Festival review by : Peter Studden

Glastonbury Festival 1999

Friday 25th to Sunday 27th June 1999
Worthy Farm, Pilton, nr Glastonbury, Somerset, England
£83

Being a Glastonbury newcomer I was buzzin with excitement as the festival loomed. Departing by coach on Thursday I arrived at the melting pot that is Glastonbury as people from far and wide and converge for one long weekend. Making the walk from the coach drop off past the touts, cowboy taxis, scallies selling numerous chemicals, bible preachers (thanks for the orange) and finally reaching the turnstiles I had arrived!! With no great plan we journeyed as far as we could (not far) we set up in what seemed like just another field of campers before realising we were in the field next to the main stage. Cracking open the bevvies we were soon offered chemical assistance by about ten different vendors in our first ten minutes upon arrival. Luckily we stumbled across a Glastobury veteran, Tony and his daughter from Kent who had been returning for the last fifthteen years. He gave us some sound advice but his stance on avoiding potential robbery was a little bizarre, he just left his millenium dome of a tent open all weekend. The toilets were in pretty good nick but as expected the conditions worsened as drunken and chemically altered minds struggled to aim and fire with accuracy, although how somebodys tent and denim jacket ended up in the communal toilets slurry pit I fail to comprehend. On Thursday night you could sense the anticipation and excitement as sober minds brimmed with excitement around the campfires for the next days proceeddings. With no acts appearing peole made do with radios although somebody nearby obviously had a Welsh parentage as the Catatonia and Stereophonics albums played repeatedly all night along with strangely the Fine Young Cannibals. Other people made do with attempting to loudly recreate the A Team theme tune and the ritual BOLLOCKS chant. The tent with the specials like band near the stone circle was buzzin so what would the next three days be like? Friday began with the Pyramid stage and the first source of entertainment was a little unexpected as some Keith Richards look a like on acid attempted to entertain the waiting crowd by attempting to play the guitar to the accompanying dance music over the tannoy. Bjorn Again were an ideal choice to gee up the crowd which needed little geeing up with Benny and Bjorns guitar solos proving a comic surprise. With no Ian Dury we moved over to the New tent which was a little isolated before making our way back for Courteney Love and her teeny bopping friends who maybe should have been performing at the theatre rather than the music stage. With a heavy set of headliners at the dance tent we were lucky to get a place right by the stage in the dance tent were GusGus were diverse and buzzin before seeing Fat Boy and somehow making through the crowd back to see REM produce a stunning set although they would have been there all night had they had to perform everyones personal favourite. Before I knew it it was 1600 and time to get up and see the Freestylers before making our way across to another stomping set at the dance tent before seeing the Manics come close to emulating REM's brilliance. By Sunday I was beyond recovery and managed to stumble across to see Lenny Kravitz (why?) before bottling it and returning to the adjacent field where I could hear clearly the rest of the nights set on the Pyramid stage. The 72 hour rave continued through the night at some opportunists nearby caravan whilst another opportunist scally complete with adidas tracksuit attempted to occupy himself with a few of our tents possessions at 3 in the morning before scampering with the excuse "sorry mate, wrong tent". Monday was a sad day although along with thousands of others I was looking forward to returning home if only for a shave, a shower and a change of pants. I shall definately be returning next year. The weekend was an extraordinary eye opening experience and you can still have a great time without even seeing any music acts such is the diverse collection of themed tents and entertainment. The whole place has such a great open minded positive atmosphere with so many characaters from far and wide. Next year I shall bring more booze though as £3.50 per can of skol from bootleggers is a little excessive. Thanks Michael Eavis and R.I.P Jean.