Glastonbury has been branded the ‘festival of festivals’ – and now I know why. One hundred and fifty thousand people camping, drinking, laughing, sunbathing, dancing and avoiding the mud all in one huge music city, forgetting the bane of their ordinary lives.
On Wednesday the sun shone and Stone Circle came alive that evening; paps got festival goers to pose in the sunlight – creating that perfect shot that would make their name and pave their way to fortune. On Thursday afternoon the wellies came back out (and those who were unprepared spent a fortune on getting kitted out). We raved in the rain and the mud and under the midnight sky.
Beady Eye kicked off festivities Friday morning and despite rave reviews in the Guardian (4 out of 5 stars) they weren’t very good. Some of this was down to sound problems but some of it was simply that Beady Eye are now in fact just a poor man’s Oasis as Liam now lacks the swagger, vocal abilities and conviction of earlier days.
The infamous mud of 2007 came back to put in an appearance and made us feel fortunate that it only lasted a day. On Saturday we were back to radiant sunshine – that Channel One, Elvis Costello, Rodriguez and The Rolling Stones basked in. Eating our seven quid burgers we soaked it all in…
Up upon a hill Glastonbury stretched out for miles and basked in its glory. In two days time the six month process would start coming apart again.
Sunday brought yet more sunshine and the mud had dried up entirely. It was nearly at an end but Suuns, the Congos, Tim Burgess and James Blake finished things off in style. Bobby Womack and Daman Albarn blended their own slice of soulful funk.
And then it was over. And like every year, everybody agreed it has been ‘the best Glastonbury yet’.
