Glastonbury's 5 muddiest festivals, according to The Independent

[Johnnyseven]

What do you reckon? IMO 1998 was much worse than 2016.

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/glastonbury-weather-forecast-mud-rain-b2560396.html

[bob323]

for me, 2007 was one of the worst years for rain - but i had a pram to push or drag

[al_coholic]

2005 was my first and that was bad, 2016 was my personal worst though, I found the mud to be really attritional I was completely broken physically when I got home on the Monday, and was the reason I chose not to try for tickets in 2017

[-TLR-]

in '97 and '98 i was still young enough, and wasted enough, to be of the f**k it and party approach.

 

every muddy one since then i have been of the can barely gather the energy to get from the tent to the nearest bar approach.

 

please Jah - don't send us the mud this year!

[Skip997]

They’ve missed 1985.

[mjfromthelane]

2016 was my first Glasto. Remember sitting in the car about 2 miles off the site waiting for about 5 hours, with locals coming out of their houses claiming they might have to cancel 😅

 

Then my second was 2019, no rain and 30 degree sunshine every day...

[tarw]

Just now, mjfromthelane said:

2016 was my first Glasto. Remember sitting in the car about 2 miles off the site waiting for about 5 hours, with locals coming out of their houses claiming they might have to cancel 😅

 

Then my second was 2019, no rain and 30 degree sunshine every day...

Hopefully third time lucky and we’ll have a dry 20*C festival 

[Spindles]

2016 is the only one of the famously muddy years that I got to experience.  It seems to be a kind of polarizing year in retrospect.  Everyone I encountered had a kind of Dunkirk spirit and was determined to have the best time regardless, but I see a lot of people say it was a tough one for them.  The traffic chaos at the start of the festival was particularly memorable, and we somehow missed it by taking a wrong turn and then finding a back way in through the village that saw us basically roll right into a car park close to the gate with no queue, whilst friends were just 2-5 miles away and not moved in hours. 

 

[Johnnyseven]

8 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Everyone I encountered had a kind of Dunkirk spirit and was determined to have the best time regardless

 

I agree with this, there seems to be more of a sense of camaraderie at a muddy Glastonbury. 

[Spindles]

There's a great clip from 2007, where a BBC (I think) reporter is talking about the mud making things difficult going, whilst an insanely cheerful couple of punters show absolutely no sign that the reported bad conditions make a blind bit of a difference to them.

 

It was like that in 2016 for me, a tale of smiling faces, people going harder than usual and helping each other out when people fell down/got stuck.  I was having a hard time with depression that year and had resolved to go to the festival regardless and hope for some kind of mental reset by spending time out of my situation.  The unending positivity around me, even in the face of the weather, the mud and brexit combined to break my mental pattern just as hoped.  

[ourkid1984]

24 minutes ago, mjfromthelane said:

2016 was my first Glasto. Remember sitting in the car about 2 miles off the site waiting for about 5 hours, with locals coming out of their houses claiming they might have to cancel 😅

 

Then my second was 2019, no rain and 30 degree sunshine every day...

Same first 2 Glastonbury's as me. A complete contrast. 

 

I loved 2016 despite the mud, loads of people helping eachother out and I found a way of getting through the mud pretty easily, which was a bonus. 

 

2019 was great and I love the heat but found travelling from stage to stage wasn't as much fun.

[gherkin8r]

Haha 60.1mm of rainfall on the Friday of the festival in 2007 puts things in perspective. AccuWeather at the minute forecasting 44.4mm between now and the Monday after the festival.

[Trunks1993]

We're very much due a muddy one. Don't think there's ever been 5 dry festivals in a row. 

[Chip Batch]

2007 was the worst I've been to. The Sunday was terrible and overnight into Monday topped it off.

 

2005 my tent got flooded and wrecked but still not as bad as 2007.

 

2004 pretty muddy too.

 

2016 was muddy but not too bad apart from the Sunday and I'd probably had enough by then. I seem to remember 2011 being a bit crap too?

[shuttlep]

Hate to say it , but we are due a mud fest.

 

will make ticket sales easier the following year 

[doogie]

7 minutes ago, Chip Batch said:

I seem to remember 2011 being a bit crap too?

As far as I recall it rained a bit on the Wednesday, then rained hard on Friday evening (all the way through U2), but it was okay over the weekend.  The Sunday was a scorcher and all the mud had dried up by lunchtime.

[Walter Sobchak]

2007 was my first festival, Sunday was just awful.

 

2016 wasn't half as bad as I don't remember it raining too badly during the acts.

 

U2 in the rain in 2011 was shite.

[Spindles]

Just now, Walter Sobchak said:

U2 in the rain in 2011 was shite.

Weirdly Primal Scream in the rain in 2011 was fantastic.

[LSTx]

I've been to 7 glasto's fortunately, only one rainy one (2016), which is definitely my lowest ranked glasto personally due to the shear energy the mud saps from you!

 

A little story time to corroborate why this is my lowest ranking one.. 

We set off at 12:00 PM with the goal of arriving and getting in line by 6:00 or 6:30AM. Unfortunately, the traffic was terrible, and our minibus company only had one driver. Legally, the driver cannot continue driving after 12 hours.

After being stuck in standstill traffic until 2:00 PM, the driver informed us that he couldn't take us any further and dropped us off 2-4 miles from the site with all our belongings.

 

We started walking to the festival site, and other coaches looked at us as if we were aliens.

 

I couldn't continue walking with all my stuff, and one of my friends and I ended up lagging behind the rest of the group.

 

In true Glastonbury spirit, a complete stranger stopped and offered to take some of our bags. I had never met this person before, but we quickly exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet in the festival car park (of course, he was camped in the furthest car park).

 

After finally getting into the site and reaching our camp, it took another two hours to retrieve our bags (there and back).

 

I didn't crack my first beer until 8:30 PM that night, after an 18 hour journey with no sleep from the night before,  but I've been going back every year since! 😆

Edited June 12 by LSTx

[Walter Sobchak]

Getting our caravan towed in and out because of the mud in 2016 was interesting.

 

Remember seeing brand new VW Campers getting dragged through the mud on the way out eeeek

[Walter Sobchak]

6 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Weirdly Primal Scream in the rain in 2011 was fantastic.

 

I resorted to hitting my stash that I was saving for Chemical brothers halfway through.  Totally wrong music for it but raised the spirits!

[Ayrshire Chris]

25 minutes ago, Trunks1993 said:

We're very much due a muddy one. Don't think there's ever been 5 dry festivals in a row. 

But there’s always a first time🤞😊

[Andy0808 v5]

There must be someone, somewhere..who has only attended Glastonbury during these years; and they’re currently toying with the idea of returning hoping to see the sun.

[paulshane]

2016 is the only time i've been towed -into- the camper fields, but 1998 was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay muddier on site.

[glimmers_of_hope]

I agree with the list in the Indy that they were very muddy festivals

 

2005 -  I don't think I cared too much because I was a lot younger and just got wasted.

2007 - I remember it was seriously wet but because it was my wife's first Glasto her enthusiasm meant I was really happy all the way through except for the sunday when we were both tired, hungover, on a come down and found the end really hard.

2016 - I think being older I found it physically harder but at the time I think I thought it was one of my favourite festivals.

 

The mud can be challenging but it hasn't ever stopped me having fun and enjoying it.  I think as I get older I'm probably less inclined to go hard, but I guess I can probably also appreciate that I've been lucky and had sunny ones and so the odd wet and muddy one is fine and not get to hung up on it.