Glastonbury Festival

So, what is Glastonbury Festival ?

Glastonbury Festival is unique !

It's the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.

If you've been to other big open-air festivals - maybe Reading, the V Festivals, T in the Park, Roskilde, Leeds or wherever - they can be a good starting point of reference. But that are so many aspects which bear no comparison of scale or content. And if you've never been to a large scale greenfield music festival, think of it like this :

It's like going to another country. It involves travel, and probably a queue whilst your paperwork is checked before you get in. There are some things you cannot bring with you.

Then you enter : a huge tented city, a mini-state under canvas. The Law still applies, but the rules of society are a bit different. Everyone is here to have a wild time in their own way. The site has distinct socio-geographic regions ! The more commercial aspects are around the Pyramid, Other and Dance stages, like the West End on a Saturday night has been removed to a field, beautified, and you're on every guest list, including the night time cinemas and the New Bands Tent. And then there are more relaxed areas, like the Jazzworld and Acoustic areas, and the family oriented areas like the Kidz Field, the 3 Theatre and Circus fields, and an increasingly alternative aspect as you reach the Field of Avalon, the Tipi Field, the Green Fields, the Healing Field. And at the top of the site is the Sacred Space, it's stone circle being a modern construction, and yet perhaps it has already seen as much celebration and ceremony as some of its foregoers.

The site is in a beautiful location - 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon, an area steeped in symbolism, mythology and religious traditions dating back many hundreds of years. It's where King Arthur may be buried, where Joseph of Arimathea walked, where leylines converge ...

And the site is ENORMOUS - more than a mile and a half across, with a perimeter of about eight and a half miles.

Then there are the people, in all their splendid diversity ! There is only one common characteristic of a Glastonbury-goer : they understand that Glastonbury offers more opportunity than any other happening to have the best weekend of the year or even of a life-time, and they are determined to have it ! You'll meet all kinds of people, of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities, lifestyles, faiths, concepts of fashion (or lack of it), musical taste; some will undoubtedly wear silly hats, or buy shirts that they'll never wear again. Until next year. The vibe is generally mellow and friendly, and on the very odd occasion it isn't, there are plenty of vibe-doctors around to help.

Of course there is also the scheduled entertainment : music (probably more bands than any other weekend event, with lots of smaller stages which you might not read about in the press !); theatre, circus, cabaret (more fringe theatre shows than any other weekend show in the UK); the festival that is the Kidz Field; markets selling everything you need, a lot of things you want, and those shirts and hats mentioned before; an enormous menu of food ...

There will be moments when you ask yourself the inevitable "why can't life always be like this ?" There will be enlightenments, awakenings, surreal happenings, people doing the strangest things and you'll be wondering whether they were booked to do this as an act or whether that's just how they feel happiest being ...

Come in peace, come to enjoy, and you will have the very best time of your life. Until next year.

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