The International Contingent

[Reckoner]

Very similar although I got the Covid out of the way before I left. Consistently sick from daycare germs from the 10 month old as well and the weather in Sydney generally terrible. 
 

Was also feeling pretty comfortable that 2022 was my last one for a while, am still am, but can also feel the doubts starting to creep in as October approaches. 

[Calvin Klein]

Quite boring. Inflation hitting us really bad right now. And it’s cold. So not the most exciting times. 
I really don’t think I will try for tickets in October. I can’t take the same financial hit again this year.

 

I met  3 Argentinians for the first time this year at Glastonbury. I approached the people with the Maradona flag after the libertines. I’m sure you’ve all seen it. They live in Italy though. And then a girl who was credited as journalist covering the festival. She was there for the first time and I told her it would blow her mind. A few weeks ago I found her twitter and she described it as the best experience of her life. She was still hyped about it. 

[Mark H]

29 minutes ago, Reckoner said:

Was also feeling pretty comfortable that 2022 was my last one for a while, am still am, but can also feel the doubts starting to creep in as October approaches. 

I hear you on this! 2023 is off the table for me but I have already started thinking about how to approach the idea of me attending in 2024 within my marital unit. 

[Reckoner]

I blame the deposit scheme. If I had to purchase and pay in October I’d be fine. The deposit scheme leaves the door open to try my luck and then decide further down the track. 

[moogster]

"Enjoying" another European heatwave.

Now thinking that the prices of food and drinks at glasto were actually good value. Our inflation's around 11% this month...

Looking forward to a holiday in September, smartly booked in the Euro zone.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

10 hours ago, Mark H said:

So.. how is post Glastonbury life going for the rest of you internationals?

I’m finding this winter brutal!! Since returning home a month ago I have had COVID, Gastro (due to the small human) and now a really bad cold (also due to the small human). That’s a lot for a four week period.  It also feels like it hasn’t stopped raining and my city (Wellington, NZ) is falling apart with land slips everywhere.
 

Hard to imagine being healthy and enjoying warm summers nights in those fields now 😔

It's stressful and boring sometimes (night wakenings, a lot of work, or going to the same old playgrounds over and over again), and other times it's pretty great (the weather is great, it's still BBQ time, seeing lots of friends/family)...

There's so much still to look forward to this year as well which is nice, totally different to previous years.

I'm looking forward to the tail end of summer, a very belated trip to the UK to see family in Sept, a Stag Do in Wales, and also I'm a massive Christmas fan, so from mid-November until the end of the year, I'm like a little kid in a toy shop, haha. It's especially nice now that my eldest son is 3 and he really gets into the festive vibe too.

Plus of course, there's the sales day in October to think about. Only two months away now!

[BlackZeppelin]

I'm still in the UK (in the Lakes actually) as we're on a long break. Happy to be avoiding the Melbourne winter and accompanying surge in Covid which is brutal according to friends and family.

Will be heading home soon, now we've run out of money.

[kalifire]

2 hours ago, BlackZeppelin said:

I'm still in the UK (in the Lakes actually) as we're on a long break. Happy to be avoiding the Melbourne winter and accompanying surge in Covid which is brutal according to friends and family.

It’s relatively high but pales in comparison to where you are now. You’re right about the winter though. Properly cold, with the majority of houses/units incapable of properly dealing with it (or the summer for that matter). 

Enjoy the lakes. I’m over the travel exhaustion now so quite jealous. Currently trying to keep my head down and be a little financially responsible, before ticket day approaches. I intend to try for 2023 because I hope Elton and Taylor will be there. I don’t have any plans to go in 2024 though. Can’t attend every year from 10k miles away. 

[BlackZeppelin]

2 hours ago, kalifire said:

It’s relatively high but pales in comparison to where you are now. You’re right about the winter though. Properly cold, with the majority of houses/units incapable of properly dealing with it (or the summer for that matter). 

Enjoy the lakes. I’m over the travel exhaustion now so quite jealous. Currently trying to keep my head down and be a little financially responsible, before ticket day approaches. I intend to try for 2023 because I hope Elton and Taylor will be there. I don’t have any plans to go in 2024 though. Can’t attend every year from 10k miles away. 

Hey Kalfire,

Glad hear you're back and recovered.

How did you rate this year's festival?

 

I'm dreading the flight back.

If Elton is playing I'll do everything possible to come back.

At this stage, finances are pretty well dedicated to (a) survival and (b) funding Glastonbury trips.

Could be worse! 

Weather in Keswick this week  23-27 degrees - 

Luxury!

Edited August 8, 2022 by BlackZeppelin

[MaxPower]

Do we think there’s actually any benefit trying for tickets from abroad? Hoping I’m one of like 100 people in Australia trying, though I did bump into two seperate couples who’d made the trip this year.

[moogster]

I don't think it makes a difference. I got tickets a couple of times with my work laptop on a VPN that places me... in the UK!  

[Suprefan]

2 hours ago, MaxPower said:

Do we think there’s actually any benefit trying for tickets from abroad? Hoping I’m one of like 100 people in Australia trying, though I did bump into two seperate couples who’d made the trip this year.

Not really. I myself pulled up the ticket screen for 2017. And I got through for 2020 but another person in the group nabbed the tickets a few mins prior. If you know how to get through the cracks you can get tix almost everytime. But I mean internet connection can make the biggest difference. I have fiber, but thats not everyone.

[moogster]

Well as long as you can refresh a few screens 60 times a minute, and not lose connection at some point in the process the differences are negligible. So if you are on a satellite connection in the middle of the Amazon, you may struggle a bit more . But no benefits I'd say compared to the 100s of thousand people in the UK who have decent connections.

Geography doesn't matter, until you have to actually get your physical tickets 😈 (oooh I am looking forward to see if that's updated for next round...!).

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

I've tried about 7 times (5 in UK and 2 times in DE) for tickets and only once have I succeeded - from Germany. Although, I failed last time out for 2020 as well from DE, so I don't know if there's really any truth to it all. 

My friend seems to have a far larger magic touch, but he lives in Essex/London... 

[Reckoner]

https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/program/glastonbury-festival-2022
 

2022 highlights up on SBS On Demand for those of us in Oz 

[blutarsky]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:28 AM, Reckoner said:

Very similar although I got the Covid out of the way before I left. Consistently sick from daycare germs from the 10 month old as well and the weather in Sydney generally terrible. 
 

Was also feeling pretty comfortable that 2022 was my last one for a while, am still am, but can also feel the doubts starting to creep in as October approaches. 

How are those doubts going? 

[Reckoner]

8 hours ago, blutarsky said:

How are those doubts going

They are still there but still feel pretty content that I won’t be at 2023. We have just bought an overpriced Sydney house, so now financially it might be a huge stretch anyway. And yet, we have a friend who may be getting married in the UK summer, so maybe I should try just in case…..

 

[kalifire]

I'm beginning to realise I've been priced out of flying back home for Christmas. The cost of flights is ridiculous booking around the holiday time now. It's making me want to jump on flights in June very soon after ticket day (assuming I'm lucky). The prices then are much more reasonable, but who knows for how long?

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

7 hours ago, kalifire said:

I'm beginning to realise I've been priced out of flying back home for Christmas. The cost of flights is ridiculous booking around the holiday time now. It's making me want to jump on flights in June very soon after ticket day (assuming I'm lucky). The prices then are much more reasonable, but who knows for how long?

Where are you flying from? I've been looking at flights for Chrimbo, but they're still fairly decent. I'm Germany based though and have a couple of airports near me, Bremen/Hamburg, I can choose from. That sucks though!

As for June, I've been weighing up what the best plan would be. If I get coach tickets, the times are totally random (issued a week before, right?), so then if I book tickets for the day before, I could get totally stiffed with a very late entry the next day.

Best bet would be to fly in on the Tues for general admission on the Wed, I think.

EDIT: Just realised you're in Melbourne from your profile, d'oh. Do you fly in just for Glasto or make a bigger trip out of it?

Edited September 14, 2022 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[kalifire]

11 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

EDIT: Just realised you're in Melbourne from your profile, d'oh. Do you fly in just for Glasto or make a bigger trip out of it?

My parents are based in Frome, so I spend some time with them and catch up with one or two friends as well. I'm usually there for the best part of three weeks.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Has anyone taken the whole family to GF before from abroad?

My wife has started to be interested the closer ticket day approaches, but I can't get my head around the logistical nightmare of carting a 3 and a 1 year old there from Germany. I was going to be a solo traveller, one tent, limited gear etc, but now I'm thinking that we're going to have to upgrade our tent (or get a second), take car seats for any taxis, pay out extra for the hotel in Bristol before we take the coach/taxi to PGA, somehow get a decent buggy/trailer on the plane, all the extra clothes to carry, shoes, wellies, toys, books...

Has anyone got any experience? It sounds like a nightmare to plan now.

[moogster]

Do it as part of a longer camping holiday and come by car? Hamburg right?

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

19 hours ago, moogster said:

Do it as part of a longer camping holiday and come by car? Hamburg right?

That's right. It's quite a way via car tho.

Just wondered how people cope. Think might have to wait until the kids are a bit older unfortunately. 

 

 

Edited September 17, 2022 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[moogster]

13 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

That's right. It's quite a way via car tho.

Just wondered how people cope. Think might have to wait until the kids are a bit older unfortunately. 

 

 

yes you'd be about 6 more hours away than we are. Without kids and with pre-erected camping. It's really exhausting to just drive to GL and back.Especially on the way back. And the stress of making sure you make it to the shuttle/ferry, unless you book a flexible ticket etc.

We tried a couple of times to stay a little longer in the UK but after the fest, any kind of touristy bit feels a bit underwhelming/just want to go home. So for next year we are looking at train + bus. The price of the ferry, not to mention the shuttle has really gone up so at this stage an early bird train to the UK + coach may cost the same and not carry the fear of having a car accident because knackered.

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

3 hours ago, moogster said:

yes you'd be about 6 more hours away than we are. Without kids and with pre-erected camping. It's really exhausting to just drive to GL and back.Especially on the way back. And the stress of making sure you make it to the shuttle/ferry, unless you book a flexible ticket etc.

We tried a couple of times to stay a little longer in the UK but after the fest, any kind of touristy bit feels a bit underwhelming/just want to go home. So for next year we are looking at train + bus. The price of the ferry, not to mention the shuttle has really gone up so at this stage an early bird train to the UK + coach may cost the same and not carry the fear of having a car accident because knackered.

 

You must be on the west coast of the Netherlands in that case?

We could just about justify pre-erected camping if it was just the wife and I, but with kids in tow, I feel like everything quadruples in price. I've not looked at ferry prices for a while, but even when I did, it was more expensive than flying and of course takes about four hours compared to the flight time of about an hour.

In no circumstances would I want to drive home on the Monday all the way back to Hamburg! I did it back to Colchester once and I was so tired on the way home I nearly had an accident and vowed never to drive hungover/tired after 5 days of a festival again. Luckily, I was just going down an on ramp onto the motorway and no one was around (it was like 9pm at night by then), and I just skidded into the hard shoulder, but still, never again.