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Guilfin Ambient Lounge
This page is provided only for information, it does not apply to the 2002 festival.
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Thursday, 6pm in the Market area, round the corner from the Radio One stage. The festival proper doesn't start until tomorrow. Walking into the Guilfin Ambient Lounge - which appears to be a massive red and yellow-striped circus tent - is like walking into a semi-constructed Dr Who set interior-designed by an enthusiastic LSD-quaffer. Mad psychedelic UV backdrops compete for the eye's attention against things like silver-painted mannequins, toys, mushroom lights and a bank of screens showing videos. Knackered old sofas and armchairs are strewn about. Behind the stage is a spaghetti junction waiting to happen -- a pile of coiled cables. The Guilfin crew is hoping to get going this evening. But the guys doing the PA haven't shown yet.
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The Guilfin Ambient Lounge is always one of the most pleasant places to visit at Glastonbury. Don't let the presence of the dread word "Ambient" fool you into believing it's some sort of mongers' gathering place. Guilfin's Liam Rich explains that whereas the Ambient Lounge can be mellow, it can also be banging: "It can, yes, true enough. The ambience comes more from the mood of the people than the music. We just don't like aggressive people and moods, so we try to make it as chilled as possible. We play wide-ranging music -- anything from funk to psychedelic, ambient; a bit of ska even." Drum and bass and trance can be found played in there too, as can live bands. Rich says coyly: "We've got live acts like Loki, Mr and Mrs Young, Cosmic Voyage and more. They have pretty different characters -- you'll have to come down and check them out."
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Guilfin emerged from the free festival scene, as Rich explains: "It stands, or stood, for Guilford Free Information Network, set up in 1989 to publicise events -- mostly festivals, free parties and the occasional protest. We started a monthly photocopied A4 sheet, whose readership rose to 30,000, and we transferred it to the Web last year. The Ambient Lounge is a different aspect of Guilfin -- the promoting side." The stripy big-top it's now in is so big that Rich, quite plausibly, reckons it could hold 700 people.
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Guilfin's Ambient Lounge is a classic example of what must be the essence of Glastonbury: the urge to put on entertainment, pull off mad stunts and give people a good time, for no other reason than that you can, and have the energy to do so. "To create a welcoming and chilled-out place where you can get away from the chaos of the festival and chill, and relax and gather your thoughts before going back out for some mayhem" Says Liam Rich.
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As we walk out, the PA guys finally arrive. Before long, the Guilfin Ambient Lounge should be in full swing. Remember where it is for those moments when you want to down the pace just a little and sprawl on a dog-eared sofa, listening to fine tunes and watching a Magic Roundabout video.
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