur, Dua, WHOEVER) will be unleashing three years of Glasto excitement and hype and it's just going to be fanfuckingtastic ❤️  Imagine the buzz and fizz in the crowd during that beautiful lull before a headliner walks out on stage. 

 

 

oh yea and The first act on the pyramid, the first act on any of the stages, when the gates open there will be an amazing roar that echoes around the sight and I'm welling up just thinking about it ..... if there;s any year to work on the gates it will be the first one back - friends will get wristbanded and then just hug and probably cry as they leg it off to find a camp spot.  I love that feeling when the gates are opened and the festival has started or the excitement of the night before - for any campervanners imagine the party at the top of the east hill before the next one ... imagine the feeling in the queue... the whole site will be electric