Glastonbury 2011 Part One
What can you say about the best festival in the world* that hasnt already been said?
Firstly, to all those people who’ve never been before; yes it rained and yes it was muddy. I dont care if you ‘couldnt do it’ or ‘dont see the appeal’. I do, that’s why i go, that’s why i can never see myself not going. I was thinking about this while i was there, sat with my favorite view in the world before me. It’s a spawling throng of every music you could imagine, the hum of the exciting things to be found below echoing around the valley. A wonderful and magical place the size of a town that springs up for one weekend every year. I sound like a poncey twat but it’s true, sat up on that hill surrounded by friends i feel content and at home. How could i possibly sit in my room and know that this was going on without me? I seriously dont think i could. I dont really ‘do’ excited, if you ask my friends they’ll tell you much the same. But something about this place makes me happy, even dragging an unbeleivabley heavy sack truck with what felt like an even heavier backpack on through mud for what felt like a million miles was worth it. When you get to that view, that sense of wanting it to kick off so you can get involved but also wanting it not to be over, that’s what it’s all about.
The decision to drive down on the Tuesday night was a good one, as we set off we had 3 hours of driving ahead of us. Hadley had bought walkie-talkies so each car could communicate with the other. A genius idea! The gold Mondeo was christened ‘Goldfinger’ which contained me driving, Lucy in the front and Aimee in the back. ‘Oddjob’, inspired by Danny’s hat was the other car; Danny driving, Hadley in the front and the Double C Chris Crawford in the back. ‘New business’ gags flew between the two and on a few occasions some Fruit Pastilles. Although the Fruit Pastille passing was less successful. As the sun went down we cruised down the M5, off at Junction 23 and headed for the signs that read ‘Glastonbury’. As we got closer we could see spotlights in the sky and the anticipation grew, we knew we were getting closer! Rolling into the carpark without even the faintest whiff of a queue we had arrived; the first part was over.
The second part of the trip to basecamp was a little bit more harrowing than the frankly far too easy first part. We slept in the car, well i did. Apparently i snore which kept the others awake. Gutted. Is all i can say. We got up stupidly early and already the queue was way way too long. I find the concept of queueing for something that seems too far away very bizzare, it just doesnt seem like the thing you’re waiting for is real enough to bother queueing. I’m not very good at doing things i dont see the point in, like in my head the concept of ‘this coursework goes towards 40% of your over all grade’ doesnt translate as ‘so if i get a good mark i’d only have to get half marks in an exam!’ it translates into ‘balderdash! I wont do it! I’ll get 100% in the exam and then i’ve just about passed, that’ll show ‘em!’. I realise to any sane person this makes completely no sense at all. But there you go, it’s the strange way my mind works. But we queued, and we queued, and we queued. Then the heavens opens and the mild but over cast day turned into a down pour. Suddenly the green green grass of Somerset turned into a sticky, muddy mess with thousands of people trying to get through a gate the size of a barn door. Aimee’s trolley broke into a thousand peices, we all got soaked and everyone felt a bit like ‘was it all worth it?’. Although one person was refusing to show any sign of defeat, that person was Danny. What a hero; keeping spirits up, cracking jokes, making everyone smile. I know inside he was hating every minute of it as much as everyone else but on the surface he was a light in a dark and rainy place for us all. I salute you sir!
I realise i’ve written three paragraphs and we havnt even set the tents up yet but eventually we got there, the rain stopped for long enough to put the tents up and we were there. Base Camp was set up, not in the usual Michael’s Mead but in the higher Hitchin Hill Ground. It was a trek and a half but we were on higher ground and after all that rain and the rest that was predicted it was a very good idea indeed.
So we were there, it was Wednesday afternoon and we were there. A day and a half before the whole event kicked off for real. The weather may have dampened our spirits but we were not broken!
* I havnt been to every festival in the world so cannot possibly comment but it’s certainly the best i’ve ever been too
