The Tunnel - new in 2000

Glastonbury Festival 2000

Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th June 2000
Worthy Farm, Pilton, nr Glastonbury, Somerset, England
£89 including booking fee and postage

Daily capacity: 80,000

For the new millennium someone had the great idea of transforming the skanky old Tunnel between Greenpeace and Green Futures into a wonderland of sound and light. Well it didn't' quite turn out that way!

The installation comprised a dozen or so rubber mats placed on the floor with pressure pads connected to a PC, and some speakers. A number of more cynical old hands in the Green Fields wanted to bet that the equipment wouldn't last past Friday lunchtime, but I didn't take them up on the offer as I've got enough wood carved Birthing Fairies and I couldn't possibly endure another shiatsu massage. Well, they were wrong and as far as I could see it was around pretty much continuously until Sunday lunchtime.

The actual effect was less than mind-blowing as the range of sounds seem very limited (the siren was a bad choice ;-) I hopped, skipped and jumped through a number of times and also spent a few minutes watching the tide of unwashed passing through, but never felt inspired or excited, except when the Naked Men came through - that inspired me to move on. Friends staying near it, report that the best time to view and listen was around 5am when the massed ranks of Night Trippers would gather and the installation came into its own.

So congratulations on doing it, whoever did it. It shows a great amount of imagination on the part of the organisers and I've no doubt it'll get better and better if, as we hope, it's done again next year. A bit more development and trials will undoubtedly produce something worth experiencing rather just than an interesting diversion for Trippers. The Tunnel had got a rep as a hangout of thieves and ne'er do wells and rather than close it up or stick CCTV and Security around an imaginative solution was produced, that really is what separates Glasto from your Corporate Festivent.

There was a headstone in memory of someone at one end of the Tunnel which I assume was related to the installation, but like a pratt I managed to mislay the name and my pictures.

review by: Dik Naef

photos by: Neil Greenway