What an amazing weekend of coverage of the main headline music at the Glastonbury festival from the BBC (my favourite, the gypsy-punks Gogol Bordello). Apart from the bands, the articles where they go wandering around looking for interesting things gives you a something of a flavour of what it is like away from the main stage, but, in my opiniion not nearly enough. (I loved the robot zoo BTW!)
I have fond, if sparse, memories of the years when I used to go to Glastonbury. I had some brilliant and formative experiences there, along-side some scary ones. But, I never saw too many of the main bands - we spent most of our time at small stages, at the then very new rave tents, at the traveller's field and stage, at the circus field, in the green field and around impromptu bonfires.
I was there a few times between 89 and 96, but the one that sticks in my mind is the 1990 festival and the battle between the police and and the travellers. It is consistently quoted as the worst event in most peoples memories of the festival - but I thought it was quite normal, if a little scary when caught in the middle of it. Anyway, less said, the better - my friends and I got home in one piece (which can't be said for my car).
Anyway, going back to the telly coverage - I find it quite amazing how much you can see from the comfort of your sofa, back in the early 90's this was just not possible. I think it was channel 4 that started the telly coverage thing in the late 90's and, I think that permanently changed the flavour of the festival - now people go there solely to see bands and couldn't give a toss about the amazing things that go on at the rest of the festival, which is a shame.
One other thing is that the media obsession with the mud is just that, a media obsession. When you are there, you simply don't notice it after a while (so long as you are permanantly wrecked that is). Mind you, I think 2005 was rather different (i.e. before the new drainage was installed) - you have to remember for most of the year cows graze on those fields, and when it rains, what washes down the slopes down towards the pyramid tent isn't just mud ;)
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