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“What if you never come down?” If I’d have got to the “nice one geezer” stage more than a couple of times I’d have taken it, but more of that later. It’s probably lack of memory and all is as usual, but at the moment it feels like a much worse recovery than normal. The dust surely didn’t help and maybe that’s what gave me cold like symptoms in the days after. Lack of sleep, excess drug use and countless hours on my feet, whether walking or dancing surely contribute to a cloudy mind and a broken body. So here I sit reflecting on Glastonbury 2024, number 26 for me, if I can trust my addled brain. If you can wear trainers and sit down anywhere at any time all is good, anything else is a bonus. I arrived really early this year, earlier than I should have been required, however, as it turned out I was needed (if only briefly). Forecasts of heavy rain produced a site-wide “panic”, vehicles were moved to their final positions early, tons of wood chip was deployed in some arenas and walkways, security guards were allocated to ensure no vehicles disobeyed Michael’s instructions not to drive on the grass. Thankfully, aside from a brief, but heavy downpour in the build up, the weather held in our favour. Some say it’s the best bit, the gradual build up to the show, watching the site develop, hanging out with old friends, able to quickly move anywhere, all is clean and fresh and easy going. I even managed a sneaky few minutes on the Pyramid one evening. But of course the whole point is the five days of music and mayhem. Wednesday has always been a bit of problem re “crowd management” with nothing really going on beyond the opening ceremony in the Stone Circle field. With 10’s of thousands of excited arrivals ready to party it’s lucky we’ve managed to avoid a serious crush in recent years. This years solution was to schedule a “drone show” in the Pyramid arena to split the crowd. It worked, but may not do so next year, the totally average and uninspiring 10 minute, noiseless show (apparently it could be listened to on your phone) is unlikely to attract many repeat viewers. At least the fireworks from the hill were still visible after a short walk. Guerrilla Bar, the no longer very secret, but still relatively hard to access backstage bar opens. It’s probably my favourite day in guerrilla, not too crowded and easy to catch up with old mates. Thursday Thankfully it’s a civilised start time, 2 o’clock, Nextmen followed by The Orb at the lovely little Glade Dome. Where my “I took the red pill” T-shirt caused some amusement. There was another act in between, but I guess I must have nipped off for some refreshments. The weather remains pleasant, not too hot and you can still sit down. It’s a real shame that the so called “naughty corner” has become a victim of it’s own success, while at the same time becoming somewhat stale. Apparently “Shangri-La” is being revamped next year, well overdue in my opinion. However, I can still occasionally be tempted into the bottle neck, slightly improved this year by swapping stages around, and with not much to tempt me elsewhere I enjoy or possibly endure 90 minutes of Ewan McVicar on Nowhere. The vibe just ain’t quite there, not even a “nice one geezer”. Somehow I end up back at The Glade Stage and stumble across Desiree the South African “House” DJ. Now this is proper fun, the start of the four day “danceathon”, but still no significant interaction with anyone, in very marked contrast to last year. Time to check out the Levels, a truly spectacular venue in Silver Hayes, for Shygirl presents Club Shy. Not really sure what to expect, but after seeing her fantastic performance on The Park last year, I think this could be fun. Too many on site, always too many on site. It’s Thursday and with no big stages operating the queue stretches half way to the Other Stage, she’ll have finished before I’m anywhere near. So back over to the SE corner. If there was ever a venue made to dance in… Now then! Then queue for The Temple is small and moving, this is more like it. It’s hard to emphasise just how close to perfect a dance venue this is. Built like an amphitheatre, with stepped tiers on three sides, the forth side contains the DJ booth and the strange 3d god like head from which lights and lasers shoot forth. The beauty here is that if you stand on one of the tiers you can see nearly every face in the place. They also have a great door policy, it’s never filled to capacity, there’s always room to move about and dance. Things are looking up, 10 years of Jungle Cakes, various DJ’s and my favourite music to dance to - proper “old school” D&B and Jungle. Sadly I only make the last half an hour. But it’s not all over and I find myself enjoying a bit more curtesy of Uncommon Records Takeover. Suddenly it’s 3am and it’s all over for now. Friday Fantastic scheduling or fantastic personal taste means nothing on till 15.30, and I love it. This allows for the gentle morning routine; coffee, breakfast slowly, slowly, but what’s this? An enthusiastic invite from fellow crew members encourages me to amble along to Strummerville for some Reggae. And why not! It’s many years since I’ve visited that venue, back in the days when it was sited in what is now the Unfairground crew bar, where the Strummer stone still sits. Back in the day Joe Strummer used to host an open campfire and a stone was placed there after his death. The “new” Strummervilleis a lovely little venue set in the middle of small copse on the southern edge of the site. It’s a good distance from any other venue and benefits from this; no sound bleed and lovely tranquil atmosphere, at least at this time of the day. There’s only a handful of people there, chilling on the fire side sofas and occasionally dancing to sweet sounds. A lone litter picker dances through the grass, occasionally deploying her picker, but mostly dancing and chatting. Ain’t nobody, loves me better, makes me happy, makes me feel this way, ain’t nobody, loves me better than you And so I suddenly have my “festival tune”, Ain’t Nobody, Chaka Khan, and what a banger. My buddies drift off, I drift off, bouncy and happy. Noname, which I think is a great name, on West Holts. One of my Glastonbury “fliers” and as I’m feeling like some nostalgic nonsense, Sugababes to follow, then why not? I enjoyed Noname, it was a good performance, but honestly I can’t remember too much. The Sugababes! I’m sure you’re all familiar, it’s silly it’s fun, they’re always tricky to get near at Glastonbury and I’m already in position right near the front, let’s go! I’m told I saw them on The Pyramid in the early 2000’s, I have no memory of this. They put on a show. At some point during the day a meal ticket has found it’s way into my hand (thanks Tony) and with not much to do for a couple of hours I head towards The Park backstage area where our crew meals are served. Unfortunately I have to endure the eternally annoying sounds of Dexy’s as I negotiate the Park Stage arena. Although it is somewhat satisfying to discover that they’re just as dreadful live as they are recorded, a “fact” that I inflict on several unfortunate passers by. I’ve kind of hatched a plan for the next few hours; first up the wonderful LCD sound system on the Pyramid and maybe I’ll hang around for Dua Lipa. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a Pyramid headliner and I’d be in a great position inside the inner barrier AKA “the pit”. I find a comfortable spot against the barrier and enjoy a great “does what it says on the tin” show from a very experienced band. However, I really can’t be bothered to wait an hour between acts, and TBH I’ve not got my “night time drugs” with me, so off I go. I’ve little memory of what I did for the next hour or so, except for hearing “Insomnia” in the background and instantly regretting not going to see Faithless at The Glade. Next up, Jungle on West Holts, while part of me wonders should I have stayed at the Pyramid. I’d no idea they were so popular. I eventually get a reasonable spot, well position wise anyway, but I’m next to a gobby twat, think’s he’s funny, but he’s just annoying. Not even a “nice one geezer”. I’m not getting this, maybe it’s the crowd, then seem more Pyramid than West Holts, maybe it’s the music, maybe it’s me. Ain’t no body…. It took a few years to figure out that north of the old railway line is where to be when in the “naughty corner”, Block 9 and The Common as opposed to Shangri-La and Unfairground. Genosys is back in it’s full glory, the wonderful 3d brilliantly lite structure replacing the bus, and the vibes as good as ever. I love the backdrop of NYC Downlow and the lights from IIcon if you find you’ve danced through half a circle and are “facing the wrong way”. Loves me better, makes me happy, makes me feel this way… At this moment in time, that person is Honey Dijon, and for a couple of hours all is wonderful, there may even have been a couple of “nice one geezer” moments and even one that went beyond. I had a moment of frustration as a what I thought was half a pill carelessly kept from my hand and hid itself in the grass. Out comes the phone torch and as is traditional those around me join in the search and then produce a replacement when we’re unsuccessful. Happy days and thanks to whoever you were. Maybe I passed by Bicep on IIcon, maybe I had a look at The Mez Yard, maybe the queue for The Temple was too big, maybe I stayed a bit longer at Genosys, but I definitely ended up back in The Guerrilla bar for a few hours of wonderful disco. Saturday Another late start, fortunately as it’s an early afternoon crawl out of bed day. Coffee, food, cannabis, off to check out Nitin Sawhney on West Holts, a pleasant late afternoon experience, more food and a relatively quick turn around, back to the Glade for Jamz Supernova B2B Yung Singh. This is great dance along fun, but I’m feeling a strange pull to The Other Stage and The Streets, committing to missing Orbital in doing so. Predictably it’s busy, but easy enough to get a decent spot within the “pit”. Mike Skinner somehow manages to not be a twat, while engaging in some potentially twat like behaviour and fair play, it’s high energy, it’s entertaining and it’s fun. After all he is in some ways a “punter” who fully “gets it”. I wonder if he’ll make to The Temple at 5am? I find my self back at camp and allow myself to be persuaded to check out Jessie Ware on West Holts, fun high energy disco on Spotify, West Holts party time? Not too busy, easy to get near the front and a nicer bunch than The Jungle lot. However shortly after I get the text “ we can see you on the screen” I give in. I tried, but it’s boring pop and I can really do without slow sad stuff at the moment. Glade to the rescue, it’s Goldie, it’s Drum and Bass, it’s live, with actual drummers and it’s fun. Although I’ve no idea how those boys kept up the tempo. IICON In my opinion the best looking stage on site, with a good sound system,little sound bleed from other stages, a large arena, great lasers, and a penchant for booking top DJ’s, but I’ve always struggled at this venue. There’s something about the vibe, it can suffer badly from overcrowding and often seems to attract the more aggressive among the post midnight crew. However, I’ll give it another go for Afrodeutsche. Sadly yet again it’s all too dark. After another maybe half hour of confusion and indecision, never quite finding the right sound or vibe, I’d welcome a simple “nice one geezer” at this point, with some trepidation I approach The Temple. No way, not at this time on a Saturday, not a chance. The queue is unsurprisingly big, but it’s just about within the long snaking rails and occasionally moving. I’m gonna go for it! I reckon it probably took about 30 minutes, but felt like 5, until I was in. Maybe it’s about 3am, maybe it’s Simula on decks, but it’s danceable and it’s The Temple and I’m happy and I continue to worship at the alter of fun, admiring the strange and sometimes disturbing giant head above the DJ. It’s 5am, time for the 4am Kru, something not quite right there. Wow these guys have some energy and thankfully so have the crowd, although still barely more than a “nice one geezer”. Where is the love? And no sign of Mike Skinner. Sunday Sometimes it feels like The Daytime line up is made for me, rarely anything of real interest before mid afternoon, although the reality is that I’m willing to miss acts or have become blind to anything that interferes with a good 6 hours sleep. It also feels like mid Sunday afternoon on West Holts is always “heritage Reggae”. As so we have Steel Pulse, hardly a finer roots Reggae act exists, the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon. A few years back I took a “flier” on a interesting act headlining West Holts, Janelle Monáe was superb that night, so let’s see how she gets on late afternoon on the Pyramid. As I make my way through the main markets I’m increasingly confused as the bulk of the traffic is heading away, maybe towards the Other Stage. For who? A perfect performance from an extremely talented, confident and comfortable artist delivered with supreme confidence. The music, choreography, costumes, presentation and message we’re all spot on, yet the crowd barely reached the mixing desk, why? Who else was on? You’re not going to believe this, well maybe you are, but I ain’t. Avril Lavigne FFS! Alcohol or irony or both, but wow, just wow! Right here we go, the finale, the big one, well kind of two, we got a starter and a main course. It’s West Holts Sunday night party time and no stage does the last night better. “The warm up”, apologies to Nia Archives for using this term, she was great, and I had no idea she sang. What a wonderful set. In some ways I’d been waiting for Justice right from the moment I arrived on site, or even from the moment the line up was released. I was at the 2017 Justice set, same stage, same slot, one of my all time favourites and knew this was worth the wait. I even did something I’ve only done once before, for Beyoncé in 2011(?, feel free to correct me), wait a whole hour between sets. You see I knew the legend of 2017 would fill the field and more and I needed to secure a good spot. Nia finished and I headed straight for the barrier, time passed quickly as I conversed with my neighbours. Was it as good, or was it better than 2017, as I can’t now repeat either and my memory ain’t the best I’ll never know. What I do know is that it was epic, what I learned is that being right at the front isn’t necessarily the best spot, especially for a dance act, you somehow miss a bit of the vibe. Time for another go at IIcon, DnB legend Roni Size. He’s good, the vibe is okay and I can handle at least for an hour or two, until Goldie comes on and suddenly I’m “drum and bassed out”. Never had that before. What now? Yet again rescued by Genosys, a reoccurring theme of the last two years in Bloc 9. This time it’s the wonderful DIY and some proper old school house, a lovely change and straight into Felix Dickinson as the dawn breaks over NYC Downlow, enhanced by the lasers from here and IIcon. So why the occasional “nice one geezer”? What’s that all about? Well something was different this year, at least in my little Glastonbury world. Last year one thing was constant, one thing could, at least for myself, but relied on. Everyone I meet was friendly, happy, smiley, fun and many good conversations were had, lovely moments shared on the dance floor and mostly with “strangers”. This year nothing more than the occasional “nice one geezer”, without rhyme or reason it just wasn’t happening. Was I different, were they different, too much coke, too much alcohol, was I “unlucky”?

dont you mean sausage fingers ?

Wow, wonder how many people were naive enough to think that! Steeleye Span are legends though! I've seen them at Glasto a few times.😊

The security guy who turned my festival around. Long story short (wait, it's me, I'll try). After an already over traumatic few days I'd pretty much written off the rest of my festival after Coldplay finished. Another shift on Sunday 11-7 to do. The way I saw it, it was back to camp after that, a trip to the car and back which I reckoned would take at least two hours, given that it was dragging a trolley pretty much all uphill from just beyond Gate C to Gate B, and then to the purple car parks beyond the ice cream van and then left and up that bloody hill*. There was no way I was going to get out if I tried to do two trips on the Monday morning after a Sunday night out at Glastonbury. Thought I'd be going straight to bed after that given the lack of sleep all festival. Sure enough I struggled. Took me about an hour to get to gate B. I was counting my steps. Fifty at a time and I was knackered and had to stop for breath. probably spent more time resting than dragging. Took me about an hour to get to gate B. It was then said security guy (who I think was policing entry into the Oxfam camp) noticed me struggling and offered to help, took my trolley and dragged it to the car park for me. He was fast. I struggled to keep up with him even without the trolley. Rescued my festival. I was back at camp by nine and made Leftfield only missing a bit of Bob Vylan. Went on to have one of my most memorable Sundays ever. Honestly felt blessed. Like my reward for a rather trying week . God is not a DJ. He's a security guard. ______________ * The new Hill Of Death. It used to be from Gate C the campervans. Then it was the Worthy View hill. Now it's that bloody hill to the uppermost purple car parks dragging a loaded f**king trolley.

I was aware that a lot of performers use backing tracks these days and often what's advertised as "live" isn't exactly that. So was watching out for it at the acts I saw. It was pretty clear Confidence Man was pretty much all performance, with very little actually "live" in there. Even Dexys were using a guitar & bass backing track. This video gives some background & examples.

Went along to see Red Hot Chilli Pipers at Acoustic Stage... got there as they were about to start and was surprised to see the tent absolutely rammed. Having not really heard of them, I joked to myself that maybe people thought they were the actual Peppers! Fast-forward a few hours and I'm in the Avalon Tent waiting for Lulu... got chatting to the lovely lady next to me who'd also seen and enjoyed RHCP... but admitted to me that she'd thought it was going to be the Peppers - LOL! Anyone else know of anyone who made this mistake?!

Kraftwerk Underworld Nile Rodgers and Chic

Mate of ours was so pissed/high he thought he was watching Radiohead but he had taken a wrong turning and ended up seeing status quo playing an acoustic set. He thought it was a bit odd Radiohead had an accordion player.

Didn't go to the previous crumble place but found myself in the vicinity and I was in need of a carb boost and the place did dab up.

You're being very kind with the use of the weird naive

Crumble is the first thing on my clashfinder!😄

Yes I too was a fan of the gingerbread one. I guess the important thing for is that they've ensured there's a crumble dealer and we can get a fix when the addiction kicks in.

Yep you're right, it was Andy C, I'm mixing him up with... Easy two to get mixed up, obviously, especially how they look so alike and play the same music... 🙈🙄 FFS sorry. I cannot explain how I mixed them up.

This is the stuff of dreams. The problem is she'd either need to strip some of that to fit the Legend timeslot, or chuck in Sara and Don't Stop for a full headline set. I think I'd feel short-changed with the former tbh.....give her Sunday night and the time to give us everything.

It's under the 'What should I pack' drop down in the Camping and Boutique section on the website.

Was wondering that, looked the same as ever this year. I had no checks at Gate D. Did anyone else notice significantly fewer NOS sellers on site this year? We spoke about how you'd normally hear that tell tale hiss so much. But there seemed to be a lot less this year. Wonder if they've gotten stricter or it's because it's now illegal?

I was at download a couple of years ago, despite being a fairly big metal fan of many years I’d never been - but I finally made the pilgrimage! was at the late night disco one night and ok, I understand all the emo/early 2000’s stuff is right out of my wheelhouse, fine - I know there’ll be loads of My Chemical Romance and other eyeliner stuff, it won’t be all Slayer and Black Dahlia Murder like I’d want - alright! fair enough, it’s still under the big loose banner of metal, or metal adjacent. what I absolutely didn’t bargain for at all was the entire tent going f**king tonto for the Vengabus. I instantly felt both a hundred years old, and a really long way right out of my comfort zone 🤣

QOTSA potential replacements if they cancelJack WhiteArcade FireLiam GallagherBlink 182Lana Del ReyThe NationalHalseySmile potential replacementsFever RayPulpLCD SoundsystemNew OrderPlaceboBeckFever RayDeath Cab for Cutie/Postal ServiceThe HivesRoisin MurphySlowdiveSnow PatrolBiffy ClyroLoyle CarnerKasabianDeus Kraftwerk are also on tour, albeit sporadically. All on tour, none playing other Belgian festivals (that haven't yet happened), all available on the Sunday. Some are probably way too big given the festival's history of replacing cancellations. Some on the Smile list could also replace QOTSA as well of course. This is after all the festival that gave a headline slot to Alt-J once upon a time.

St Vincent is also possible to cover Pukk and some of the Portuguese/Spanish dates cancelled for the Smile

Prodge are playing Lokerse, mate.

Glad to hear it’s much improved. Last year was dangerous at times. The toilet situation could only improve to be honest.

From my view it was the best organised festival for crowd control, obviously others had different experiences but whilst busy we never felt crushed. Except perhaps in Greenpeace on Thursday but we got to the front of the sound stage and we were fine.

Got more chance of Morrissey & Marr together again whilst eating a beef burger than that

I think the idea of Biden dropping out at this point terrifies a lot of republicans. They won’t admit it, but a new candidate basically obliterates all their talking points that they’ve built up over the past five years - sleepy Joe etc - and they’d have to come up with a whole new strategy to target the new guy, whereas the Dems, if done right, would be revitalised and have a strong candidate to tear Trump apart. Biden may be near enough level pegging with the other likely candidates at this stage, but he’s got no room for improvement - he’s just ‘not Trump’ as he always was - whereas a new candidate has four months to up those numbers and get people excited again and actually want to vote for them, not just against Trump. It just needs to be the right candidate, and it needs to be soon.

Bringing out the Shohawk Duo as guests 😅

The bus is coming and everybody's jumping.

His Glastonbury set was better than the tour show by dint if having keys and the backing singers.

Yeah, I used to be a massive fan 'back in the day'. Had no idea they were still so big, don't think I've listened to a Muse song since 2010 when they last headlined and I buggered off after two songs.

Thats a big claim now the Mary Wallopers are about and doing festivals all over again, but i'll defo check them out 👍

Balaton Sound food and drink prices did not get any higher since last year, so that means Sziget prices are expected to stay the same as well. Food got a bit cheaper. These are the 2023 prices as a reminder, 2024 is going to be very similar:

FFS That eiijit on WH! No thanks

Copying and pasting from another forum I use, much of this has been said already here anyway. Wow. 6 days, 140km, about 35 gigs later - finally got back home around midnight last night from what was an unbelievable few days at my first Glastonbury. It certainly lived up to the hype! A truly amazing place where everyone including artists, DJs, punters and staff all brought their A game. Before going I did worry I'd set my expectations dangerously high but it did indeed justify those expectations, no small part down to the perfect weather we had the entire time. Having said that it wasn't all smooth sailing and not an 'easy' festival either - I'll get to some of the challenges below for anyone going first time in future. I've been to a lot of festivals over the past 15 years or so and generally find I know what to do at new ones but this weekend I really found myself having to relearn how you do things and adapting as you go. It is a different ball game from anything else. The Good Festival site and scale. Just incredible. It was so enjoyable just wandering around taking it all in, such thought and detail has gone into every area of the festival and each area had it's own unique feel and aesthetic. I probably only scratched the surface but could not believe how special it was. Performers bringing their best. At almost every gig it really felt like you were witnessing a special performance that meant a lot to the band. Definitely going to watch a lot of them back over the coming days. The weather. Man of the match really. It was scorching hot at least 3 of the 5 days and even the other 2 were bone dry. Perfect conditions. Food was of a really high standard and it seemed like every stall had an option for £6.50 which was great. I'm not a huge foodie at festivals as I often just go for something convenient, but the range of options were brilliant. I'm sure if I was arsed queuing a bit more I'd have eaten every better! Crowd behaviour - it was a very civil affair aside from a small % pushing through crowds, no bad behaviour, no arguments or aggro heads, very little people completely out of their heads on drugs/drink - quite a difference from festivals at home! Couldn't believe how well respected the no peeing on the farm rule was observed. Campsite crew - essentially volunteers in each campsite dedicated to helping out - they were so friendly and positive, helpful with telling you where to camp, went around the campsite giving out bin bags, timetables, tote bags, LED bands for Coldplay, offering advice and generally having the craic. If you forgot something I'm sure they had it with them to make your experience as smooth as possible! Lovely touch. The Park area was deadly. The views from the Glastonbury sign/hill, the food and quirky bar options, late night areas such as Scissors and HMS Sweet Charity were probably my favourite of the whole site. Variety and depth - at so many points over the weekend you stumble across things you just would not get anywhere else. Bands, DJs, comedy, theatre, circus, food, spoken word, cinema, storytelling, art… you name it and it's there. I remarked on the first night all it's missing is a post office and low and behold we walk by one the following morning. It truly has something for everyone and the attention to detail and depth of what is on offer is hard to comprehend. I would say it is for this reason more so than the strength of it's lineups that people continue to go for such a long time. The Bad Traffic getting in wasn't pretty. We arrived in Bristol airport around 9am and were back from Tesco with our booze and supplies with well over an hour to spare for our bus leaving from the airport at midday. However the bus was almost 2 hours late, then it took 3.5 hours for what should have been a one hour journey. So we probably arrived close to 6 hours later than we had planned and it was realistically about 9pm by the time we were set up, had some food and set off to explore the arena. The drone show. Just a complete waste of time. It dragged thousands of people up to the pyramid field for an incredibly underwhelming and totally silent drone show and then it took ages to get out due to everyone leaving after 10 mins. The fireworks display looked much better in the distance. Backed the wrong horse here but really would have been better off just continuing our wander. Stage scheduling/placement - many gigs could not handle the crowds that turned up, but what made it worse was some of these seemed very predictable before hand. Barry Can't Swim, Sugababes, Avril Lavigne the main 3 I attended. BCS we were so far back we could more so hear the Stonebridge bar, Sugababes the field got shut down before hand but thankfully we arrived early enough to get in and enjoy it, Avril Lavigne was just an insane amount of people - opted to go towards the back of the crowd as I felt so uncomfortable and squashed on the way in. Should have definitely been on the pyramid. Overcrowding - It did overwhelm me a bit how busy the place was. I don't think I've ever been anywhere as busy as Glastonbury. There were numerous points over the weekend where entire areas or fields were shut off due to being full (South East Corner, Silver Hayes, other gigs mentioned above). The foot traffic after these gigs or late at night made it very unpleasant getting around at times, again numerous times where you are stuck in traffic and just not moving either direction - although in fairness to the stewards they were good at redirecting you and trying to close off paths or make them one way. But this was definitely the thing that took me by surprise the most and at times took from the enjoyment. Toilets - kept relatively clean in fairness but there just didn't feel like enough in some areas, particularly around the Pyramid and Silver Hayes. Also some just didn't have any urinals which felt like a poor mistake. I've never encountered the same queues at toilets at a camping festival in Ireland. Crowd friendliness - OK, this is a very minor and personal one, but I kind of expected to have more chats and craic with strangers over the weekend, but compared to the likes of ATN, B&S, EP before it got very young, BTP I felt the crowd kept to themselves much more and weren't as open to random interactions. Maybe it's not as much of a done thing in the UK? Also a lot of people barging past you into space that wasn't there and big groups of people turning up to gigs 15 mins late then linking hands to squeeze by - a bit annoying and not the etiquette I was expecting. Apologies if any of that sounds negative but just wanted to elaborate on some of the issues if anyone's going in future. Would I go again? Absolutely a no brainer and I hope to visit again. I would have slight concerns about going on a year where it lashed all weekend and became a mudbath - I think the muck combined with some of those issues and travelling over from Ireland would make it a real challenge. But thankfully that was far from the case this time around and the juice was certainly worth the squeeze!

Except Rihanna passes the apparent standards of a headliner by a wide margin. 14 #1 singles of which 7 are Diamond certified. You want non stop bangers and songs people know, thats who you want. go see somebody else or go home early. Clearly thats what people did this year when they didn like a headliner. Or hows this, if Rihanna was on the line up then promise you will return your ticket during the balance window because its so offensive to you. I thought so.

People saying they don’t want pop and saying they want Green Day 😂 They’re dreadful