Glastonbury 2003

[Loz]

News in the past week or so that Glastonbury is most definitely on this summer - already booked the time off work - and so my thoughts turn to who will be there.

Any chance of Cristian or Jamie (or even both?) making an appearence this year? I'm not sure who you talk to to get your name considered by the organisers, but with two dance areas (The Glade Stage was fantastic every day. Techno and trees, seems to go together so well) it would be rather fantastic to see them.

Also, anyone else from the board planning on going? We could have a board meet there, get pissed, fall over, wake up in someone you don't know's tent...

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by Loz
I'm not sure who you talk to to get your name considered by the organisers

Satan, otherwise known as the Mean Fiddler - he always gets his pound of flesh...

I'd rather chew my own testes of than go to Glastonbury Festival... after all who wants to spend a weekend in a walled compound listening to shit bands, being herded around by fascist wanker Mean Fiddler security nutters...

...what a waste of a perfectly good weekend in one of the nicest places in the country...

...it is indeed a sorry end to this Festival, but I prefer the years when its cancelled, at least then there's a chance of going up the Tor for Solstice...

I say we dust off and nuke it from orbit...

[Loz]

as far as I know, Mean Fiddler (who would call a company after slang for tight wanker?) only handle security, not the actual bookings and organisation.

I went to it last year, and have to say it was great. Not as frantic as before, but just nice, relaxed, chilled, everyone in a good mood.

There wasn't any hearding about, and the only security guards I saw were driving around in land rovers and watching the fences.

Not only that, but rumour has it, Radiohead will be headlining this year.

[grobelaar]

I think I was talking more metaphorically, the arrival of big money, security contracts and share holder interests, means that starting last year the things that make Glastonbury worth going to are slowly being pushed out to make way for more people, and more beer tents...

Last year there was less charities and reduction in the space offered to non-profit organisation, as well as getting rid any facility for the travellers. Part of the joy of Glastonbury was its clash of cultures, the mixing of people, sadly this like many festivals will become a weekend in the countryside for the young middle classes to take a break from their hectic careers so they can get off their faces and pretend that they are doing 'underground' stuff...

[grobelaar]

I should add that I don't think that this is a deliberate policy of exclusion - its just the natural way things go, once you have teams of accountants wanting to keep track of every bean. Even with money put aside for good causes, when it comes to keeping the margins tight, these will be the first to go in lean years, never to come back...

The humble spreadsheet programme has a lot to answer for when it comes to the spread of capitalism if you ask me...

[Yer_Maw]

i thought it was great, it was my first time there though. however how are you meant to survive when all the food costs an absolute fortune? that was the only thing that really annoyed me cos you can only keep food for so long in cooler bags

[grobelaar]

Ha ha, case proved m'lud... They'll have a fucking McDonalds tent this year...

[invisibleplanet]

Having been Glastonbury Site Crew back in my youth (on the green field as I'm an eco-freek, NOT a hippy!), and having assisted in the running of green-style workshop camps back in the late eighties and early nineties, I can tell u that the travellers have been a great problem for the festival. Not the lovely university drop outs who live quietly in small groups with their families on the droves of hampshire, and the general south-west locations, but the hoardes of special brewed and ketamined disillusioned young men and (less so) women, who have no faith in 'the system', but no real strength and skills to start their own. These people have in the past been given a separare area, a little away from the festival itself to carry on in their own unique fashion - and u know what? There were more rapes, robberies and violent assaults in a two day period than in the whole of glastonbury from the beginning.

So u can see they are kept out with good reason, grobs. The deliberate policy of exclusion is to protect the punters, who want to be able to wander freely, maybe a little stoned, or a little hazed..but nevertheless in relative safety.

The area for WORKING community-minded travellers is still there - it is the entire site of Glastonbury - and they are there, earning their daily bread with their skills, laying water pipes...digging shit pits, making art installations and labyrinths and gardens.....

BTW - there never seems to be a queue for water in the Christian Field...check it out next time u go and u don't want to queue!

[Loz]

hey - I'm one of those young middle class people..

I don't go to pretend to be underground, I go because I have fun, watch some bands, laugh with my mates, simple as that.

As for food costing a lot of money, it wasn't more expensive last year because of MF's involvement, and to be honest, I didn't have any trouble living off £10 a day for food, which is less than I pay in London.

I was against MF's involvement in the festival when it was announced, but I have to say the atmosphere last festival was brilliant all round, I didn't notice any ill will or anything, just a load of people who were there to have a good time.

[Yer_Maw]

i dont know about you but i certainlly spent so much more than i expected to just because of the price of the food. i felt totally at ransom to any price the scummy vans were willing to rip us off with. something that lasts for 5 days should sort that out. even if they sold food u could make yourself...

or did they? or did i miss that altogether.

but apart from that it was bloody amazing.

[JE:5]

If there is no traveller field I'm not going, can't go to Glasto without a sound system.
Wonder if there is going to be another chaotic free paty in Devon this year?

[Loz]

I basically only bought 2 meals a day, usually consisting of one of those various types of burgers, and a can of coke.

I got served by David Dimbleby in his burger van. Very cool.

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by JE:5
If there is no traveller field I'm not going, can't go to Glasto without a sound system.
Wonder if there is going to be another chaotic free paty in Devon this year?

why do u want a traveller field which is separated from the main festival?

[JE:5]

Because that's where you can set a sound system up and not have to walk round Babylon.

[invisibleplanet]

originally by grobsI think I was talking more metaphorically, the arrival of big money, security contracts and share holder interests, means that starting last year the things that make Glastonbury worth going to are slowly being pushed out to make way for more people, and more beer tents...

{begin rant}
HA!
caught you!
being ancient ip, as i am....i hear this very same 'gripe' bandied about, year after year after year after year...need i say more?

Glastonbury is a GREAT FESTIVAL!

I remember the verbal fuss from some quarters at the increased police presence after the fallow year following the mud bath, which followed the year of the battle of the beanfield and the subsequent traveller evictions and processional bans in the somerset area. The security of police appears to have been replaced by a private security firm. They're there to protect the festi-goers. There really should be no problem with their presence unless you're going to Glastonbury with bad intentions.

However you live your life, if you gather together in one big place, someone must clear away your detritus and bring u clean water, or very quickly , the cholera will get you - it can still happen if shit leaks into your drinking-water system. Clean water and sensible waste disposal is one of the services what you pay for when u congregate together across acres of land - it is a Health and Safety nightmare.

Anyone who went to Glastonbury when ring-pull cans had a ring which came away, may have wondered how many volunteers spent back breaking days afterwards , picking the little bastards out of the trampled earth - every single last ring pull had to be teased from the earth - by people who really do give a damn. There are so many hard workers, paid and unpaid who bring Glastonbury to you. It's kinda sad to think that anyone should rubbish the festival because it's not 'giving' enough FREE parking to Travellers. In my opinion, they could be willing to exchange their time and energy for a park up, but mainly it's been proven that these freeloading types just want to have a field to party in on their own terms.

{rant over}

[Lady E]

all sounds very sensible to me.
massive scale events just do need to have a higher level of facilities, which in turn costs money and requires a lot of sponsorship etc.

i think its a victim of its own success


and as for those points about the drop out crusties, the fucked up squat crews, its very true. i remember going to gigs in the early nineties with people like that there who would nick your pint off you, say they were HIV + after drinking it with lip rings and open wounds around their mouths so you'd have to let them keep it. we had a friend who was part of that scene and there was a lot of child abuse, violence, rape and degradation going on, it was pretty hideous. you always get them at any free party, gabba rave, hardcore punk gig...i have no doubt that they are marginalised and whatever and have needed a great deal more support from society than they have ever been given but christ they are destructive, scary bastards

[penciLneck]

yea it can be scary sometimes - I go to a lot of free-parties and teknivals and crusties seem to have evolved into this new kind of supa chaos crusty, nothing like the beads in the hair airy fairy new age traveller used to be, an altogether different breed, with steel legs for staying upright after massive drug consumption and little steel bikes for getting from a to b - oh and dont forget the battleaxe.

[grobelaar]

Is there a difference between travellers, and crusty squatters? Or have the two become one - dunno, everytime I've met some travellers around Devon and Cornwall they've always been very nice and very community minded. Dunno 'bout the super-crusty/punk krews - Dunno I always have an open mind to other cultures - even if they clash with your own... Ours ain't doing so well if you ask me, just has more gloss...

[JE:5]

Why is it whenever traveller gets mentioned, the stereotypical fucked up smackhead crusty gets conjured up?
I know plenty of travellers and they aint like that.

If you've ever been to one of our free parties in Leicester you'll realise that not all of them consist of twats.

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet
.......I can tell u that the travellers have been a great problem for the festival. Not the lovely university drop outs who live quietly in small groups with their families on the droves of hampshire, and the general south-west locations, but the hoardes of special brewed and ketamined disillusioned young men and (less so) women, who have no faith in 'the system' ........... .

i have tried to mark the distinction,
and i think most people DO know the difference!!
Travellers 'per se' were not the sub-group i mentioned as causing problems in the old seperate field @Glastonbury Festival.

I do know some of the original 60's crew who have over the years successfully integrated these two camps for some period of time...people DO care about the drongos & brew crew, but u probably know as well as I do, that the troubled-tribe i'm thinking of is loathed by most travellers too.

SO i'll stop calling them travellers then to avoide further confusion.

[penciLneck]

Dont get me wrong some of my best friends are traveller types (sorry couldn't resist), but as in all social tribes there are undesirable offshoots. Like I'm down with the permaculture, affirmative action, and reclaim the streets types - but a bit wary of the fuck everything and shoot drugs into my eye then take a crap on the bonnet of someones car type...capiche?

[Lady E]

yes i think that is a succinct summary penciLneck

im down with that too...

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by JE:5
Why is it whenever traveller gets mentioned, the stereotypical fucked up smackhead crusty gets conjured up?
I know plenty of travellers and they aint like that.

If you've ever been to one of our free parties in Leicester you'll realise that not all of them consist of twats.

That was the point I was trying to make, seemed like they were getting a bit of beating here... Its unfair to judge squatters and travellers on the behaviour of a select few. What a sorry picture mainstream society would present if the same were done of it.

[Lady E]

very true also

i have a lot of friends from traveller / free party / squat scenes - brighton was built on those scenes!

[invisibleplanet]

Originally posted by grobelaar

seemed like they were getting a bit of beating here... Its unfair to judge squatters and travellers on the behaviour of a select few.

who did that here? do u mean me?

[grobelaar]

Originally posted by invisibleplanet


who did that here? do u mean me?

No one in particular 'planet, it seemed that the thread was talking about 'unsavoury' (god that sounds so middle class) element at festivals or even parties and the origins of this unsavoury element was painting a poor picture of a particular culture and I just wanted to voice a few positive things as well to round things off.

After all I like in Hackney and certainly wouldn't want to tarred as crack smoking yardie gangster, just because a small part of my community includes that element...

Back to original thread, I still maintain that while the festival has obviously had to grow and change over the years - the part ownership by Mean Fiddler will be its death... Always happy to be proved wrong, after all when the deal was struck a spokeperson for Mean Fiddler stated that they were excited because there was an atmosphere at Glastonbury that was missing from their own festivals - they then proceeded to institute the very measures that will see the loss of that 'festival' atmosphere. Lets forget the traveller problem, the cutting down on charitable concerns and space for non-profit orgs is a definite bad step... Reducing the amount of free spots available for charitable concerns - another bad step.

Soon the family element will be deemed not cost effective enough in comparison to getting more young adults into the festival and so it goes on, slowly creeping away year by year until they have another Reading - and they'll be wondering where the atmosphere went...

What happened is the atmosphere got quantified and tabulated into a spreadsheet and sold off...

Like I say despite being a cynic, I'm open minded - I'd be more than happy to be proved wrong - but so far nothing ithey are doing is making me think this...

[Loz]

Mean Fiddler only have a 10% stake in Glastonbury, don't they? Hardly enough to start changing the feeling of the root of the Festival, not to mention that I seriously doubt Eavis or his daughter would let it happen.

Were there less charitable donations from ticket sales last year? They still managed to raise over a million quid.

[bitch one]

Originally posted by grobelaar
Ha ha, case proved m'lud... They'll have a fucking McDonalds tent this year...

well they had a heinz salad cream tent at t in the park...

[filthydave]

Originally posted by JE:5
If there is no traveller field I'm not going, can't go to Glasto without a sound system.
Wonder if there is going to be another chaotic free paty in Devon this year?

no doubt i'll be sleeping through a large part of it again!

[grobelaar]

I had an idea of building what would be a fairly small rig but the essence of the idea is that it can be packed down and disguised as rucksacks, cool boxes and general camping stuff and thus use it to infiltrate festivals.

I quite like the idea of doing a party on the wobbly millennium bridge in London. Somehow get a rig in the middle and get a few hundred people ready on either side ...

[Loz]

It doesn't wobble anymore. Bad luck.

It annoyed me, too. It meant I had to stop using the great statement invented by my friend:

"That rocks more than the Millennium Bridge!"