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Ok, be warned, its going to be a long one...   Wednesday   Arrived at Victoria coach station at 7.45am for our 9am coach. Huge queue that wrapped all the way around the station and we ended up on a bus at 10.20am. Journey was really smooth and we were on site and through gate A by 2.30pm. Finding somewhere to camp with about 10 tents was not so smooth, and we ended up in Riggs Field, which is on the outer fringes of the festival, but apart from that having zero water points, was a really nice campsite. Got set up, helped mates arrive, waited for stragglers etc, and finally had everyone set up and in camp by 8pm. Headed out to see the drone show/fireworks. Liked the drone show but it really needed music alongside it tbh. After that we headed to a pub, before most people called it a night. I went out with a few to the SEC, mainly because I thought it would be nice to have a wonder round when it was quiet/I was relatively sober for once, rather than when its absolute carnage and I'm completely gone. Saw someone playing on the bug in Nowhere but no idea who that was. Called it a night at about 2am.   Thursday   Went and got the beef rendang from the Indonesian Coconut Curry place opposite BBC introducing. The best food by far of the festival for me, and for everyone else I know who got it at some point. Highly recommend. Ate this whilst listening to Mary Middleton. Then met some mates at San Remo for a bit of a pub crawl. Took in the Cider Bus, Terminal 1 (Terminal 1 was great imo), Avalon inn and the Bimble inn before a sizeable portion of the group want to go and see Des'ree at the Glade (side note, it was actually Desiree 😄). I really wanted to go and see Fat Dog though so me and the wife headed up to Strummerville. Saw Chimer and Sleaze by which point we managed to nab a sofa by the campfire. Was my first time in Strummerville and its a great venue. Anyway, Fat Dog were immense. First time seeing them live, so had no idea what to expect but the crowd went off big time. Had an amazing time. Also enjoyed the fact that loads of people came pushing through the crowd to try and get to the open space in front of us not realising it was a barrier of sofas and going catapulting straight over them 😄. Enjoyed them so much I decided to head down to the SEC to see them again. My wife was quite tired by this point so headed back whilst I sent up a whatsapp flare to the group for the SEC. Unfortunately it was widely ignored as they'd all spent the evening in massive crowds trying to see someone who wasn't even on the line up and had sodded off home as well. Left me on the Peace stage to see Raz and Afla (great despite some terrible technical issues) and Fat Dog once again (absolutely great again). Got back to the tent about 4am after an indifferent chicken katsu curry.   Friday   Went down to the Other stage for Annie Mac, which was good fun. Went back to near BBC introducing for some lunch as my wife had to have the beef rendang, I went for tacos from Mexican Seoul which were great but a bit on the small side, they really needed a 3 taco option that you could mix and match between. At this point despite protests that we should go to one song of Olivia Dean before heading to the Park, I told people that we had to move now if we had any hope of getting in for Barry can't swim. We ended up at the top end of the park just in front of Landsend bar, with a reasonable spot. He was great, atmosphere was great, had a great time.   We headed back down to the Other stage for Confidence Man where those who hadn't been able to get into the Park had set up right behind the sound stage with zero view of the actual stage 🙄. Stayed at the other for Bombay Bicycle Club who were great and pulled a far bigger crowd than I would have expected. Tender with Damon Albarm was a great moment. Got over to the pyramid stage for LCD Soundsystem who were amazing. Set started a little slowly, but Tribulations is one of my favourite songs, and then the last 4/5 songs were absolutely incredible.   Plan for the headline act was Jungle, so me and the wife left our mates who were staying for Dua Lipa, and I caught the last couple of songs of Heilung who I'd love to see a full set off. It was absolutely packed for Jungle, we were to the left of the sound stage and could barely move. Had a great time, think there's a bit of snobbery about them sometimes but I love their music, and a packed West Holts absolutely loved it as well.   Made our way straight to Iicon afterwards where some who'd left Dua Lipa early had also made there way to. Whilst it was busy we managed to reconvene and find a nice chunk of space down at the front right of the stage. However about 30 minutes after Bicep started they shut the sound off and asked everyone to take 3 steps back which was pretty crazy. Most of us decided to wait it out because trying to get back out through the crowd would be nuts. Really enjoyed the set once it started again, and after that we went for a wander around the SEC which apart from a bit of a crowd outside Camelphat felt pretty calm although those who hadn't managed to get down to the SEC quick enough after headliners finished basically gave up on it. Went to Genosys for a bit of a dance to Midland but by this point, everyone was about ready to head to bed, so got back to the campsite about 5.30am.   Saturday   Couldn't tempt anyone out of bed/camp for a trek to Woodsies to see Kneecap. More fool them, that was great fun with an insane crowd for 11.30am at Woodsies. Caught the last 15 minutes of Femi Kuti, which I really enjoyed, particularly when Made Kuti came out to do a saxaphone solo with him. Met my wife for the Staves back at the Other, this time with the coconut curry from the Indonesian curry club in my possession, also great. The Staves were good, nothing special, but perfect for an early afternoon slot in the sun. Followed this up with Cut Capers at Avalon. Its a bit gimmicky, but if you throw yourself into Electro Swing you will have a great time, fortunately one of my friends had the same view so joined me there.   Back to the Other stage for the Last Dinner Party. Found this slightly underwhemling. Maybe because I'd really enjoyed the songs I'd been listening to, or maybe because a lot of people had hyped them up as a live act before hand, but I found that with the exception of Nothing matters, it didn't do much for me live. Based on reviews though I seem to be in the minority there. Bloc Party was great but I also have a slight gripe with 'do you like bangers?' then playing Ratchet rather than Like Eating Glass, seemed like a wierd choice to end the set. Also chat before hand had been that they would be much more Silent Alarm heavy which was clearly complete rubbish. Listened to a little Camila Cabello but decided I wasn't feeling it so went off on my own for Little Simz. Definitely the right choice, she absolutely smashed it and seems destined to end up headlining at some point.   Stayed where I was (under the lefthand screen), as me and the wife had been umming and ahhing about what to on Saturday night for ages (I used to be a big Coldplay fan but had fallen out of love with them a long time ago), and ultimately I decided that the 14 yr old coldplay fan in me would have done a lot to see Coldplay play Yellow on the Pyramid stage, so we decided to hang around for that. Was caught off guard when they opened with that, and tbh, that gave me a huge amount of goodwill towards Chris Martin, which meant I wasn't going anywhere, and he repaid that goodwill massively in the first half of the set. By Viva La Vida, they'd pretty much blown me away, and whilst the second half of the set was a bit weird at times and didn't always do it for me, there was enough going on to keep me interested and playing Sparks then Fix You in the encore was incredible. So fair play Chris, you completely outwon the cynic in me.   We headed up to Arcadia to spend half of the Hot Chip DJ set futilely trying to message/find people who were sending incredibly unhelpful messages like 'Under the dragonfly' or 'by one of the things making fire' all of which would come through in groups so you had no idea if even those unhelpful co-ordinates were still relevant or not. Finally all found each other with about 20 minutes left of Eric Prydz's set (who had been great). Went up to the Park to try and stand outside Stonebridge whilst Faithless were on but got waylaid by the HMS Sweet Charity and Jabba the slut/Sonido Tupinamba. Finished off the night at the stone circle but the little bit of drizzle that started was enough to send us to bed at about 6.30am.   Sunday   Slow start to the day as we had to pack up the tents and stick them in the lock up ahead of our 3am coach. Got to the other stage for Soft Play who were entertaining to watch, even if I have zero interest in their songs. Did the annual Glastonbury quiz that a friend rights for us, me and my wife won against some pretty hefty quizzers thanks to our Glastonbury knowledge. Stayed watching James until they sung Sit Down at which point it was off to the Pyramid for Shania Twain. Went right up to the back as my wife needed to head to Alvaays and I needed to start my epic solo journey to Avalon and back. I had to leave after You're still the one so that I could get to Avalon in time for the Go! Team. Made it with time to spare to get some lunch, some well priced crumpets from the Avalon field.   The Go! Team was a real highlight of the weekend for me. I'd loved Thunder, Lightning, Strike, then kinda forgotten about them until I saw them on the line up poster at which point I've massively got into them again. First time seeing them live and they are a really good live band. Got a shout out from Ninja for my Thunder, Lightning, Strike t-shirt, and had a great time jumping around like a maniac.   As soon as they finished I had to run back to the Pyramid for Janelle Monae. Only missed 2 and a half songs which considering the overlap was pretty impressive if I say so myself. Maybe helped that the entire site was at the other stage by this point. Was gutted for Janelle Monae as soon as I saw the crowd on the pyramid, but did mean I could make my way straight into the pit. She was the other real highlight of the festival for me. Put on an absolutely incredible show and still threw herself completely into it, even if the crowd was tiny and also struggled a bit with singing along to her songs. Her empassioned speech towards the end also completely overshadowed anything that other artists attempted.   Thought I might just have a chance of making the last five minutes of Avril, but turned out she finished early, so had to stand as out of the way as possible whilst everyone vacated the Other stage before I could try and find my wife/mates. Once I'd done this, grabbed some food and headed over to West Holts for Nia Archives. This was a bit of a mixed set for me. Loved some of her stuff, but some it was a bit to hardcore jungle for my tastes. Everyone seemed to be having a great time though, but reckon I'd have enjoyed two door cinema club more.   Despite most of our mates going to Justice, me and the wife and a few others decided on the National as our final headliner. Another band that I used to love, but had just stopped listening to their new albums which is why I'd been a bit hesitant on seeing them or not. 100% made the right choice here as they smashed it. And whilst their music is a bit sad, its also a bit euphoric in a way, particularly when playing live as the sound is something else. Perfect way to finish the festival for me.   Finally reconvened with our other mates who were on an early coach home at San Remo for one final dance to Shanti Celeste, which was made better by the rest of our friends independently heading that way as well. Picked up our stuff from the lock ups and were on our 3am coach to London Victoria by 3.40am despite the guys on the coach gates making a bit of a mess of putting us on coachs. Back at home and showered/in bed by 8am on Monday morning.   Conclusion   The Glastonbury's I've been too have been 2022, 2023 and 2024. I think, despite the 2023 line up being better (in my opinion), this Glastonbury still beat it, as so many of the acts I went to see absolutely smashed it out of the park. Things like last year I went to Artic Monkey's and regretted it whereas this year I begrudgingly went to Coldplay with the intention of bailing half way and they blew me away. Similarly most of the 50/50's that I was unsure about (Little Simz vs Camilla Cabello or The National vs Justic) tipped so wildly in my favour when I went to see them, I can't believe they were even decisions I was contemplating making.   Think it also helped that this year we had about 3/4 vaguely connected groups all camping together that all seemed to get along well and meant that there was often someone off somewhere doing something different and was nice knowing that you could always find someone if you wanted to. Also enjoyed seeing how many different ways people could enjoy the festival, definitely the case that not everyone has to be like me and plan out about 40 different acts they're going to see over the weekend to get enjoyment out of it 😄 

He's an automatic headliner according to some people on here who live in a hype bubble. I've been on here nearly 10 years and the amount of hyberbolic nonsense about acts who will headline is as long as the bible. Wolf Alice were "definite headliners" a few years ago.... There's almost no chance Fred Again headlines the Pyramid in 2025, at the moment. He's certainly blown up in the last few years, but he's not bigger than Other headliner at the moment, or Pyramid sub if they want to put him there.  

Guy 1: …and that’s when I decided I had a real passion for pinball.  Guy 2: mate, I’m so glad you found your true love. It must be amazing to have that level of passion for pinball   and   guy 1: how many steps have you done today? guy 2: do I look like I give a f**k?!!

The Streets. Mike Skinner totally captured the exact moment.   The Farm doing an extended All Together Now after the football win was great, too.