I am very sad to be the bearer of bad news.

[Peaceman]

Knowing some of the people involved in Leftfield, I have no doubt that it will work at other venues and spread the message to a wide range of people. That is, of course, all great stuff and good for Leftfield and for life in general!

But this isn't just about Leftfield. It's about Glastonbury and what it stands for. The festival has taken loads of flak in recent years about corporate sponsorship, etc and I've always defended it to the hilt mainly because of Leftfield. If, and it's a big if, something similar is going to replace Leftfield, I cannot understand how anyone else will be able to do it better and cheaper than those with the experience of the last few years. I repeat what I posted earlier, and I'm sorry if you feel I'm being cynical, in that I'm convinced this is not just about the money.

[Peaceman]

That's an interesting comment TB. Surely the point of Leftfield and other organisations is to attract those who wouldn't normally attend as well as those who already agree with the sentiments. So having bands that are not known for their political views is a good thing. What's the point of having only 'political' bands on when those coming are likely to already agree? You cant spend four days preaching to the converted.

If a band plays at Leftfield they are making a statement just by doing that. And if it makes some of their fans think about the issues then that's a success in my book.

[Peaceman]

Aah, I see what you mean mate. Fair point.

[pedmills]

One advantage of Leftfield going is that the thing that replaces it will get lots of attention which could result in MORE emphasis on the political side of Glastonbury than before

Edited December 8, 2008 by peteyboy

[sifi]

One advantage of Leftfield going is that the thing that replaces it will get lots of attention will could result in MORE emphasis on the political side of Glastonbury than before

[HurrahBrother]

sad news indeed,

will look forward to the return of leftfield what ever form it may be.

[Andy_T]

Neil or anyone else who might know - were the Frank Turner and Reverend and the Makers rumours linked to the Leftfield stage? I've noticed that they've now both disappeared from the rumours page.

[eFestivals]

Neil or anyone else who might know - were the Frank Turner and Reverend and the Makers rumours linked to the Leftfield stage? I've noticed that they've now both disappeared from the rumours page.

yep, they were. Also Kate Nash and Billy Bragg.

[Greenish]

aw, i'm gonna miss the leftfield. i remember it's first year when it was nowhere near it's current location. and the year they had a co-op shop inside and i lived off their fair trade chocolate brownies. and the year they had computer competitions - my boyfriend played for hours and got the highest score of the festival, winning us £120 of co-op vouchers!

but, as others have said, i was disappointed that the emphasis had moved away from human rights, campaigns in the last couple of years. there was so much less information this year.

for those worried about where tony benn could perform, i've seen him at the speakers corner in the greenfield. mark thomas i've also seen there, and ME himself does a slot each year. we've still got a political speakers tent, it's just a lot lot smaller. the political comedians tend to do a show in the cabaret tent too.

i knew mark thomas would be busy so i got there an hour early for a good spot at the front - sadly the speaker before talked about tantric sex - it really put my off my breakfast!

[Peaceman]

Not sure I agree with that. In the last couple of years there has been a lot of stuff on nuclear weapons, racism, slavery, poverty, etc. Shelter had a huge display as have other groups. And there have been a number of different stalls. But if something needed changing then I'm sure some constructive criticism direct to Leftfield would have been infinitely preferable to just dropping it.

[Pauljoanss]

I briefly saw Bill Bragg several years ago at Leftfield and was impressed.

Haven't seen him again until last night at end of world tour at Sheperd's Bush Empire, he was great and full of energy. I left thinking that I must make sure I see him at G next year, so now not sure if he will be around. Will be sad if he is not there.

Bad news about LF it was a great place to escape to and recharge your political batteries.

Sorry, but most go against other post, I have seen James Blunt a couple of times (in standing only venues) and he is a great entertainer with some really powerful songs. On stage he is an accomplished musician and has just as much energy as Billy.

[Fairies for Change]

I've just stumbled across this news and I'm really sad...

As so many of you have already said, it was important to me that trade union / leftism / political debate had a voice at the festival. And in many ways - along with the Green Fields - it's what connected the festival to it's origins and made it different from so many other music weekends.

I hope this spirit hasn't been lost.

[mudmonkey]

Anyone know if the tower will still be left, with the strobe light going?

Obviously sad news, although I preferred the LF as it started out, with much less emphasis on the stage and much more info stalls and campaigns, co-op food etc. This year it struggled to be much more than just another stage. Although Levs in there Thursday night was pretty special.

As with all things Glasto, I think onwards and upwards. I'm sure the Eavises don't want the campaigning aspect of the festival to fade away so hopefully something good will come in its place.

[mr_bizarre]

Anyone know if the tower will still be left, with the strobe light going?

Obviously sad news, although I preferred the LF as it started out, with much less emphasis on the stage and much more info stalls and campaigns, co-op food etc. This year it struggled to be much more than just another stage. Although Levs in there Thursday night was pretty special.

As with all things Glasto, I think onwards and upwards. I'm sure the Eavises don't want the campaigning aspect of the festival to fade away so hopefully something good will come in its place.

[paddieu]

You said it !

This is terrible news IF they don't replace it with a genuine Left focused 'field'.

You could say Shangrila was reasonably akin to LV. (Other than the murdering

of Strummerville )

So I would settle for 'reasonably akin' BUT clearly visible for what it is /was -

ie the big tower thingy. And same sort of stuff on too ;-)

Other people have spoken well about this too - twas a major heart in

a festival becoming too corporate for some of us - a trade off if you like.

Very much an emotional thing - in a time when we need a Left rallying

point, and with the captitalism crisis happening, this field could contribute

so much.

Mind you - it cud still be improved. The books and banners stuff was stuffed way out of sight

last year compared to 2007, the wooden floor needs to come back, and the vid screens

used all the time not just for 'stars'.

Anyone else remember fondly its first year, further up the main drag ?

Just a wee tent then, seemingly born of Joe Strummer's demise, so that

connection is another reason to mourn any change away from what it stood for...

I dont think its the same thing this time. Of course there is loads to see, lots of charities benefit and nobody spends the whole festival at Leftfield!

I've been working at the Festival since 1984 and in recent years Glastonbury has been seen as being more commercial. I think Leftfield acted as a balance and grew bigger each year as an alternative to the corporate stuff. In the main part of the festival (that is, not including the Greenfields) its the only section left for politics and in particular for people to be introduced to issues. Without it I think the festival loses a lot. The quality of acts there has increased year on year and it has also given many young people the opportunity to play at Glastonbury.

There is something wrong here and I'm not convinced that its just about money. We may not have heard the last of this yet. I really think this would be a bad move.

[glastofreak]

There will always be a place for left wing debate in the Green Field, so Tony Benn will have somewhere to go if he wishes to come. The left field grew in to a big tent where it was very easy to miss any political message, reliying on the acts playing to shout out messages or hope that you stumble in to the stalls with the information (strangly on the far right on the tent ) May i recomend reducing the size of the tent so the message is more concentrated or moving the stalls so there is one at each entrance or exit.

[philipsteak]

I'm also one of the ones that is gutted it won't be back. I never got to experience Billy Bragg there (on my list of must experience!) and Tony Benn. Considering all year round i'm not one of those people who takes time out to look at important issues it was a nice place to go to talk to people without feeling threatened, pressured and made to feel stupid. I had a long chat with Shelter there last year and enjoyed a lot of the quirky bands that were playing there.

They will indeed be missed

As for Bruce Stringbean being a headliner I would welcome this, not as a must see but I think he would put on quite a good show. As long as there was nothing else I really wanted to see then I would certainly like to watch him.

[dorlomin]

This is terrible news IF they don't replace it with a genuine Left focused 'field'.

[Alcatraz]

The 'left' is pretty much dead in the uk in terms of electoral politics (with the exception of the scottish socialist party). My fear is that instead of a represention of real left wing ideals a new new 'political' stage will merely represent liberal values. The left in the UK used to represent the interests of 'labour', but globalisation has reduced the component of real labouring jobs in manufacturing and the growth of a semipermentant benefits class (known in modern neoliberal economic speak as the 'flexible labour pool') has reduced the attachment of labour to the manufacturing process (or other means of generating capital). This has reduced the ability of labour to orginise to bargin for a better position. The fallout of this is that the lower economic classes in the UK no longer seem to have a collective identity (there are other reasons like the rise in consumerism in those classes and cyncism). The lack of a solid body that can be brought together to force economic and structural change has been a part of the process of the depolicisation of the UK. UK politics is inceasingly not about hard economic or political issues but about variations on the same themes. The party that was founded to represent the intersts of the labour component of UK society now is primarily motivated by the persuit of power as the end in itself and not as a means to an end. Its politics is now designed to capture the attention and affection of a small fraction of the UKs voters: the swing voters in the marginal seats. This is why the labour party only seems to focus on issues that interest the sort of C2 voter in university and comuter towns. What can lazily be called middle England. The rest of the left seems to have expoleded into an unfocussed mass swinging between enviromental protests*, palastinian issues, anti war issues**, anti-gloabalisation and the odd burst of anti fash activity. The various far left parties have jumped in and out of those kind of issues as they have raised and fallen in the public consiousness trying to gain some kind of political traction that there economic analysis fails to do in a post Fall of the Berlin Wall, post overhwelming victory of the Washington consensus. Most emblamatic of this tendency is the Socialist Workers Party that has jumped onto every bandwagon trying to its hand at old fashion Trotskyist entryism (anyone remember Milliatant Tendency: that is what entryism is about). Jokers like the SWP have little to offer for British working classes except reheating 80s politics while jumping into bed with some rather dodgy types to form RESPECT.

The feeble state of UK leftist politics is one of the reasons that the Leftfield at Glastonbury was so good. It was a chance to keep a flame alive. Its not that the LeftField was immune to the kind of idiocy that afflicts the left. But the advantage of the LeftField is that it was able to raise issues and bring them at least into the counsioucness of the Glastogoers, the kind of issues that do not sit quite so well with the comfy liberal world of organic food and carbon credits.

I always felt that the leftfield failed to connet the dots though. There is a direct link between the state of the people in Britains sink estates, the destruction of local economies due to globalisation, the war in Iraq and many of the other issues. It seemed to compartmentalise the issues. Perhaps that is too harsh, its was mentioned occasionaly from the stage but it was never quite a theme.

Anyway I am very very very very deeply concerned that the BNP is making massive electoral inroads in the UK. It has been taking and losing council seats for years now. It is improving on its policy weaknesses and seems to be getting to the point where somewhere round the country they are going to strike gold and find that one candidate that will be able to take them to the next stage. They are very widely tipped to get a seat in the next European elections. We are headed into an econmic downturn with the political left in a shambles, the far right surging and a huge ignorance in the public about the issues that affect them deeply.

Well its my guess the easy world of xfactor being the biggest thing is peoles lives is coming to a crashing end. We need places like the leftfield more than ever.

*I am not talking about the green political movement: things like "camp climate change" and "greenpeace", they have only a lose affiliation with the poltical left as viewed from an economic analysis.

**Again I am not talking about the dedicated anti war movement, the likes of CND. The greens and the peace movement are alliances that draw in a wide spectrum of support and not just from the 'left'.

[DaveMac]

An utterly brilliant post

[fairyinboots]

Agreed. Great post.

[Mardy]

Yeah, fantastic post. nice one dorlomin

[Grateful Ghoul]

Amen brother! couldnt agree more.

[Boris]

I am sad if it was about money. Eavis has taken many hits over the years and I'm surprised this would be singled out as a cost-cutting measure. I suspect there's more to this than we know at the moment. If I'm honest I didn't love the 'Billy Bragg' tent for it's political message... I just saw it as a cool place to see some good bands right there in the middle of the festy... e.g. British Sea Power and 3 Daft Monkeys. However I wasn't unaware of it's purpose either and I had respect for it.

[Joshuwarr]

This still upsets me. Camping next to the Leftfield was awesome.