festivals report in the observer yesterday

[t8yman]

people who go to festivals regularly but have never been to Glasto tend very much to say that, as their cover for their ignorance.

Perhaps you're right, perhaps it would be the worst festival you could go to. But the facts of others who've said much as you have here but who have later swallowed their pride and gone and seen for themselves gets to show that in the vast majority of cases, people who say what you have here are talking out of their arse.

You should try it some time, so that you can discover that the gigs in a field that you've attended up till now are not what festivals can be. They can be all of that and a massive amount more.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I still think Glastonbury is good value at £200 when you take into account the cost of going to a single concert nowadays (not that I go to any). If you add up all the music acts you see, other acts, other fields, other entertainment, then it restores some perspective of what you are getting for your money. Mind you the overall expense of going can really tot up to a considerable figure.

[russycarps]

I still think Glastonbury is good value at £200 when you take into account the cost of going to a single concert nowadays (not that I go to any). If you add up all the music acts you see, other acts, other fields, other entertainment, then it restores some perspective of what you are getting for your money. Mind you the overall expense of going can really tot up to a considerable figure.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

this is true, but I think it's more the fact that prices have jumped from £120ish in 2005 to £200 8 years later. It's incredible really. I wish my salary would inflate at those rates!

But considering I paid £90 (NINETY POUNDS!) to see paul mccartney at the royal alber hall the other night for 2 and a half hours of entertainment, I suppose I cant really complain! That would pretty much have paid for my entire glasto ticket when played there in 2004!

I think I'm just depressed because I was watching clips on youtube of bowie at glastonbury last night, and thought to myself "I will probably never ever have a night like that at glastonbury again"

life on mars was unbelievable

[eFestivals]

I hear you Neil, and in the past when I have given my opinion about glasto I have been generally derided, simply because the vast majority of the users on here are glasto goers. I know a festival is about more than just music, but I like very very little music that isnt hard rock/metal. afaik, glasto isnt big on that genre of music.

There's not huge amounts of rock/metal, but there's more there than the average rock fan tends to presume.

i'm not saying its a shit festival, not saying there is anything wrong with it, i'm just saying that nothing i know about the event appeals to me.

that's because you can't see past "my favourite bands aren't there".

I know it's a cliche but it's about much more than the bands. If you see past the bands - which you can really only do by attending - then it's very likely by the law of averages that the event would appeal to you, as the numbers of people who've said what you are saying but have changed their minds after giving it a go gets to prove.

[Alcatraz]

That's true. The place needs those free spirited eccentrics and oddballs. I never thought about them being priced out before. It would be a shame to have that aspect of the festival depleted.

[The Nal]

i'm not saying its a shit festival, not saying there is anything wrong with it, i'm just saying that nothing i know about the event appeals to me.

[amfy]

I don't know whether 2012 was a good or a bad point for Glastonbury to take the year off - 2011 was easily my worst Glastonbury ever and I actually left the site feeling relieved that i didn't have to do it this year - there was so much not to like, and Beyonce just inexplicably wandering off at the end of her underwhelming set on sunday night pretty much topped it off. My fault for being there - but i had definitely gone down the "big artists I wouldn't otherwise pay money to see" route.

Having thought about it now, I really need to just get to the bits of Glastonbury that I like, rather than the things I think I ought to see, I don't know how I got so distracted.

I also have to accept that if I don't like the music, the litter, the cool kids in wellies who think enjoying a gig is filming it on your phone for your facebook profile, then it probabaly is time for me to move on, rather than blame them for spoiling it. Festivals are a young people's thing, and if I don't like the way they do it, then sadly I need to come to terms with the fact that it might be me that needs to find something else to do.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

The young people's thing is all in the mind really. I don't want to stop going to Glastonbury because I think I'm too old. Bollocks to that, I'm only on the planet once. I do understand the music, litter, Hunter wellies bit, but you just have to blank it out and enjoy the variety of things on offer. Go away from the main stages, take delight in sharing quality time with your friends, go listen to some of the deranged conversations at the stone circle etc etc

As a very dear friend once said to me in a moment of crashing come down - 'Don't jump off your surf board'.

I'm not still trying to be young and with it. I'm 46 and feel every year of it. However I don't want to look back with more regrets than I need to, and missing Glasto would be a regret.

That said if you really feel you've had enough then you've had enough. But ask yourself properly whether that's the case or are you just being blinkered by a mistake in choices made in the mud in 2011.

[russycarps]

yep I dont think it's got anything to do with being "too old". I have been "too old" for years but never ever have I felt out of place because of my age at glastonbury, even in 2010/2011 around the pyramid area.

I do however feel out of place because a vast proportion of the glastonbury crowd share absolutely none of my values. And the sad thing is my values are largely those that the festival itself also used to stand for. Far too many people for my liking have no respect for the festival anymore. They either dont know, or dont care, about any of the themes that made the festival what it is. Im not saying everyone in that field listening to david bowie in 2000 were hippy ecowarriors, but I am sure the average glasto goer gave a bit of a shit back then didnt they? OK there was always a sea of litter, and people were no angels, but I did feel like I was amongst broadly like-minded people back then, no matter where I was. Even people 10 years younger than me! These days I can meet someone round about my own age and they are nothing at all like me.

The booing of that greenpeace woman or whatever it was is a case in point (admittedly she gave a poor speech).

A lot of glasto-goers dont even seem to share my (exemplary) taste in music anymore!

[grumpyhack]

In my book Glastonbury still beats any other festival I've been to for sheer variety. You could spend a week there and have a great time without ever going near the Pyramid. This year I'm trying the Isle of Wight but the costs are mounting. On top of the ticket the ferry crossing adds another arm and a leg that takes it way above a Glastonbury price,

[kirst201]

I think it's more the fact that prices have jumped from £120ish in 2005 to £200 8 years later. It's incredible really. I wish my salary would inflate at those rates!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

yep I dont think it's got anything to do with being "too old". I have been "too old" for years but never ever have I felt out of place because of my age at glastonbury, even in 2010/2011 around the pyramid area.

I do however feel out of place because a vast proportion of the glastonbury crowd share absolutely none of my values. And the sad thing is my values are largely those that the festival itself also used to stand for. Far too many people for my liking have no respect for the festival anymore. They either dont know, or dont care, about any of the themes that made the festival what it is. Im not saying everyone in that field listening to david bowie in 2000 were hippy ecowarriors, but I am sure the average glasto goer gave a bit of a shit back then didnt they? OK there was always a sea of litter, and people were no angels, but I did feel like I was amongst broadly like-minded people back then, no matter where I was. Even people 10 years younger than me! These days I can meet someone round about my own age and they are nothing at all like me.

The booing of that greenpeace woman or whatever it was is a case in point (admittedly she gave a poor speech).

A lot of glasto-goers dont even seem to share my (exemplary) taste in music anymore!

[amfy]

I don't feel too old because I'm 48 this year, and one of the things I have always loved Glastonbury for is mixing with younger people and not feeling old.

I guess I'm saying that when you start to spend most of your weekend tutting at the younger people, you have probably got too old - and that isn't measured in years - some people start doing that at 25, some people will hit 90 and still smile at the increasingly baffling ways they find to express themselves. So what I mean is that when i can no longer smile at young people then it is ME that is spoiling it, not them.

I thought I was in the latter catagory untill last year, but I can probably find my way back in. Of course I will be going again, and adjusting my mindset to remember it isn't my Glastonbury just because I was there first, it doesn't work like that........And largely avoiding The Pyramid stage.

(edit: by "ME" I mean myself not Michael Eavis!)

Edited April 3, 2012 by amfy

[russycarps]

A lot of it's down to the fact that artists are charging ridiculous amounts to appear at festivals purely because the music industry isn't producing anyone new and good enough to headline...and so artists can get away with it because there is such a shit supply. Saying that, Glasto don't pay as much for artists as some other festivals because some artists pay for the prestige factor...and also the TV audience I suppose.

I think Glasto are doing as much as they can to keep prices down whilst still trying to keep some of their original objectives such as donating 2million to charity and being eco friendly and ethical. Plus they don't charge for things like programmes and things...and so when you compare it to other festivals I think £200 is fair. Compare it to T in the Park for example... Although it's horribly expensive, I think it's just the price of staging a fest in the UK's current market unfortunately...

[Katster]

ive never been to glasto, and tbh i cant think of anything i would like less festival wise. but i fear it has become a victim of its own success. festivals are eating themselves. it has been fashionable to be a festie goer for a few years, the sooner the trend reverses the better for the scene as a whole imho.

[LondonTom]

It's not really just the young people who changed, I've seen plenty of older folk around at festivals who do as you all describe and go see the terrible pish acts put on!

[russycarps]

It's not really just the young people who changed, I've seen plenty of older folk around at festivals who do as you all describe and go see the terrible pish acts put on!

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Bloody computer is on a go slow. Meant to say to London Toms post that those older folk may be in the first stages of dementia.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Yoghurt on a Stick

[Alcatraz]

It's not really just the young people who changed, I've seen plenty of older folk around at festivals who do as you all describe and go see the terrible pish acts put on!

[amfy]

Thats a fair point. I probably only notice it more with the young people because there are more of them.

[eFestivals]

It's not really just the young people who changed, I've seen plenty of older folk around at festivals who do as you all describe and go see the terrible pish acts put on!

yep - any changes in society effect all of society.

Society has changed. The amount of the 'bad' habits of wider society seen within Glasto hasn't IMO.

[russycarps]

I've been going since 1994. I've never made these complaints until 2010.

It changed inevitably after 2000 with the superfence, but in 2010 it fell off a cliff. I am most certainly not the only one who thinks this way.

So I was perfectly happy with the festival and all the changes that occurred between 1994-2009. But deeply unhappy with 2010 and 2011.

i am far from alone.

[thetime]

I've been going since 1994. I've never made these complaints until 2010.

It changed inevitably after 2000 with the superfence, but in 2010 it fell off a cliff. I am most certainly not the only one who thinks this way.

So I was perfectly happy with the festival and all the changes that occurred between 1994-2009. But deeply unhappy with 2010 and 2011.

i am far from alone.

[eFestivals]

next to nothing happened

the one major thing I can think of which did happen is that the late night areas was accessed via a queue, rather than being somewhat uncontrolled access.

While I despair that some people gets so easily alarmed that they feel far safer to always be having someone else telling them what to do, there's the other side to that, where at points lots of people felt that the access to those areas was at times rather dangerous.

While I don't think that danger ever got near the point of there being an incident because of it (it was nothing on some of the things at Glastonbury in the eighties, for example), I can understand why those who have responsibility for it felt that something safer needed to be done. It's a different thing if the responsibility falls back on you.

The over-regulation of festivals is the one change that I do feel is impacting on festivals. Spontaneity is now only allowed if it's pre-approved.