she don't think straight: July 2013

Glastonbury isn't just your average music festival. *takes deep breath* The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is a makeshift city one weekend a year. 180 000 people populate Mr Eavis' dairy farm in Somerset for 5 days of an alternate planet of FUN. You could (of course you wouldn't) spend your days exploring the fields and not see a single band. I would go to this festival every year if I could; minor setback is it is the other side of the world. Maybe every 3 years or so will have to do.

The festival is just bursting with atmosphere, everyone is your best mate. The long weekend is made up of random encounters of a wide range of people, most who end the meet with wishing you a 'happy festival'.

Photo credit BBC Pictures

Friday the sun was out but gumboots were on from yesterday's rain. Jake Bugg was my first act to see and this 19 year old blew me away. Clearly influenced by one Bob Dylan, he earned his spot on the main Pyramid Stage and sounds more amazing live then any album can capture. Had a great dance to The Milk who my English mates were all excited to introduce to me. Alt-J were awesome to see and played to a packed crowd. Triangle hands in the air y'all! Chic and Nile Rodgers was one big party and at the end of the set the crowd sang to Rodgers 'Get Lucky' as he stood there looking a little dumbfounded and humbled. Pretty special! We then raced over to Arcadia (check youtube clip in previous post) to get a good spot to see drum'n'bass Godfather, Andy C. Was quite amusing to see all the English go into the zombie-like drum'n'bass two step that they all do. I got the hang of it in no time!

Arcadia photo credit www.thegaurdian.com

Saturday was a day full of pretty massive possibilities. Firstly today was the day I was going to see the Stones. That was a definite. The Sugarman himself Rodriguez was also on my wishlist, but he was playing just before The Stones on the far away Park Stage...therefor marked as a 'hopeful maybe'. Daft Punk were a strong rumour in which every whisper had it on solid source that they were playing Arcadia after Fat Boy Slim tonight. OK Sarah, breathe. Another surreal possibility was our crew were going to be introduced to fellow Campervaners who just so happened to be some members of the cast of Game of Thrones. The potential of this day is almost too much to handle! If all of these things happened I would be literally peaking at life and it would be all downhill from here. So maybe it was lucky that only The Stones and Rodriguez happened of these prospects...must.keep.telling.myself. ANYWAYS back to real things and real events. Alabama Shakes were the perfect way to spend the afternoon. Sun was shining and cider was in hand. Rodriguez was exciting to see, and he sang all the greats I Wonder, Sugarman, Crucify Your Mind. Unfortunately he fell short of expectations but was still a buzz to see him. We then 'legged it' to the Pyramid Stage to dive in and try and get a good spot for Sir Jagger. We managed to see half of Primal Scream as a result, and Bobby Gillespie seemed all too aware the majority of the crowd were waiting for the following act. See my previous entry/love letter on The Rolling Stones for a round up of their set.

Funday is the final day and I couldn't believe how fast the weekend went. The sinking feeling was setting in that the festival was nearly over, mixed with delight that I will soon be reunited with a shower. Sunday was great - darting from stage to stage to see a bit of everyone. VampireWeekend-Editors-JamesBlake-TylertheCreature&EarlSweatshirt-MumafordandSons-TheXx-LaidBlack. Vampire Weekend were great fun dancing in the sunshine, while watching James Blake in the John Peel tent was mesmerizing as the bass somehow washed over you. The Xx put on an amazing light show and were a lot more captivating out on The Other stage in their main time slot, then when I had seen them 3 years earlier in the John Peel tent. The night and festival finished off with some good ol' Reggae in the Healing Fields.

So there you have it, the quickie version of something that I could bang on about for days. Glasto has played out, seemingly in fast forward, for another year and I have a few more years of saving to get there again. But it will happen! All hail the best festival in the world.

The Rolling Stones would have to be the best band I have ever seen. The whole set is a happy blur. They played for over 2 hours, including a rendition of 'Factory Girl' specially tailored to the festival- 'Glastonbury Girl'.

The set list was nothing short of mind blowing. 'Sympathy For The Devil' came on and a giant metal Phoenix spread its wings from the top of the Pyramid stage, and started blowing out fire. Looking around the crowd, big red flares gave the flags and air a red glow only adding to the song. Fireworks would follow. A choir then bellowing out 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' and we all knew that this was a real moment. Red confetti filled the sky as everyone screamed 'cos I try...and I try...and i try...and I try....I CAN'T GET NO!'