Glastonbury 40th Anniversary

I don’t know many people who would say I am often at a loss for words. This is one of those times. For anyone who has never been to Glastonbury, I don’t know how to begin to describe it. Seriously. But, I will try so I can share this experience and record for prosperity the awe I felt my first time there. I sincerely hope it will not be my last time at Glastonbury.

Size:
For the few days that Glastonbury Music Festival happens, it becomes the largest town in England. There were 180,000 tickets sold this year (they sold out in a few hours!) and there are countless other people there as vendors, security, clean-up, etc. It is the most massive event I have ever seen and much more massive than I could have ever imagined. Online they said 200,000 people were there!

We were tremendously lucky to be going with Dave, Karrie, and Steve who are festival junkies. They have been to Glastonbury more times than they can count and they really know the ins and outs. They took off a full week (two days before the festival, festival, and two days of recovery after!) and left London at 4:30 a.m. to pitch the tent on the first day the grounds were open. To be fair, we had a great tent location! Close to the main stages, but not so close that we had people tripping over us.

Tent:
You want a tent that gives you a little bit of space for when you need down time. You want a tent that will be waterproof/mud resistant for the wet years and something that will give shade for the sunny years. But… we were told that you should not have a tent that is a space hog or you will never be able to find a spot to pitch it. You do want to make sure there is not a good pathway right by your tent or else Dave warns that late night drunk people fall into you! The result of this chaotic tent placement ~ a very difficult time getting from the path to tent and back!

Music:
Music starts about 10 a.m. each day and stops somewhere around 6 or 7 a.m. the next morning – then it starts back up again at 10! People told us there were something like 45 different stages and we thought they were exaggerating. I know think they probably underestimated. There are around 10 HUGE stages and another 6 BIG stages and then a whole bunch of other sizes. What I loved the most was the variety in music styles; they really have something for everyone.

Food:
There is food for everyone at Glastonbury! Meat lover, non-pork, lacto intolerant, vegan… not a problem! They have all types of food to match the variety of music. Once Karrie showed us where the ‘good’ food was, I was in heaven. I had an amazing crep with egg, chese, tomoatoe two days in a row because it was so tasty! I also loved a chicken and bre wrap that I had for lunch. Lenny tried some Ostrich and some curried goat. You never have to go hungry, that’s for sure!