Glastonbury & the BBC.

imtoooldforthis said:
Glasto sucks and has done ever since they put the big mega fence up in 2001 or whenever it was and it became near impossible to jump the fence. In the space of one year it went from a festival with an extremely broad range of punters and interesting/mad characters to basically being exclusively for middle class families and students. I stopped going about 3 years later as the atmosphere was so weak compared to what it used to be like. Shame because id argue the lineups are always pretty decent provided you actually have a varied taste in music and also care about music outside of the mainstream.

Actually ill rephrase my original point. Glasto does not suck, it's still a lot better than a weekend at home but it just doesn't have the magic it used to have (or at least it didn't when I worked there in 2016/2017/2018). Tear down the fence and bring back the freaks and weirdos that gave it character. The weirdest chap you'll likely find nowadays is some 30-year-old trustafarian from Cheltenham called Giles. It's just not cricket.
Click to expand...
Can you describe the weirdos abit more? Genuinely curious.
 
There used to be quite the collection of eccentrics and rogues.

Lots of travellers, hippies, dodgy scousers, actually mental people. It was like the wild west at times.

Great fun.

Dead now though and full of middle class hoorays and their camera phones.
 
McGray said:
There used to be quite the collection of eccentrics and rogues.

Lots of travellers, hippies, dodgy scousers, actually mental people. It was like the wild west at times.

Great fun.

Dead now though and full of middle class hoorays and their camera phones.
Click to expand...
Wonder where they go now?
 
Although fun it was getting out of control. One year there was something like 200k punters on site which was hectic.

Car parks at night were basically no-go areas, someone got shot etc.

Still most of my fave festival experiences have been there though.
 
imtoooldforthis said:
Glasto sucks and has done ever since they put the big mega fence up in 2001 or whenever it was and it became near impossible to jump the fence. In the space of one year it went from a festival with an extremely broad range of punters and interesting/mad characters to basically being exclusively for middle class families and students. I stopped going about 3 years later as the atmosphere was so weak compared to what it used to be like. Shame because id argue the lineups are always pretty decent provided you actually have a varied taste in music and have some interest in music outside of the mainstream.

Actually ill rephrase my original point. Glasto does not suck, it's still a lot better than a weekend at home but it just doesn't have the magic it used to have (or at least it didn't when I worked there in 2015/2016/2017). Tear down the fence and bring back the freaks and weirdos that gave it character. The weirdest chap you'll likely find nowadays is some 30-year-old trustafarian from Cheltenham called Giles. It's just not cricket.
Click to expand...
Most of the weirdo nomads still get to the festival about 10 weeks before to paint the bins. They aren't gone, you are just growing up.
 
Bassmansam said:
Can you describe the weirdos abit more? Genuinely curious.
Click to expand...

Weirdos was probably a bit of a harsh description tbh, id argue 'social outcasts' or something like that is more descriptive

- You used to have these hippy communities of boomers who had been going to Glasto for decades who would go around giving out free acid and mushrooms, they would prepare/grow it all just for the festival and then distribute them for free to whoever wanted some. This was all done openly, they had signs up basically saying 'free drugs here' and no one cared at all.
- The squat party/warehouse scene used to turn up and set up illegal soundsystems in the car parks and on the edges of the festival, these would usually run from say 11pm until the morning, meaning the music was going 24/7
- There were generally just a lot more people who you probably wouldn't ever come across in 'normal society', 24/7 mashheads, people in their 60s and 70s who live in communes, genuinely mental people who probably should be in a hospital etc

I have fond memories of sitting in a field next to a known weak point in the fence and seeing hundreds of people over a 3 hour period jump the fence to cheers from those already inside. The security was so comically slack for such a big event. I even remember some unit of a woman not being able to get over the small fence and her mates had brought shovels to try and dig under it lol. No idea if she ever got in.

The attendance was probably more than double what you get nowadays with all the people bunking in, it was honestly crazy at times. The mega fence certainly made it a safer festival but it also lost its edge.

edit: McGray is bang on about the dodgy scousers lol.
 
Last edited:
cu3ed said:
Honestly don't know, but does the BBC host or put money into this now?, its on the News channel etc so much I feel like its a BBC organised event now.
Click to expand...
Have friends that had done media coverage for the last few decades (along with all the wild stories to boot) and the BBC used to plough serious amounts into the festival up until a decade or so ago when the media picked up on it all. Now spending and staffing has been tamed as @Werewolf mentions.

McGray said:
The place is massive with a huge variety of music/arts.
Click to expand...
The site is bigger than central York and has a population to match, as you say it has (near enough) everything for everyone and more given the "secret" bits and acts that turn up.

I think it's become a bit of a chavfest over the years, noticed this more and more around the Pyramid stage, but i still recommend anyone to go at least once as it can be a very surreal experience.

dLockers said:
I have a photograph of the secret underground area map - I'd be murdered in my sleep if I shared it :D
Click to expand...
Genuine underground "secrets" or are you just talking about the piano bar, railway tunnel or rabbit hole etc? Would love to see the photo but are you able to say what the underground area entails?
 
quite enjoy the coverage tbh ,just been watching confidence man with a can of cider ,makes me think the toilet situation must be a little tricky
 
visibleman said:
Have friends that had done media coverage for the last few decades (along with all the wild stories to boot) and the BBC used to plough serious amounts into the festival up until a decade or so ago when the media picked up on it all. Now spending and staffing has been tamed as @Werewolf mentions.


The site is bigger than central York and has a population to match, as you say it has (near enough) everything for everyone and more given the "secret" bits and acts that turn up.

I think it's become a bit of a chavfest over the years, noticed this more and more around the Pyramid stage, but i still recommend anyone to go at least once as it can be a very surreal experience.


Genuine underground "secrets" or are you just talking about the piano bar, railway tunnel or rabbit hole etc? Would love to see the photo but are you able to say what the underground area entails?
Click to expand...
IIRC spending and staffing was never as the likes of the Sun and Mail made out.

For example the Mail would do a yearly "BBC send hundreds of staff to Glastonbury and put them up at a 5* hotel" type thing*, when in reality the BBC sent hundreds (including contractors) over the entire period of prep, event, and take down, but they were only there for as long as needed (so some might be there for half a day), so 20 electricians might have went for 2 days in the run up to sort out the electrics for the broadcast, 20 sound engineers might have gone for a day or two to set up the sound equipment, then they might have had 50 people on site during the event to do the in camera presentation and maintain the equipment. And those that had to stay overnight were put up in a local bed and breakfast ;)

I read comments from some of the old BBC staff who were involved basically describing it as one of the hardest jobs they did, as they were always short on people and trying to juggle everything whilst under intense time pressure.
I think one of them did however say that there was an upside to it, if they timed their holidays right they could be doing prep for it, then have their days off at it (having bought tickets), but that that was something that you only did when you were younger because it effectively meant you were going nonstop for a week.



*IIRC one of their articles stated somthing along the lines of the BBC had booked out 50 rooms at a 5* hotel, when it was a small B&B with only something like 5-10 rooms, but the BBC had booked it fully for for staff who were on site preparing for the broadcast (and the booking ended when the festival started).
 
McGray said:
The compost toilets they have there now are great tbh.

The long drops are stuff of horrors still.
Click to expand...
Nothing worse than crawling out of a tent that has turned into a furnace, with a stinking hangover, and having to squat over a long drop in blazing sun with a mound of poop higher than the seat poking up the middle.

Havent done that in a while mind....
 
from the surprise popularity of Kate Bush, it does sound like the organising commitee could pull in some older bands to improve the musical taste of the the genZ demographic,
and such bands would appeal to more bbc viewers.
- apparently beyoncee has a new album where she has rediscovered house music.

( streaming companies don't seem to disclose popularity of artists over a year - what older stuff do people regularly listen to. )
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom