Glastonbury

I have been going to V Fest for the past few years and my friends and I finally decided it was time to make the leap and go; it was time for Glastonbury. Having tried and failed the year before I was so surprised this year that not only did I get a ticket but all of my friends did - not one person was left out! This made it all the more exciting....

Due to the festival falling on one of my friend's 30th birthday's she wanted to camp in Tangerine Fields. This is a campsite in which you pay extra (between £100 - £150 depending on how many and what tent) and what this includes is a short walk from the car park to campsite, own showers and toilets, own bar, a hairdressing tent and the best part of all...the tents are already pitched up! From going to V for years I know the worst part was the walk and then after that fighting for a good spot and the hassle of not only putting the tent up, but then also taking it down at the end when you are tired and want to get home, so this was a huge plus for me. I did have my reservations about going in this campsite as I thought we would loose the feel for Glastonbury and would not be getting the "full experience" but I can honestly say after staying there it was such a good decision and I could not see myself wanting to do it any other way. The luxury of having a shower half way through the week was brilliant and the walk was literally five minutes from the car. To get to the actual festival main areas in took about twenty minutes, which was fine as on the way there it is all down hill so an easy walk and goes quick and on the way back despite there being a hill we usually had enough alcohol or excitement to make it seem like nothing. It is definitely something that I would recommend.

One thing that completely threw me about Glastonbury is the overall size of the place. We got given a map and when I first opened it out I was in complete and utter shock...it is HUGE!! It was both a blessing and a curse as it was amazing that there was so much to see yet no way we were going to be able to do all of that in the time that we were there. I would take a guess that we managed to complete around 40/50% of it at most and that felt like we had seen and done a lot. The Park had to be my favourite place as it was just so cool and funky and, of course, the famous Glastonbury sign is there! (Do not do what I did and decide that you do not need to get a photo with it the first time you see it because you will be coming back as I said that and we never ended up going back and was devastated I did not get that shot!)

Another cool place was The Stone Circle. This is a place where you tend to go after dark and everyone makes fires and sings and just has fun in what is basically a big field. The atmosphere there is awesome - it really is the sort of hippy vibe where everyone loves each other! My friend turned thirty whilst we were in there and we started singing and before long hundreds of people had joined in - what a way to welcome your birthday in!

The fact that there are clubs in a festival says a lot for the size of it. We walked through The Dance Village one night and there was so much going on you just did not know which direction to look in. It was so much fun and it was enough just to see it, never mind get involved in it also! The best club for me had to be Arcadia. A huge robotic spider with dancers hanging off of it and fire blazing...it really is nothing you have ever seen before.

Generally, the atmosphere of Glastonbury is one that cannot be faulted. As I mentioned I have been to V several times and also Leeds Fest, but nothing matches this. In V you get groups of rowdy lads who love creating mosh pits and throwing their piss around and fighting all over the place, but you got none of it here. There was just the general feeling that everyone wanted to have fun and just got on with it.

The mud. Ohhh that mud. It really is as bad as they make it out to be. Once it has rained there is NO escaping it and I spent most of the time between stages and acts concentrating very hard on not falling over (which thankfully I didn't). There was some very bad weather on the Friday (the first day that the acts come on) and at one point when I was watching Rudimental the lightening was so bad it hit a stage and everything went onto lock down. I was standing in the rain drenched through and cold with nowhere to go for shelter trying to stay upright - I truly felt miserable at that point! But you just have to get over it and make the most of it. Some acts did get cut short because of the storm which was a shame but I eventually dried out and my beloved Paolo made it on and it was a great night (we made it to the front for Paolo Nutini and it was unreal!!!).

The toilets are not as bad as you think they are going to be. Do not get me wrong they are vile and not nice but you always hear such horror stories about them and I can confirm it is a lot of exaggerating. What do you expect at a festival? My tip - do not look down. My second tip - if you drop anything, tough. It is gone (you do not want to be known like that poor soul who got dubbed "poo girl" after falling down one of the long drops trying to retrieve her camera).

Glastonbury was everything I expected and so much more. Something I feel anyone who likes music needs to go to at least once in their life (and who doesn't like music, right?) Put it on your bucket list now!