What I did at Glastonbury Music Festival, 1998, with photos by Eva & others.
There where, in Sean's people mover, Sean, Eva, John, Dave and myself, with Emma, who was on a biology field trip, being picked on route. In addition to this there was a long list of people who we where meeting up with on arrival at Glastonbury with the assistance of mobile phones. Off the six of us only Eva and I had tickets, so some kind of scam had to be concocted. Once we go inside Glastonbury village and the traffic slowed to a queue John and (I think) Dave jumped out and went knocking on doors asking for spare tickets for sale (the people in the surrounding area get free tickets, but normally don't use them). Whilst they where gone the water cap blew, so we fashioned one from tin foil and hair bands. John and Dave eventually came back with two tickets and a plan.
The plan went a little something like this:
John and Dave use the guest tickets and go in the guest entrance, walk around to
the front entrance and leave the site, getting marked for re-entry on the way out.
They walk around to the car park and give the guest tickets to Sean and Emma. We
all walk in, phone our friends, meet them, camp in a big circle, the sun shines
and everybody is happy. Magic.
John and Dave left, and the rest of us waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Whist our luggage, on the roof of the car, got wet, and the sky got dark, and the phones didn't work, and slowly the effects of stress started to show.
Eventually John and Dave came back, having done the scam, had a spliff (!) and met up with some friends. We then completed the scam, and as night set in walked 3 sides of a square, the square in question being the length and breadth of the festival site, to find out friends and camp. When we got there, we found (in the dark) Hanna, Sarah, Lisa, Ginger, Cole, Ledge (and some of Ledges friends, who I'm not familiar with). Space was very tight, and the formation of the traditional camp circle was near impossible. (Of course we where later to find that it would not have been worth the effort because due to the rain camp fires where out of the question). So this was it, huddled, in the rain under the hot food light, our sad group of bedraggled revellers camped for the night.
The distribution of tents and lack of space led to an interesting weekend, and an unusual camping arraignment. Listen carefully, for I will type this only once.
In John's tent: Hanna & Ledge.
In the Cole's tent: Emma & Cole.
In Ginger's tent: Lisa & Ginger.
In Dave's tent: Dave.
In Sarah's tent: Sarah & Sean (and later Wookie).
And John slept where ever he fell.
The next day the stress of before melted away, and despite the rain, we started to have fun, we saw Finly Quay open on the main stage, when the field was still green. Sean and I saw Rolf Harris, who really knows how to work an audience, John and Cole and I saw Portishead, soaked to the skin, tripping hard, in the rain, which was just an amazing experience. They had a huge video projector, pointed at the stage, and had a DJ do a live set in time with it as Portisheads intro. The had strobes, which would dramatically illuminate each droplet of rain for a fraction of a second. After Portishead we went back to the tents, and I stripped of and dried of on a towel in my tent, but then decided that I didn't have enough clothes with me to change and go out for a smoke, so I wrapped myself in a sleeping bag and spent the rest of the night tripping out and listening to the rain.
The food available was really good, but there was a distinct shortage of warm water proof clothing on sale. When we met up with Martin on the second day, with the assistance of mobile phones, which where now working, we waited in about a half a foot of water and mud eating mushrooms in garlic and cous-cous. So although we didn't go hungry our boots where destroyed, and most of us resorted to putting plastic bags inside out shoes to keep our feet dry.
That weekend we also saw the end of Ben Folds Five, then the Deftones, who I thought where dull, and Placebo, who where good but suffered at the hands of the Underworld fans. In general we didn't see many bands because the weather was so bad, and the stalls so distracting. Of course, in all this bitching about the weather we mustn't forget the beautiful rainbow we saw.
We spend the evening and early part of the night of the last day watching the main stage, sat on bin liners on the thick mud, which moulded to your shape as you sat in it. We saw Nick Cave, and Pulp, who were surprisingly good (This is Hardcore). After the music was over, and we wondered back to the tents, we stayed awake, and tried to make a campfire in the mud using rubbish we found, fire lighters, and lighter fluid. We also spent time sat in the Hot Food tent drinking tea and coffee, and talking to very drunk Welsh people who loved the film Twin Town ("Av you seen fattie's leg? It's fuking fucked!"). We also chatted to some other bloke from the coast who'd never been to London, but was well up for going clubbing. It seemed really weird that he'd never been to London, but he was a nice bloke and a lot less annoying than the Welsh people.
