Backstage- any good?

[paulo999]

Backstage camping, i.e. between Pyramid and Other ('Interstage' in Glastonbury terminology) has been moved to where the cinemas used to be (plus a few acres of Woodsies, adjacent).

(Scottie: I'm taking it that's your info too).

[Edited... corrected Wicket to Woodsies]

Edited April 29, 2009 by paulo999

[Mardy]

Backstage camping, i.e. between Pyramid and Other ('Interstage' in Glastonbury terminology) has been moved to where the cinemas used to be (plus a few acres of Wicket, adjacent).

(Scottie: I'm taking it that's your info too).

[.jay.]

backstage does tend to have better toilets with no queues and better bars and better yet more expensive booze

and it is mainly frequented by media types and z list celebrities which actually is all bad we had a shiot celeb spotting competition at wireless last year and i won by spotting and chatting to the tubby one from defunct boyband Damage.

but i've never been backstage at glasto so can't really say.

i wouldimagine you would not get access all areas or such just guest passes/wristbands and their will probably be a backstage area you can access and then a backstage backstage area so to speak where you can't.

Edited April 29, 2009 by .jay.

[Forever_Reeling]

Backstage is full of dumb, pretty and easy ;-) media types.

Good, if you want to cop off with a sloaney high on coke.

Rubbish otherwise.

[greenfairy43]

Indieheart won Backstage passes from efests last year. The loos were clean, but they weren't long drops & I do love a long drop!

[paulo999]

But isn't PGA and the bus drop off there?

[boover]

We were backstage in 2007 - Best thing - Clean toilets, less queues at the bar, Great cut through.

Severe lack of atmosphere and the majority of people don't go outside and see the 'real' glastonbury.

Didn't bother last year, might pop back this year if the toilets get too messy!!!

[b26354]

Yes I have been and no, its no good. Full of pretentious industry types poncing about doing loads of MDMA and talking shit. You get the glimpse of the odd artist (I saw Pete Doherty and Kate Moss, wow!), its a souless place, shallow as a worms grave.

The complete opposite of the Stone circle basically.

Avoid.

Edit - Cleaner toilets yes. But its hardly worth it for 4-5 shits, depending on your own individual output.

[TalkShow Bob]

Nearby, but not the same place.

[glastofreak]

Since the doves are playing the john peel back stage you should have a good time just make sure you nick as much of the bands rider as possible. Proper backstage is full of people working

[Man drew]

I done security in 05 and i was making sure everyone has passes etc for the backstage area.

Like it has been mentioned on here, what a bunch of stuck up knobheads most of them where!

Had a good chat to Brian Wilson drummer though which was a laugh.

[G1T]

Did backstage 98 to 2000, when i was young enough to be impressed by it, and was a laugh, Keith Allen's karaoke and all that. But then didn't go there again until last year, and man has it changed. The atmosphere's completely gone, very pretentious now with so many tragic kids in bands trying to look painfully important and cool. There's a reason you never see big names backstage, it's cos they're all clued up enough to be out enjoying the actual festival.

That said, did a load of the other back stages for the other stages last year, and that was interesting. Avalon backstage had a really good bar full of local farmers, beanbags, local scrumpy and rhubarb vodka cocktails. Jazzworld had a pretty impressive set up too, with its own stage for bands, saw some odd hip hop/funk band all in orange boiler suits late one night.

Otherwise whatever really, the main advantages of being backstage have been covered already (the cut through being the biggy, especially when muddy), but i wouldn't much bother with backstage myself anymore to be honest.

[josephg]

why anyone would want to go backstage and look a celebs pissing and taking mdma, when you could be in the audience with like-minded people watching celebs on stage doing what they're actually good at, escapes me

(sorry for the long, poorly composed sentence)

[seebee71]

I've stayed backstage a few times now and it's mostly people who are working from what I've seen, be that clean up crews, press and then assorted people on a jolly. Shortcut is great, bar is good, feel safer leaving things in the tent, cleaner lavs, and this year understand there will be showers. Camping backstage in new area will still give access to old backstage which will still be there but with larger beeb compound I think.

[timespeedsup]

Indieheart won Backstage passes from efests last year. The loos were clean, but they weren't long drops & I do love a long drop!

[Dave F.]

'Back Stage' camping won't be between the Pyramid and Other stages this year by the way.

[Paul ™]

Err... where are they then? Underground in the new reservoir?

[Dave F.]

In the old cinema field

Edited May 2, 2009 by Dave F.

[rfs]

I did the John Peel backstage one year. I wish they were all on MDMA, it was all coke when I was there Really quite dull, but I wouldn't say no if given the opportunity again.

[chopmanski]

I've stayed backstage a few times now and it's mostly people who are working from what I've seen, be that clean up crews, press and then assorted people on a jolly. Shortcut is great, bar is good, feel safer leaving things in the tent, cleaner lavs, and this year understand there will be showers. Camping backstage in new area will still give access to old backstage which will still be there but with larger beeb compound I think.

[FunkyChunkyMonkey]

In the old cinema field

[Vacant0]

Backstage in the Park last year I met Dizzee Rascal, saw CSS being interviewed and apparantly missed Jack White walk past me as I was looking the other way at the time. That was a bit cool.

Not the same as the proper backstage compound (only got in the Park bit for free food as I was litterpicking) - but anyway, I don't understand why anybody would want to spend much of their festival in any of the backstage areas - to the OP though, you might as well take the passes.

[TheNewUnion]

article in the Guardian (which was in the main rubbish) said this of the backstage area:

If there's one piece of Glastonbury advice I can give you, it's this: don't camp backstage. On the plus side, there was no flooding, no thieving, and the toilets did indeed flush properly. On the minus side, at 3am a group of post-pubescent upper-middle-class music-industry gitsacks pitched their tent beside mine, and no power on Earth could make them stop braying witless bullshit at the top of their idiot lungs.

For hours they tramped round my tent, tripping over the guy ropes and gurgling. One of them had a bassoon. All of them were howlingly impressed with themselves. It suddenly occurred to me that if you fashioned a thick block of concrete the precise shape of the backstage compound, and dropped it from a helicopter, crushing everyone below, you'd improve the quality of life on the planet by at least 3%.

The most annoying one was an infuriating raspy-voiced nincompoop who kept waving a blue light-sabre around, subtly flirting with his female companions by pretending it was a glowing penis. And when he wasn't doing that, he was bragging about how much ketamine he'd taken.

"I'm going to fall over any second," he rasped. He was saying this while bouncing up and down next to my head. He's going to break my neck, I thought. I'm going to have my neck broken by an imbecile with a light-sabre.

All the goodwill for humankind I'd built up during the day drained away in seconds. I felt like ripping through the side of my tent and pushing his eyes into the back of his skull with my thumbs - which isn't really in keeping with any festival spirit I know of.

[PabloCoke]

article in the Guardian (which was in the main rubbish) said this of the backstage area:

If there's one piece of Glastonbury advice I can give you, it's this: don't camp backstage. On the plus side, there was no flooding, no thieving, and the toilets did indeed flush properly. On the minus side, at 3am a group of post-pubescent upper-middle-class music-industry gitsacks pitched their tent beside mine, and no power on Earth could make them stop braying witless bullshit at the top of their idiot lungs.

For hours they tramped round my tent, tripping over the guy ropes and gurgling. One of them had a bassoon. All of them were howlingly impressed with themselves. It suddenly occurred to me that if you fashioned a thick block of concrete the precise shape of the backstage compound, and dropped it from a helicopter, crushing everyone below, you'd improve the quality of life on the planet by at least 3%.

The most annoying one was an infuriating raspy-voiced nincompoop who kept waving a blue light-sabre around, subtly flirting with his female companions by pretending it was a glowing penis. And when he wasn't doing that, he was bragging about how much ketamine he'd taken.

"I'm going to fall over any second," he rasped. He was saying this while bouncing up and down next to my head. He's going to break my neck, I thought. I'm going to have my neck broken by an imbecile with a light-sabre.

All the goodwill for humankind I'd built up during the day drained away in seconds. I felt like ripping through the side of my tent and pushing his eyes into the back of his skull with my thumbs - which isn't really in keeping with any festival spirit I know of.

[paulo999]

Brooker's article was one of the best pieces I've ever read about the festival.

And it has a sweet payoff. He ends up enjoying it.