overview

Welcome to Glade, the festival island! You know there is something horribly wrong when this usually glorious weekend turns to muddy mush. The small lake that sits behind the ID Spiral area does not have the bright green light upon it, as it has swelled with the downpour on Friday and spread out, leaving nearly two foot of water in the Overkill Tent.

Arriving on Thursday, just after the 10pm watershed for the gates, torrential showers start and continue into the morning, and through most of Friday. Good for a lie in; not so good for the tents. Most of the camping at Glade is on a slight hill, so thankfully the majority of the tents are only a little wet (if no holes are present). Some areas though, like the Joe Bananas stall, the area around the Vapour Stage and most importantly; the bar) are up top your knees. Yet again the ‘wartime survival’ spirit of the festival goers shines through, those on site anyway. With the floods cutting off the nearest train station many visitors are stranded on the way there or in their cars in a huge jam outside the site. The only wellies sold on site are sizes 5, 6 and 7, so there are many lads walking around with plastic bag shoes or barefoot.


Another problem also is the toilets. They are not emptied in some areas of the site for the full four days, only where there is a route for the tractor to get to them safely (i.e. near the main stages). The campsite loos should carry a public health warning.

Other problems interfere with the music as well. During Andy C’s Friday set the power goes out on the Glade stage, but is soon sorted out. Dreadzone appear later than scheduled on the same stage, as they were stuck outside the site, providing some much needed reggae which does tempt the sun out slightly, giving people the first taste of what Glade has been about previously; sunshine and good vibes. They also play a set later in the day in the popular Breaksday tent, which has survived the floods. Rennie Pilgrem and MC Chickaboo also play their breaks to a packed crowd. UNKLE are on the Glade Stage with their live band set, as the main headliners of the first night.



Saturday looks a little better weather wise, until the heavens open again and continue for the rest of the day. There are a few new stages this year, all thankfully undercover. The Nectar Temple near the ID Spiral also doubles as a cinema tent, showing such films as 'An Inconvenient Truth' and that old Bowie classic' Labyrinth' and having speakers appearing such as Graham Hancock talking about ancient myths. Also hung up are many brilliant pieces of computerised artwork merging faces and patterns. And of course there is music from DJ's such as Nagual Sound Experiment and their dub/Jamaican/Psychedelic sounds.

The other additions are the three tents by the campsite entrance and campervan field; The Roots, Liquid and Algorithm stages. Sadly one of my favourite areas of the festival is absent this year in the shape of the Cyber Garden; a unique UV area with lasers and mushroom stools.

The weather means that the inflatable chapel takes a beating, laying on it's side for most of Saturday. The ID Spiral, usually the chillout place to relax at the end of the night/in the morning (depending on your partying) is a strangely baron place. Instead of treading carefully over hoards of people sat huddled in the dark, the only thing you have to watch for are the cute little white tables scattered about and hidden into the mud.



Onto today's music; whilst the Plump DJ's have a burlesque-inspired lady on-stage their set was pretty unimpressive. The best place to be today was in the Overkill Tent, now reopened as the waters back off a little, despite the ongoing rainfall. The highlight of the festival for me is American KJ Sawka, a drummer producing real-time samples using a drumkit. His rendition of DJ Shadow's 'Six Days' is fantastic. If you get the chance catch this guy live or check him out on the web.

Onto Sunday. The sun is finally out, meaning you can dance in the sunshine. No chance of the mud clearing, but who cares. It's part of the festival now; people are used to it. I decide to check on the state of my (borrowed) transport in the car park, and see if the rumours of it being under three feet of water are true.

Walking out there, it is a little marsh-like, but not like the scenes of the poor Glastonbury tents in 2005. Opening our car door however (which I stress again is borrowed) we are introduced to a foot of water in the foot wells. Using Pringles tubes my friends and I manage to remove most of the 'leak', shut the doors and forget about it.


The only act worth mentioning on the shortened running order for Sunday is the brilliant Squarepusher, drawing a huge crowd to the Glade Stage. Getting Tom Jenkinson and Kevin Sawka to play together, bass and drums respectively, would be a gob-smacking set. Imagine the samples spewing out of the two instruments controlled by two very talented musicians. The best song of this set is 'Come On My Selector', and the man is clearly enjoying himself. Playing half the set using samples and the other half using slap bass, the set is quite danceable by Squarepusher's standards.

And then it's over. 8pm on the dot, finished. We are told of the weather warning over this area, and are advised to leave tonight. My friend is sceptical; is it a ploy to get us to leave the site early? I don't think so, but am not leaving until the Monday anyway.


When it comes to leaving no-one has a chance of driving straight out, especially on the left hand side of the car park. The ground is so soggy that your only chance is to get towed out by the visiting tractors, charging ten to twenty pounds for the privilege. The queue for this work is very long; we are lucky though as security staff are walking around helping to push out stranded cars. We make it out without a towing fine.

I hope this is not the future of British festivals, as they have been growing steadily over the years and it would be a shame for the popular events to have to make way for a shift in the climate.

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