Leaderboard

Well written, well observed, but conclusions are completely wrong. The festival needs to reverse the changes it has made. It's gotten too dance orientated now. Like...getting rid of Avalon? f**k off. That's the equivalent of going on holiday to Spain and asking a fine fish restaurant to sack it off and do an English breakfast

Tax the external glamping operators by raising the price of their allocated tickets.

Makes some really good points but not sure letting electronic music take over even more of the site is the answer. I'd actually argue it's the dearth of suitable alternatives for people staying up after the headliners that's the issue, as you get lots of people going along to the biggest/most recognisable DJ or to tick off visiting a particular location (SE Corner, Silver Hayes, Greenpeace Tree, Arcadia) who could potentially have been tempted elsewhere with better options. Get some smaller bands playing sets after midnight. Maybe make the pubs/bars feel like more of a late-night destination. Offer something a bit more enticing in the comedy/circus areas that casual punters will recognise when they see it on the lineup. At the same time, put the big electronic names that everyone is cramming into the SE corner to see on earlier (6pm onwards), maybe even on some of the bigger stages. Force people to start earlier and they won't all still be standing by 1am.

contact him and get him back for the night. he dedicated 4 years of his life to pro-starmer posts on here, he needs to be here for Starmer becoming PM!

Yeah. I felt that the Other stage was immense AGAIN this year for sound. West Holts and Woodsies always seem to do the trick (Alvvays were LOUD) and what I saw on the Park seemed good, even from the hill and with the wind. Pyramid dropped the ball so hard this year (luckily recovered for Coldplay - likely as the engineers are familiar with em) and of course the BBC have murdered the quality of so many sets. The problem of jobs for life at the Beeb. Bullshit your way in then be shite for the rest of your life.

Coldplay Crazyfool.mp4

I've always said that moving the Rocket Lounge and Diner to Avalon would be good move. Rocket Lounge has always felt like it needs to be somewhere else other the SE corner for people who want that vibe without having the ordeal of everything else in the SE corner. Avalon/Sensation Seekers should be the new home for late night cheesy sing-alongs for those who want to party till 3am but aren't chasing beats.

Yep, we're here again. Did anyone manage to purchase a block of Worthy Farm cheddar at the on site Co-op? https://www.coop.co.uk/competitions/glastonbury-ticket-competition

ACDC anyone? Went to see them last night and despite them showing their age it's still a fantastic show. They absolutely get the brief and play all of the big hits too, despite being billed as "Power Up Tour" they only played 2 songs from it and the rest was basically a greatest hits set. I think the obvious issue is the money but Guns N Roses have always been notorious for being demanding and they ended up doing it, plus with Axl having filled in on vocals for the band for a bit I assume they are pretty close and he might put in a good word. I'd be shocked if this wasn't their last tour at this point so could do some festivals as a send off next year I don't think there are many bigger names left to headline that haven't before

I've posted something similar on the 'fitness for Glastonbury' thread, but it's relevant here. There are different types of fitness, and the type you develop by your average resistance/CV gym workout won't be much help in terms of coping with several days spent walking/standing all day. There's all sorts of different science at play here including CV fitness, muscular strength, musculoskeletal structures etc. e.g. search online for fast twitch/slow twitch muscle fibres or go down the rabbit hole of the pros/cons of supportive footwear versus training your feet not to need them (e.g. search for 'barefoot shoes,' but that's a controversial topic and there's a real risk of buggering yourself up with them if you're not careful.) But the best way to think about it is this: if you were training to run a marathon, would you just go to the gym and do leg resistance exercises? No: you'd train by doing it - that way you're giving the right type of training to all the bits of you that need it. Same with Glastonbury - the training you need to be doing is being on your feet all day. Building this type of resilience is a very slow process so the best way to do it is by implementing a lifestyle change asap - i.e. using your own 2 feet whenever possible. This sounds like an optimistically simple solution, but in fact it would be a major upheaval for most of us because our lives have become so sedentary. If you actually manage to do this, you'll experience all the foot pain, leg pain lower back pain etc. that's being reported here, but only temporarily - it's just a pain barrier you have to get through, like the soreness you get 2 days after starting a weight training programme. If your body hasn't got used to being on your feet all day before you get to Glastonbury, then that's where you'll experience these temporary aches/pains. (Mid 50s. Zero aches/pains despite blasting round the site wearing converse every day.)

I'm 50 and same thing, standing up all day just hurts these days. Walking is no bother, I walk about 10km a day generally, it's standing on uneven ground for ages that seems to aggrivate my body So I have a tiny tripod stool that hooks onto my back pack, every half an hour, short sit, all good 🙂 it's this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/ADEPTNA-Portable-Folding-Non-Slip-Festival/dp/B0CDMFL7TB/ had it several glastonburys now, seems well put together

Their onion bhajis are second to none! And an absolute steal at £6 for a bowl full! 😋

LCD sound system - all of it

Any floating voters who hung around for Janelle would have left as fans. Insane set.

Superbly written by an excellent journalist however i suspect the sweeping changes called for would fall foul of the current licence and that the terms of the current licence would be hard to negotiate eg earlier and later opening and more stages on the thursday later and louder open air stages after midnight extension of silver hayes past 3am are all going to be a very hard sell

Glasto ‘24. It was a vintage one for me. After an ok 2022. Loved it this year. The lack of acts really makes you explore the place a bit more and Glastonbury rewards you for that. Kind of like playing Zelda or Red Dead Redemption. Bad Whatever about the lineup, they made a f**king balls at times with the schedule. Sleafords/Streets/Orbital clash, Shania/Avril, Idles/Fontaines etc. Absolute madness really. The pop nostalgia thing has been in full swing for 15 years now. Until then all the food stalls used to play dub reggae almost exclusively. I heard Bewitched a few times this year. And people singing along. Big event whores. A lot of people seem to just go to whatever they think is going to be the big thing. You know the fest has gone batshit when theres 100k people scrambling over each other to hear Sk8er Boi. SE Corner. Yeah its still sh*t unless youre into really loud dance music, which I never have been. Love some of the smaller areas and the Rocket Lounge but you have to go through hell to get there and out. Dunno what drugs people are doing but its messy. Dribbling morons everywhere. I guess thats ketamine. What a sh*t drug. Loads of people folded up in pissy corners of the site half conscious. Whatever happened to pills and acid? Good Woodsies, BBC Introducing area. Great additions/changes there. Lonely Hearts Stage. Fantastic addition and I can see some strong lineups from now on. Hak Baker was great on Sunday. The Park. Changing ever so slightly and a few more little places to keep you hanging around. Toilets. Quite clean, queues were fine. Much better than EOTR last year for example. Food. As above. Loads of options. No huge queues. The pizza fro the place across from Proper Coffee was one of the nicest Ive ever had anywhere. Random people. Felt there was a bit more of that about. Met some lovely people this year out and about. I was busy and mobile which helped. IMO the best way to enjoy it is to stay busy. Spending an entire afternoon battling to see 1 average act purely out of FOMO is just frustrating and you'll miss so much elsewhere. Defo feels like theres a shift happening similar to the end of the Lost Vagueness era/pre SE Corner. I love the way it keeps changing.

I do struggle to find many bands to see at the Avalon these days. I saw Lulu and it was fun (but I think she was better when she last played there), Frank Turner, and the Ayoub Sisters. I’m changing my name to West_Holts_Fields.

Agree with this - if you keep on adding dance areas, you will attract a crowd who increasingly want to spend time in those areas. Once of the variety of the festival has gone, might as well throw the towel in on the whole thing.

ok...firstly that is a tenuous link...and secondly...well, sh*t happens. Should just abolish them.

The worst of it was, when it was happening it was at the gate where I was heading and you can bet damned sure it was the one year I'd used mini cheddar multipacks to hide stuff. I was crapping it til I was through, then I was eating mini cheddars all week like they were the spoils of war.

To be fair, we laughed it off in the end, it's Glastonbury there's no point in getting arsy. Its the fact she just threw the receipts away then denied ever having them that flabbergasted us. dread to think what would have happened if we didn't them back.

Just to point out to people (on the off chance that some may be unaware) that you can buy (or make yourself) heavy duty foot pedal locks. There are (well mine is) thick metal locking structure which goes over either two or three of the foot pedals of a vehicle. This is then locked in place by a strong padlock. Here is an example My own lock covers all three pedals. In addition I bought an expensive padlock.* If you see in the photo, they have shown the padlock with the key entrance showing. I face the key entrance the other way, so not even a lock picker could open it as they'd be blind to what they were doing / achieving. ** Obviously some car thieves will come with cordless angle grinders. However, the foot pedal set up might make them move on to easier 'prey'. * I bought a very expensive padlock. I am, as it happens, a qualified locksmith. My tutor (who goes around the world displaying his lock picking skills) took 20 minutes to open my padlock. And even then that was because he could see what he was doing. Had he had to do it 'blind' (ie with the lock key entrance facing away from him) he'd never have been able to achieve picking it. I just thought I'd mention it because some of you will have expensive cars / motor homes etc, and may not know of this type of product.

Saw this Resident Advisor article posted elsewhere, and while it's primarily geared towards a "dance music" audience/areas, it makes some pretty spot on points IMO regarding the festival in general, poor booking policy for some acts, or areas like Avalon that have been left to wither, and the safety dangers that seem like a ticking timebomb. https://ra.co/features/4346 e: apologies, already a thread on this:

A bit of context would be helpful. It's hard to imagine why a tax promised by a party who hasn't been elected yet & the effects of which are not really known would lead to redundancies. Sounds like an excuse to me.

Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite

agreeing with this, I have several backpacks (in my caravan so can bring loads of crap) a tiny one that I use when cycling that just about fits my phone battery banks and a small water bottle, a bigger one that I can squeeze a jumper into and a bigger one still that I can stash 8-10 cans of beer, but it's a thin one to they 'stack' and don't just fill the base like a carrier bag. daytime I use the smallest two depending on weather, as I'll use the bars for beer, evening, i'll dig out the bigger one so i don't have to move if I want a drink. previous years I used to use a nice Volcom skateboard backback, where I used the board carrier to hold a chair, filled it with beer and snacks, etc etc - great if I was going from a car to a spot on a beach, but I finally realied it was killing me dragging it miles around the festival.

bring back the silent disco

about 11 am ish

My daughter's first general election where she can vote today and she's so enthusiastic she's still in bed.

core exercises and yoga have helped me with this 👍

Yes there is already sensitivity about ticket prices, as has been mentioned here any time they've gone up and adding 50 quid may be fine with one of the posters here, whilst simultaneously pricing out another

You could cut the capacity by 20k and have fewer venues/acts to save on costs. Would it ruin the festival if say Arcadia, Avalon, Acoustic, Leftfield and half of the SE corner disappeared? Use the extra space saved to increase the capacity of some of the remaining venues. (Nothing against any of the areas selected, just used as an example). My favourite area is the Park, would I get a ticket if it was removed? I might moan for 2 minutes but “Hell Yeah”….

its not about reducing absolute numbers you need more people who will spend all their time in T+C, Green futures, healing fields, avalon, chilling at stone circle and less people chasing nostalgia and dance acts around the site

Yeah next time they talk about raising staff ticket numbers again, consider it like Quantitative Easing, i.e. printing money...

If that is the case why is there not more dance/ DnB music on during the day on the main stages? - eg to 'compete' against non-dance music. I passed through SEC on two separate days around 2-4am and watched the various crowds, the vast majority (95%+) was just standing there talking or on their phones - not even swaying or moving. for most people It's a tourist place to be visted

Bit of an unusual one, but during Eric Prydz at Arcadia I managed to lose my hat whilst putting my mate up on my shoulders, after about 5 minutes of searching the floor gave up on it, only to 30 seconds later practically stand on my hat 😂 Also the entire Sunday night from being 3 people off the barrier for Justice, to Basil Brush Unleashed, to going through Terminal 1, to Doreen Doreen, then Shangri-la until close followed by a trip up to the stone circle was an absolute all timer

Everyone I managed to see were just excellent bar none. Thursday: Frank Turner Jonathan Pie Friday: Billy Bragg Idles Saturday: Yard Act Coldplay Sunday: Bob Vylan - Leftfield Basil Brush Bob Vylan - Truth/Peace Was working in Acoustic Field 11am-7pm so got to hear most of the acts there during that time. Stand outs being Fun Lovin' Crime Writers, Albert Lee, The Manfreds, Toby Lee (really good), and Song Writers Arc (also brilliant). Winner by a mile is Bob Vylan, the Truth/Peace stage just giving it the edge over the Leftfield gig. What a venue. Like being in a movie. And Yard Act are surely going places.

The weather was, given 2024 so far, better than we could ever have hoped. The weather gods did us proud and for that I thank them.

Was told you were there , just didn’t catch you sadly 😞 so much going on all over the place

Just echoing some of the praise here but the emotion from Matt Berninger was fantastic and elevated the whole performance for me. I'd seen them once before back at Primavera a few years ago and thought they were pretty good, but the set on Sunday felt really special.

Yeah, she kinda got done dirty. that coupled with really not having the recognition in the UK that she does elsewhere, they kinda set her up to fail. Janelle too - put on an incredible show for not as many people who should have seen it.

The Good - loved the new areas. stage design, as someone else said, was incredible. I went to the ambient Plaid set on the new tree stage, and I just loved the surround screens and speakers. really stunning. - I didnt have any bad experiences with crowd control. maybe that was down to my choices, as I heard the Avril experience was not good. but I was at the front of the pyramid for both PJ, Cyndi, Shania and Seventeen without ever once feeling squished. I was also able to leave after those sets without issue. - Lost Horizons. Wow. having a sauna in the morning was life changing. - No re-entry at the downlow. I thought it would make the queues worse, and it didnt. I never waited more than 25 minutes to get in. - For the first time in forever, there was actually some space around my tent at Big Ground. - it felt to me like the toilets were cleaner this year, as a whole. The Bad - Some really brutal clashes. they've all been named so I wont drag on, but yeah that was tough. - The dust. Would have appreciated a spray down actually. - Food prices. Damn. Costs of things have gone up for sure, but some of it is greed. Cheesy chips shouldnt be 7 pounds. a black americano shouldnt be 4.25. Had a breakfast at Henry's Beard which I normally love, and it was maybe the smallest portion of anything I'd had all weekend for 12 quid. - Junk food. There seems to be more and more junk food options and less "healthy" food. That's a matter of taste, i know, but I can't spend 5 days eating everything deep fried. I'm not even a vegetarian - but this year it felt way easier to find a hot dog or a donut than ever before. - I dont think it makes sense to continue doing stonebridge the way they have. they should put it somewhere else, and make it open air. maybe where cinemarrmageddon or used to be. In it's place they could do something to replace williams green, or expand on the new areas they've built there up in the park. overall I had a really amazing time. actually got teary a few times thinking about how lucky we all were to have been there.

very glad to have been able to come and meet some of you!

Are you suggesting that the stance many bands have taken on the situation in Palestine is just a faddy, bandwagon hopping pandering to what's cool? Because most of the bands I like feel.a lot more strongly than that about it. And it certainly is NOT an anti Jew thing, just a revulsion at the carnage that has been visited upon the Palestinian people.

Really good couple of days - I only did the Sat/Sun but very well ran festival, felt like everything ran alot smoother compared to 2022 when navigating the site, Outdoor stage was a success minus the Manchester Weather also Shame about Balance and Composure going to the early sunday slot but everyone still went mental for it, highlight for me was Joyce Manor and Have Heart where i ate the concrete after a stage dive Hopefully get another couple big acts next year, hoping for Alexisonfire personally! (Also shout out to the security team, incredible as always such good people and aware like no other in such a hectic situation)

Thanks so much everyone for turning up … I gave out 76 labels I think … really good turnout … for anyone that lurked it’ll be on next year no doubt

https://festileaks.com/2024/06/pinkpop-hint-naar-foo-fighters-als-headliner-in-2025/

I can't believe you are saying that out loud. It's like saying "I tried some fine French red wine from a small vineyard but I can't be doing with that. Give me some Echo Falls"