Phones

[Crazyfool01]

3 hours ago, SPW said:

I was in the front bit just to the left of the stage and mostly had my phone securely tucked away in a zipped pocket for fear of it going flying, and my shoulder bag chucked over the railings with the stewards. Watching back on iplayer I was v.impressed to see your hat bobbing away centre stage at the front, fair play for braving it in there with the hat on😀

I hadn’t quite thought that through I was planning to watch it further back but my friend rang and said there was plenty of space in the pit . So went forward to see and once in there was no escaping 🙂

[Someoni]

50 minutes ago, dondo said:

I know her as well. Didn't realise it was her until I saw the article about getting free Kneecap gig tickets for life

She said to my better half shes been getting death threats and all sorts

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Someoni said:

She said to my better half shes been getting death threats and all sorts

Blimey, that's not good. 

[replica]

3 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

I hadn’t quite thought that through I was planning to watch it further back but my friend rang and said there was plenty of space in the pit . So went forward to see and once in there was no escaping 🙂

Isn't being in the pit with that hat on a bit inconsiderate? Bordering on dangerous with all the bits of pointy plastic sticking out?

[GordonMcG]

I moved 3 songs into the O-Rod set because there were about 20 people with phones up directly in front of me. Each to their own though, wasn't really a massive inconvenience for me to move, and I enjoyed it more once I did.

[philipsteak]

18 hours ago, Neville Street said:

I do the one pic, one 30 sec crowd video. Very selfishly, I always hope someone is videoing all of each song and posting on YouTube. V annoying when I try to search later and nobody has!! Is there a good one of FJM at Woodses please!?

 

 

I'm a total hypocrite on this. People videoing gigs I'm at, selfish pricks. People videoing gigs I'm not at and uploading to YouTube, bloody legends.

[wairey]

This was actually one of my main takeaways from the festival, a bit of it at Lorde but that was to be expected. It definitely felt noticeable how much more people were fully in the moment at various sets

[OlaAinaDrinksRibena]

I reckon if it's blocking your view, it's fair to ask them to move it after a while if they're videoing. If it's not, surely people are free to enjoy a gig however they choose.

 

The phones at gigs complaint sometimes feels a bit jumpers for goalposts to me. You see all these social posts comparing crowds unfavorably with crowds in the nineties. The only reason we didn't take pictures/videos back then is because we didn't all have amazing camera technology in our pocket. 

 

During New York, St Vincent is on the barrier and a guy who looks like he probably was around in the nineties passes her his phone and she took a selfie for him. What a photo. If I'd had a phone when Keith was crowd surfing over us during Prodigy's set at Knebworth, I 100% would have loved a photo of that if I had the technology to get it. It'd probably still be on my wall. If we were "living in the moment" in the nineties, then that moment was really only people not having a camera phone technology yet.

 

Same with flags for me. I get if it blocks your view of the stage, that's annoying. Fair enough. But also, they look great. It's looks like a Glastonbury crowd. I'm rarely close to the front of a stage, but don't remember one moment all weekend when a flag got in the way and spoilt my enjoyment. Just have a good time. If that includes phones and flags...crack on.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2025 by OlaAinaDrinksRibena

[Skip997]

4 hours ago, OlaAinaDrinksRibena said:

 

Same with flags for me. I get if it blocks your view of the stage, that's annoying. Fair enough. But also, they look great. It's looks like a Glastonbury crowd. I'm rarely close to the front of a stage, but don't remember one moment all weekend when a flag got in the way and spoilt my enjoyment. Just have a good time. If that includes phones and flags...crack on.

 

 

In general they really don’t look great, most of them are dreadful. In some circumstances they’re acceptable, e.g. Palestinian flags in the current climate. 
 

Best way to mitigate the flag nonsense is to get as near to the front as possible. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

7 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Best way to mitigate the flag nonsense is to get as near to the front as possible. 

 

Normally this works but this year there were quite a lot of objects being held at head height that blocked the view e.g. that giant f**king tennis racquet.

[rock_on]

15 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Normally this works but this year there were quite a lot of objects being held at head height that blocked the view e.g. that giant f**king tennis racquet.

 

Yeah, the tennis racket was just selfish and obnoxious.

[OlaAinaDrinksRibena]

Agree it seems not a lot of thought has gone into some of them. You do wonder with with one or two why they stuck that on a flag. But maybe that's the point. 

 

In general, I do think they look good personally. You get TV shots of the stage from behind the flags to capture the atmosphere. Danny Boyle included them in the 2012 opening ceremony. Everyone knew which festival that was, and it was represented by the flags. They're a part of Glastonbury. Not always granted. I remember when it was just the Wolves flag, but it has been for decades.

 

Back on topic...I see Mark Webber stopped to get a photo of the crowd from his phone before leaving the stage. Has access to all the professional photography and video he needs, but sometimes you just got to capture the moment yourself. If Pulp say phones at gigs are okay, that's good enough for me.

[Gnomicide]

Phones I don't mind (though turn your bloody torch/flash off). Flags I don't mind. People on shoulders for half a song, I don't mind. Fecking umbrellas.... I hate them.

[philipsteak]

12 hours ago, Gnomicide said:

Phones I don't mind (though turn your bloody torch/flash off). Flags I don't mind. People on shoulders for half a song, I don't mind. Fecking umbrellas.... I hate them.

 

The beauty of that one is that they tend to have a pretty natural time limit built in