The festival took place from June 26th to 30th, but the majority of musical acts did not start until Friday the 28th. Like most other attendees, we arrived on Wednesday to ensure we found an ideal campsite location. Although we arrived at 10:30am we could not believe how full the fields were already, but we were lucky enough to wedge our small four-man between a couple tents which seemed like mansions in comparison. We set up with a view of the main stage so that we could still listen to acts even if we were not in the crowd. After trudging our heavy bags to the campsite (okay so maybe buying a case of beer was not the greatest idea) we took a much deserved nap before heading out to explore.
Just to ensure that everyone understands how enormous this Festival is, I have pictures for you to see for yourself. Using a program on my computer I managed to stitch three pictures together into a panorama. I'm quite happy with how it turned out! The view is from a hill in the "Park" area, which is located the opposite side to where we pitched camp. All the visible grey fields are filled with tents, whereas the fancy tipis were reservable by those who can afford them.
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The iconic quilted Glastonbury sign located at the top of Park hill.
Home Sweet Home for the Festival. Extremely glad I splurged on getting a four-man in order to fit our bags!
The local neighbourhood... camping is first come first serve, so there were tents crammed in every nook and cranny.
Glastonbury Festival is quite remarkable in its green initiatives and colourful atmosphere. This flagged walkway weaved through the center of the site.
Thursday ended up quite a lot like Wednesday as we patiently waited for Friday to roll around, though perhaps with a bit more time in the tent as the weather turned for the worse. I was very thankful that Thursday was the only day in five to pour rain, and we definitely needed our raingear as it quickly turned into a mud-bath. The weather did not stop us from exploring some of the further reaches of Glastonbury, including the seemingly adult-rated Shangri-La.
Get out your Wellies!
The cute post-rain mud-man that we found near the "Other" stage. Perhaps a tough night drinking cider?
Welcome to the "Shangra-Hell" stage.
A couple pictures of the bars in the Shangri-La area. Walking around at night really added to the atmosphere.
Besides the music, Glastonbury has a lot of notable features and endless things to see while walking around. One such feature which cannot be missed is the "Arcadia." Located near one of the stages, it is a giant spider-like metal robot that shoots flaming hot jets of fire into the night air. Must be a warm act for the DJs who are inside its center.
Unfortunately when the machine shot fire, the picture below was the best my camera could take. Shows you how powerful the flame was; definitely warmed the face!
But enough of all the cool things we saw around the site, it was a Festival of course so we were there for the music. On average we saw about 5-7 hours of concert a day over the weekend and still we had to pass up seeing some of our desired bands due to scheduling conflicts. It was enough to give us quite sore backs and feet. Here is a list of the performances we did manage to see (in order of when we saw them):
- International Jazz Disaster
- The Hives
- Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra
- The Lumineers
- Tame Impala
- Alt-J
- Chic ft. Nile Rodgers
- Ben Caplan
- MS MR
- Azealia Banks
- Alabama Shakes
- The Rolling Stones
- First Aid Kit
- Rufus Wainwright
- The Vaccines
- Of Monsters & Men
- Vampire Weekend
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
- Mumford & Sons
- Xavier Rudd
Perhaps you do not know a lot of these acts and honestly when I first read the line-up I did not either, however this Festival was a great opportunity to learn about amazing new contemporary artists. Besides the obvious highlights of headliners Rolling Stones and Mumford & Sons, some of the real standouts for me were the Lumineers, MS MR, Alabama Shakes, Of Monsters & Men and Vampire Weekend. We even managed to throw in 40 minutes of circus acts where we watched hula-hooping, acrobatic violin playing (a tense act for me...) and bicycle trick-riding.
AAAHHHHHH!!!!
Rather than share countless pictures of random stages, I will share some from the main acts. First off, our trio had an amazing experience at The Lumineers at the "Other" Stage. Two members of the band decided to try something new by coming out into the audience. As they jostled their way through the crowd, I said in shock to Deanna, "Ahh, I think they are coming towards us." They stopped about five feet away!
The headliner on Saturday night was the iconic Rolling Stones and I believe probably every ticket-holder attended the concert. We did not try to hard to get near the stage, which meant our view was obscured by many flags waved by eager fans. But in the end, we had the better view of the fireworks and gigantic mechanical bird atop the "Pyramid" stage, plus we could still see Mick Jagger strutting around on the big screen and hear Keith Richard's hoarse smoker's laugh.
Pyramid stage by daylight during the opening act and the massive crowd assembling.
Best view in the house probably went to the stupid rubber man and all the other flags...
The bird's wings lifted in all its glory, and then the stage began shooting fire balls.
And the show could not come to an end without fireworks during the encore of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and "Satisfaction."
The task of wrapping up the entire festival was given to the ever-popular Mumford & Sons, now on their fifth appearance at Glastonbury. Unlike at the Stones, my friend Jake insisted on being near the front for this concert. Our hours of standing in wait were well worth it as we had no flags blocking our view of the stage! The band puts on a great concert, but I think the best part was their encore when they brought out other bands from the day (First Aid Kit, Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, and The Staves) to sing a rendition of the Beatles' "With a Little Help from my Friends."
It is still kind of hard to imagine that I attended Glastonbury Festival. The experience was completely thrilling and has left me exhausted and with a cold, but also with lifelong memories. And I was lucky enough to attend with two of my best friends. It may not be the last time we attempt such a thing together. It is getting hard to express in words how thankful I am for all the amazing sights I have seen this past year, and I'm not done yet!Full of sleepy smiles,
Shannon
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